To the editor:

I am writing in response to the Gazette’s coverage of the continuing involuntary meltdown of community programming on WMUA radio.

I moved here from another state in 1982 for graduate school at the University of Massachusetts and began listening to WMUA as a student. Like so many other former students, I stayed on (mostly) in the Valley and have enjoyed the community radio side of WMUA for 34 years, supporting the station financially. Many of the community DJs have a similar history to mine, first as students on the radio, staying in the area, and continuing on as community DJs at WMUA.

It’s a nice continuity between generations that results in an eclectic spectrum of musical offerings much broader than found on commercial radio, part of what attracts people to the Valley.

What I see now is a shortsighted travesty, the dismantling of community radio by a few current students who very likely will not be here after May. Shame on the UMass administration for not embracing a more inclusive view of the university’s place in all of our lives.

Jeff Lacy

Shutesbury