Earlier this month, the Federal Communications Commission fined Indiana Wesleyan University’s TV station, WIWU-TV51, $13,000 for failing to meet the records requirements for informational and educational children’s programming.

The FCC states that all low-frequency Class A stations, like WIWU, must play a certain amount of children’s programming on the station. WIWU played the children’s programming but did not document it correctly, according to Dr. Randall King, director of broadcast media and chairman of the Communication Division at IWU. The FCC notified WIWU’s lawyers about a year ago, but the fine is just now being administered.

“We made a mistake,” King said. “I’m embarrassed on behalf of the station. I’m embarrassed on behalf of what this means for the university. But in the scheme of things, it’s not a disaster, and we’re taking the appropriate steps to respond.”

King said the station is not going to pay the fine without challenging the FCC’s decision.

WIWU was not the only Class A station reprimanded by the FCC this month. RBR.com reported that TV stations WHDO-CA in Orlando, Fla., and WZGS-CA in Raleigh, N.C., were fined as well.

RBR.com also reported that there has been an influx in Class A fines, administered by the FCC. Media lawyer Scott R. Flick said this is the FCC’s way of pushing Class A stations off the air in order to free up more spectrum.

Indiana Wesleyan University media communication students won 10 awards from the Indiana Association of School Broadcasters last month – the highest number of awards ever brought home by IWU media students.

The students won for both TV and radio pieces, and came in second overall in the TV category.

Matt Green (alumnus ‘11) received first place in TV videography for his piece on the Wabash Motocross race, which aired on “Crossroads,” WIWU-51’s magazine program. “Crossroads” also won a first-place award in the TV newsmagazine category for a fall 2011 episode. The episode included stories produced by Green, Jaclyn Heck (sr) and Amanda Johnson (sr).

Chase Evans (sr) also won first place for anchoring “Spectrum News,” IWU’s first win in the TV news anchor category. Spectrum News also won third-place honors for TV newscast.

Second-place awards went to Evans, Heck, Josh Campbell (sr), Russ Clark (alumnus ‘11), Brittney Holmberg (sr), AJ Hoke (sr) and Tim Decker (sr), with a third-place award to Alisha Stevens (alumna ‘11), in a variety of TV and radio categories.

IWU competed against schools such as Ball State University, Valparaiso, Southern Indiana, Goshen and Taylor University.

Heck, who also won an award at last year’s competition, said it’s an honor to compete against schools known for their media departments. She said she hopes IWU’s division will be recognized for its media communication students as well.

Clips from the winning pieces are available to watch at IWUCom.com.

The Indiana Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society will hold a “Day of Percussion” Saturday, April 14, featuring 10 hours of expert percussion.

Four students from Indiana Wesleyan University will be featured, alongside percussionists from nine other universities around Indiana and one student from Marion High School.

But this event is not only for the musically inclined.

“Anybody can come to this. The music that they’ll hear is different from anything they’ve ever heard before, most likely,” Dr. Marc Wooldridge, professor of music at IWU. “You can always get same old same old. For most people they have never heard anything in this style before.”

This event will also feature clinics taught by two talented percussionists.

Tommy Igoe, a drummer for the movie “Lion King,” will teach a drum set clinic. Wooldridge called Igoe “one of the most amazing drum set players in the world.”

A timpani clinic will be taught by Jack Brennan, who regularly performs with the Indianapolis Symphony.

April 14 is also the day of the Spotted Cow music festival on IWU’s campus, but Wooldridge thinks that the Day of Percussion could actually be helpful to those who plan on attending Spotted Cow.

“When you hear a really good performer talk about how they approach the art, it shows you how to listen to music better,” Wooldridge said. “The next time they listen to a drum set track or if they walk over to Spotted Cow and hear a drummer, they’ll know what to look for. What he’s doing with the hi-hat, why he’s doing it that way. It would be a benefit really to anybody to get those insights.”

The Day of Percussion event is free of charge, and attendees are free to come and go as they please.

The wind ensemble at Indiana Wesleyan University will split into two groups starting in the fall.

The concert band, the new group, will only meet twice a week rather than the usual four days a week that wind ensemble currently meets. Professor Michael Flanagin will continue to be the director for both of these groups.

“When I first got here, there were only 40-45 people in the band,” said Flanagin. “Over the years it’s grown. I used to spend a lot of time recruiting people that were already on campus.”

He went on to say that the growing size of the group made for a greater disparity in skill levels, so the plan to divide the group in two would leave three days of rehearsals weekly for the wind ensemble and two days weekly for the concert band.

“This will give people a greater chance to find a group that meets their needs better,” said Flanagin. Concert band will be an opportunity for music majors who need to practice their secondary instrument.

Christa Jones (sr) has played the French horn in the wind ensemble for four years.

“I think it will bring a lot of changes to each of the groups, but it’ll be good because it will allow more non-music majors to join,” said Jones. “I think it will take some time to get used to the changes, but I think it will encourage growth in the music department and just getting more people to participate in music.”

Thomas Wilson (jr) is a music composition major and has played the saxophone for the wind ensemble for three years.

“I’m leaning towards [joining] both because you can use the time to learn a new instrument,” said Wilson.

Because of the splitting of the group, wind ensemble will have a smaller number of participants but will be considered a group that will consist mostly of music majors.

Rehearsal times for wind ensemble will now be 3:30-4:25 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and the concert band will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:30-4:25 p.m.

“My goal is to see more people involved overall in the instrumental program and also opens doors for people who can’t commit all the time,” said Flanagin.