As a 1986 grad, I drifted away from keeping up with JSU; getting married & raising a family took priority.
No, BOTH my sons are matriculating at Jax State and I'm as proud as ever to be a Gamecock. It has been disturbing to me as an alum that remembers how things were in the 80's to see how mcuh Greek life has been de-emphasized. In our day, being Greek (along with strong football, basketball & baseball) was the gateway to a great college experience. Students were proud of Jax State and proud to be Gamecocks. My. how things have changed.

Let's start with the campus newspaper. I was the Editor-In-Chief of the Chanticleer. OUr staff took pride in producing an appealing product each week. There was talk around campus of what was in the paper each week. At Homecoming I picked up the current edition........ pitiful to say the least.

Next, how about the radio station, 92J. I also worked there and was a commentator for baseball and J.ville High School football. We had "personalities" on the air; Troi Hayes, Johnny V, Chris Shumway..... We tried to rival the commercial stations in the region with our format and presentation. Now, all I hear when I'm back in town is NPR crap and unprofessional jabber rom those on the air whenever NPR "filler" isn't airing.

It boils down to pride, people. The general consensus with me and my peers was we wanted to leave Jax State a better place than it was when we got there. The current generation does not seem inclined to any degree in contributing and cultivating pride in their University. Like society in general, it's a "what's in it for me" and "don't expect me to put effort into it" mentality. It's a poor show of appreciation for those of us that went before the present student community and a sad state of the legacy that began long before my arrival.

Out of curiosity, was Johnny V Johnny Ray Self??

I still live in town. The only time I listen to 92J is when NPR is on, or when I'm not at a game and I need Mike Parris to fill me in. If I turn the radio on and find locally-produced content, I turn it right back off. Of course, I'm probably not the target market for a college radio station. Still, while I'm glad to have my alma mater providing me access to quality national news programming, it would be nice to know the stuff aimed at the kids is of high quality, too.

Was in j'ville on a recent Friday evening making some emergency run for my son with something he needed for band the next day. As usual, when I got within range I put the radio on 92J. There was a young lady DJ on playing some really good "non mainstream" music. I called in after one song to find out the artist and name of the song and suggested she give the names of the bands and songs if not top 40. She was nice and was very gracious. It reminded me of what we listened to in the 80's.

Other times, I've heard "screamo" rock that I could only tolerate about 15 seconds. It seems as though the DJs would understand that they are minimalizing their audience playing something that appeals to a small percentage of JSU's student body. I heard a sports show one evening with two kids who simply repeated each others' comments in what appeared to be a contest to use the most superlatives. I would hope someone would critique these kids and teach them how to improve. If they're planning on making a living doing this, they better have some tapes that compare to what we hear on commercial radio.

And I agree about the Chanticleer comments. I enjoyed reading it in the 80's when you had future pulitzer prize winner Rick Bragg and others writing for the paper. I seem to recall some good staff sponsors helping them make the right decisions. Again, this is a university. Seems as though someone could find some sponsors like Mrs. Lovett or Dr. Whitten or Dr. Richards who could very quickly review and provide feedback on the articles. The University of Alabama hired Rick Bragg to teach how to write for newspapers and magazines. Would be nice if we could bring him home to teach.

College rock sucks.

Give them top 40 and the station will be much better.

Our sports talk show was hectic and dumb most of the time, but when we did it, at least we had knowledgeable people on it. Heck, we even had Coulter on every week.

Appreciate the 80's comments. 2 years as sports editor with the superb help of JSU Fan. Greg Spoon was a great editor. Spent some late mornings putting it together.

Yesterday on twitter as the Auburn/Alabama game ended The Chanticleer sent out a tweet asking what everybody thought about the Iron Bowl?.... #headdesk


As I have said on here. I never EVER mentioned Auburn and Alabama for the 2 yrs I was responsible for sports. They get plenty of coverage and I had more stories than I could print with just Jax State sports.

Old Owl