Board of WHRB Rules; Perkins, Gruber Resign

The simmering controversy at WHRB boiled over yesterday afternoon when a ruling of the administrative board of the station prompted the resignation of the newly elected station manager and programming director.

Overruling changes toward more balanced musical format proposed by station manager Charles Perkins '73 and programming director Michael Gruber '72, the board voted 2-1 (with one abstention) to revert to last spring's predominately classical schedule. The move was without precedent.

Following the decision, both Perkins and Gruber announced that they were resigning from their respective positions, but said they would remain on the station's staff.

Perkins said yesterday that he and Gruber were "tired out" by the rapid succession of events at the station, but cautioned that their decisions were not to be interpreted as walkouts.

"Since all programming power has been taken away from us, there just wasn't any use in remaining," Perkins said. Asked if he was admitting defeat. Perkins would only say that "things look pretty bad."

'Surprised'

WHRB President Robert Goldfarb '73 said he was "surprised" by the resignations of Gruber and Perkins, but that he expected the final outcome of the board meeting. The disagreement between Perkins and the board was over what he termed "basic ideas of programming."

"Their points of view were just too far apart to make compromise possible," Goldfarb added.

Perkins said he was not crusading against classical music per se. "I like classical music," he said yesterday. "What I was attempting to do was develop more balanced programming and make the station more community orientated," he explained.

Goldfarb said that those who voted in favor of prohibiting any changes thought that this was a type of programming they did not wish to see."

A staff meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday, October 27 in an attempt to override the board's decision.

Both Perkins and Goldfarb indicated that they expected a boycott by those favoring yesterday's action, thus preventing the meeting from reaching the necessary two-thirds quorum.