Eastern’s radio station, WEIU 88.9 FM, has completely reorganized its format in an attempt to reach a broader community and prepare its disc jockeys for the future.

“Mainly, we reorganized to give our DJs more experience for future jobs,” said Robyn Drozd, a hip-mix DJ for WEIU. “We played commercials before, but now we will play more, so we can get involved with more companies, which is always good experience.”

With the new format, where disc jockeys will play pop, country and rock hits from the 50s through today, Drozd said WEIU hopes to target an older audience as well, instead of solely focusing on Eastern students.

“I think the community consists of more than just the school, so reaching out to them is a good thing,” Tangie Sellers, a freshman undecided major, said.

Because commercial radio stations focus on one genre of music, WEIU will get rid of the hip hop, rock, classical, world and dance music, but will keep playing the jazz music on Sundays, Drozd said.

Right now, WEIU is giving its audience a taste of what’s to come, but Drozd said they plan to fully launch the new format Sept. 8 during Pantherpalooza.

“We’re getting a good response from both students and the community so far,” Drozd said. “I (did) the welcome back picnic and people were asking for requests and giving us good feedback; we’ve received more requests from the surrounding community as well.”

Drozd said WEIU members were hoping to launch earlier than Sept. 8, but there is a lot of preparing to do.

“I’m not really a big fan of the radio because they just replay most to the point where you’ll end up hating the song by the end of the week,” said Dan Jablonski, a freshman biology major. “As long as WEIU doesn’t repeat the same stuff, I think what they’re doing is a good idea.”