Livingstone College

SALISBURY — Livingstone College is on the air.

WLJZ 107.1 FM offers music, campus news and updates on happenings at Blue Bear Nation.

The new student-operated radio station will feature programming that highlights campus information; student- and faculty-led discussions on local, national and international news; community spotlights and announcements; and music from various genres including jazz, Afro-Cuban, hip-hop, R&B fusion, gospel and more.

WLJZ is a low-powered FM radio station that was deemed operational on Dec. 7. The official launch was in February during the winter meeting of the college’s board of trustees on Founder’s Day.

The station will serve as a bridge between the campus and the community of Salisbury and surrounding areas, said Justin Walker, Livingstone’s communications project and technical specialist, who spearheaded the project.

The station’s wattage is 70, but it is licensed for 100 watts. The college plans to install a 100-foot tower to expand the reach of the station beyond the city limits and cover all of Rowan County, Walker said.

Currently, the station’s coverage area includes Salisbury, East Spencer and Spencer. Distant coverage includes Granite Quarry and Faith. Woodleaf, China Grove, Rockwell, Churchland and Linwood are on the edge of the coverage area.

The station is on the first floor of the W.J. Walls Center in the former music studio.

“The possibilities for this station are exciting, including using students to help with production, programming and announcing,” said State Alexander III, Livingstone’s executive assistant to the president and vice president of communications. “It is an additional tool to share our stories and extend our reach to the community.”

“The college is exploring the idea of offering a major of study in communications, and this station would be an essential component of that,” said college President Jimmy R. Jenkins Sr.

WLJZ-FM is available on Amazon’s Alexa, iHeartRadio and tunein.

Newer, trendier website

The radio station can also be heard on Livingstone College’s new website and app, LC Connect.

The website redesign (www.livingstone.edu) was unveiled just in time for the CIAA basketball tournament, held Feb. 27 through March 3.

The redesign is contemporary and features real-time tweets from Livingstone’s Twitter page and posts from the school’s Instagram and Facebook pages.

The site also offers alumni and students a chance to share their stories of success or highlights of their careers.

“There have been substantial changes within higher education technology and its integration that we as an institution needed to implement in order to fulfill the president’s mission of taking students from where they are to where they need to be. This website will help us do that,” said Walker, who redesigned the website.

“We believe the redesign will reinforce Livingstone’s position as a contender in education, foster a boost in campus pride and morale, and give visitors to the website an intimate look at our campus culture and community. With the new design, we expected an increase in website visitors but not to the degree that we’ve seen thus far — nearly 15,000 visitors in the first week. We look forward to feedback and the exciting new developments to come,” he said.

“We have to stay on top of what is trendy and our website redesign is more attractive and functional,” Jenkins said.

LC Connect is Livingstone’s app and is available in Google Play and in the iTunes store. Users can listen to the campus radio station as well as select the types of notifications he would like to receive, such as alumni, staff, faculty, student or emergency alerts.