For the past 30 years EMU alumni reunite to banter, share familial updates, and participate in an annual fantasy baseball league, “Shenandoah’s Major Minor League.”

“It’s great to see guys come back and the continuity we’ve had in the league has kept the energy up,” said Clair Mellinger ‘64, professor emeritus of and one of the longest tenured members of the league.

Watching the box scores

Fantasy baseball is a predominantly online game where statistics accumulated by all Major League Baseball players are tracked. Points are awarded in one format of fantasy baseball, Rotisserie, while the other format, Head-to-Head, tallies the total number of statistics in any one category, with the highest or lowest number winning, depending upon the rules, according to .

“Having statistics available online makes it more efficient and keeps everyone involved on a daily basis, compared to when we had to snail mail everything and not receive updates for weeks,” said Tom Baker ‘81, former EMU men’s basketball coach and current physical education teacher at Lacey Spring Elementary School.

The EMU alumni draft features an auction system where players are selected based on dollar figures. While no actual money is exchanged for rights to the player, the auction-style bidding lends itself to “heckling on a price of a player and the possibilities to acquire a talented player,” says Mellinger.

“Shenandoah’s Major Minor League”

For Shenandoah’s Major Minor League, connections go deeper than a love of statistics. Eleven of the 12 “owners” either attended, graduated or taught at EMU. Several members were students when the league began in 1982.

The composition of the league members changed from year to year until the early 90’s when a majority of the current group joined. Some teams have co-owners, while others are run by a single member.

“We’re a core group of guys who just love baseball,” said Ted Swartz ’89, MDiv ’92, a professional comedian who is one of the leagues’ longest tenured members.

The league holds the annual draft on campus in April. Most members live around the Harrisonburg area. Brian Hill ‘92, MD, a urologist with Urology Specialists of Atlanta, LLC, has the farthest drive to attend the league draft, making an eight-hour commute.

In addition to Mellinger, Swartz, Baker and Hill, other league owners include: Ian Swartz (son of Ted); Mark Deavers ‘89; Phil Lehman ‘89; Lawson Yoder ‘91; Jeremy Nafziger ‘91; Rob Roeschley (former EMU baseball coach); Gary Messinger; Doug Friesen ‘91; and Mike Yoder ‘91.

Ron Vogt, the owner not personally connected to EMU, got connected when he worked with Doug Friesen at Philhaven Hospital in Mount Gretna, Pa.

Previous members of the league include John Horst, professor emeritus of physics, Jon Kauffman-Kennel, former manager of EMU’s public radio station, and Bill Hawk, former academic dean.

“Getting involved with the league renewed my interest in baseball, especially the National League,” said Mellinger. “I really enjoy the research involved in getting prepared for the annual auction.  I have read more baseball-related books and web articles than I should have in the past 20 years but it has been a very good source of entertainment and relaxation for me.

“It’s been great to keep connected and share a love for baseball.

The new year brings a number of programming changes to , the radio voice of ��ݮ����, including broadcasting 24 hours a day.

The overnight programming will initially be the British Broadcasting Corporation

Do you hear what I hear?

Sounds of the holiday season will fill the air as WEMC, the radio voice of ��ݮ����, features Christmas music the entire month of December.

Under the banner of "WEMC’s Classical Christmas," the station’s holiday programming will feature Christmas carols, instrumental arrangements of carols and longer works composed for the season, such as Handel’s "Messiah" and Vivaldi’s "Gloria," WEMC general manager said.

The station will also feature special Christmas programs from such performers as Wheaton College, Concordia College and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Mondays through Fridays, the music will air 8 a.m.-2 p.m. and 1-4 p.m. Sundays, Kauffmann-Kennel noted.

Individuals, businesses and congregations can sponsor a day or a portion of a day of the holiday music. Those interested should contact Kauffmann-Kennel at 432-4287 or at wemc@emu.edu.

on the FM dial, broadcasts from 6 a.m. to midnight daily. Founded in 1955, it is Virginia’s first public radio station.

By Tom Mitchell, Daily News-Record

Neither John Martin nor his fellow alumni from ��ݮ���� imagined that their senior class’s parting present to their school would get the mileage it got.

In the spring of 1954, Martin and the rest of the graduates at what was then Eastern Mennonite College, along with seniors at neighboring Eastern Mennonite High School, gave a gift that kept on giving: a transmitter that increased power, range and, ultimately, impact, for EMU’s fledgling radio station, WEMC.

While Martin, 77, can’t recall its cost, the new conduit "was definitely an improvement," he said.

"We didn’t have any specific goal in mind when we started this," said Martin, a retired seminary and university professor. "We couldn’t think what it would become down the road."

Exceeding Founders’ Hopes

, which this fall celebrates 50 years on the air, eclipsed its founders’ highest hopes. What was a booth with a 10-watt signal that barely traveled beyond school grounds now uses a 2,000-watt transmitter to reach listeners more than 40 miles away. A program once confined to chats about campus life today plays five styles of music and airs national and world news from two syndicates: British Broadcasting Corp. and National Public Radio.

Before being publicly licensed in 1955, EMU’s radio "station" existed as a wire speaker that barely worked.

"A [tree] limb would come down on the wire, and the wire would continually need repairing," Martin said. "It didn’t work very well."

The improved site, built mainly to upgrade broadcasts of church services, gradually grew to become the daily operation it is today. The station eventually moved from EMU’s chapel in what is now Lehman Auditorium to its current location at on the university’s west side.

Today, WEMC’s programming stresses news and public affairs. The station is on the air from 7 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week.

With virtually no advertisers, WEMC relies almost exclusively on donations, said , EMU’s director of public relations. Bishop has long-time ties to WEMC, and says the station’s noncommercial style affords WEMC more flexibility than its commercial counterparts. With no sponsors, WEMC can freelance more, including in its menu of public-service programs and weekend "specialty" music shows.

Cultural Clout

WEMC’s legion of managers includes the station’s newest director, , who came to EMU two years ago from a similar post at Goshen College in Indiana. While he is relatively new to his post, Kauffmann-Kennel, 51, is impressed with his station’s past. Kauffmann-Kennel applauds WEMC’s early patrons who, however unknowingly, chartered their station’s course with what he considers a progressive gift.

"The gift that the class of ’54 gave was very forward-looking," Kauffman-Kennel said. "In the Mennonite church contest of that era, technology and modern things like radio would have been looked at a little warily, so they were forward-looking, at least in terms of [creating] wider church attitudes toward broadcasting. But they also gave the university an opportunity to share its values with a wider audience, a larger community."

The station’s emphasis, Kauffmann-Kennel adds, has also stretched WEMC’s presence.

"Over 50 years, WEMC has gone from being more internally to more externally focused," Kauffmann-Kennel said. "The station’s original power didn’t carry too far beyond the [adjoining] Park View neighborhood. Now we’re tying to bring EMU to the community and the community to EMU."

WEMC, 91.7 FM, the non-commercial, educational radio voice of EMU, has added three programs to its broadcast schedule, starting in October.

WEMC general manager Jon Kauffmann-Kennel announced that the new additions include two nationally-renowned programs from National Public Radio, “Fresh Air” and “Talk of the Nation.” The third program is “Speaking of Faith.”

“Talk of the Nation”

Hosted by Neal Conan, this midday show includes conversation about news and issues from politics and education to religion and the arts. Its call-in segments give listeners opportunity to join the discussions with decision-makers, authors, academicians and artists from around the world. On Fridays, Ira Flatow takes over as host to discuss all things scientific for “Talk of the Nation Science Friday.” More than two million people already listen to “Talk of the Nation” on some 200 stations. It will air 2-4 p.m. Monday through Friday on WEMC.

“Fresh Air”

Host Terry Gross is a Peabody Award-winning magazine of contemporary arts and issues. More than four million people tune in to the show’s intimate conversations broadcast on more than 400 stations across the country. The program features Gross’ in-depth interviews with prominent cultural and entertainment figures as well as experts on current affairs and news. “Fresh Air” will be heard at 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

WEMC