RLCM, Barron County team up for 'A Christmas Carol'

Rice Lake Community Media recently teamed up with UW-Eau Claire Barron County’s Theater Department to co-produce a radio play version of Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” for Rice Lake Community Media’s WYRL-LP radio station.

RLCM Director James Wyngaard engineered the production which consisted of students, faculty, and staff of the regional campus. True to the golden days of radio, live sound effects were produced in addition to using pre-recorded music and other sound effects. The radio play aired four times on Rice Lake’s station and it was also shared with Hayward’s WOJB-FM.

The cast and crew of “A Christmas Carol,” including RLCM director James Wyngaard (center, with microphone)

Wyngaard receives award from UW -Eau Claire - Barron County

Campus Director Abbey Fischer presents the Outstanding Service Award to James Wyngaard of Rice Lake Community Media

Each year, the UW-Eau Claire — Barron County staff select a community member to recognize and show appreciation to for their Outstanding Service to the campus.

Before the start of the first of the fall series of “Thursdays at the U” lecture series on Thursday afternoon, Campus Director Abbey Fischer surprised someone in the audience and presented the award.

"James Wyngaard of Rice Lake Community Media had multiple nominations and was the hands-down favorite for the 2022–23 academic year," Fischer said. "We so value his many hours of service to our Thursdays at the U program, Communiversity Band, Red Cedar Choir, Indigenous Peoples Celebrations, commencement and many other events. James is always willing to lend a hand to our campus — and the Rice Lake community."

“It was a VERY big surprise,” said Wyngaard. “I was completely stunned! Never saw it coming and apparently my part timers knew about it before I did.  I am so grateful for it!”

UWEC-BC event coverage is a staple of the video programming Rice Lake Community Media presents on its many streaming and cable television platforms.

reprinted from The Chronotype with additional comments from James

Rice Lake's LPFM radio station goes online

WYRL’s broadcast (and now streaming) booth.

Rice Lake Community Media’s low-power FM radio station recently began streaming their signal online. RLCM Executive Director James Wyngaard says it’s been a bit of a process to get it going. “After a lot of research and getting advice from other stations who have done this type of set up, it finally came together in June.”

WYRL-LP first got off the ground when the FCC opened the airwaves to more low power radio stations during the last round of licensing in 2015. “We promoted WYRL-LP on the community media website at ricelaketv.com/wyrl by posting the schedule and telling listeners how to tune in,” said Wyngaard. But until June, the station was not online. This proved to be an obstacle. When the chair of the Rice Lake Cable Commission, Al Arnold, started contacting service clubs and other groups around Rice Lake asking if they would be interested in having a show on the station, he found most wanted to know if it was streaming online. When they learned that it was in the works, they all wanted to wait until it was set up so their shows would reach a larger audience than just the on-air coverage range of the station.

To prepare for streaming, WYRL changed its automation software at the beginning of the year and then staff worked with a partner of DJB Software, Cirrus Streaming out of Florida, on the set-up process.  Wyngaard said, “Working with Cirrus was a very easy process and as we go on as a customer of theirs, they will be setting us up with mobile apps and Alexa skills in the next couple of months.”

Wyngaard wanted to thank Stoughton’s Derek Westby for technical assistance in getting the new website set up and helping with some other behind the scenes programming.

The radio station stream can be found at wyrlradio.com.