The WMSV radio station at Mississippi State University plays alternative music softly under the awning while posters of talented musicians, racks of tapes, and modest rooms with extravagant equipment can be seen through the double-doors.  
Anthony Craven, general manager of WMSV, meets his guests at the door with a warm handshake and invitingly gestures to a seat in his office.  
Craven has a knack for making one feel at home and inviting them to share in his enthusiasm for music with ease.
Craven said he oversees the day-to-day operations of the station as the only full-time, professional staff in a sea of student workers.  
“I’m responsible to make sure we stay on the air; that we find new music, add new music, new programming, and more,” Craven said.
Doing this, Craven said, can be time consuming but because of his love for it and his previous experience as a student worker and DJ himself for WMSV, he enjoys the work and finds familiarity in it.
Craven received his Bachelor of Arts in Communication and his Master of Arts in Teaching through MSU. Although Craven spent years as a student DJ and public affairs director for WMSV, he said it was another five to seven years before he began to actually consider the possibility he could become the general manager.  
This became a reality when Steve Ellis, previous founder and owner of WMSV, retired in 2015.  
“I’ve been blessed,” Craven said.
With his history with WMSV, Craven said he had the opportunity to see the radio station adapt to different genres and preferences throughout the years.  
According to Craven, when the station first went on the air in March of 1994, the music played was considered “straight alt. rock;” it was mid-90’s and the “grunge scene” was coming to an end, alternative rock taking over.  WMSV swooped in to take over as the only alternative rock radio station in the local area at the time.  
Later, when more stations started to follow suit, Ellis took notice and, true to his desire of being an “original” radio station, guided the station to becoming an “AAA” genre radio station.  
“We are format,” Craven said, “Every station has a musical format, a primary genre.”  
Labeled by the music industry, “AAA” is considered WMSV’s primary genre to this day.  AAA or “Triple A” was labeled in 2001 as an off-shot and more “mature” sounding version of alternative rock.  It stands for “Adult Album Alternative” which is a wide range of music featuring artists such as The Head and the Heart, Band of Horses, Adele, and The Avett Brothers.
Everyday at WMSV looks a little different for Craven. However, mornings are generally geared towards “Observations from MSU,” a 30 minute newscast airing Monday through Friday from 11:30-12:00 p.m.. This newscast is produced in-house everyday. Craven said he is the executive producer.
“Our student team does a really good job every single morning of getting our newscast put together,” Craven said.
He said afternoons are not as uniform as the mornings tend to be. Monday’s generally consist of loading all of the promotions for the shows coming up later in the week and updating whatever necessary.
Tuesday is where the real fun comes in for Craven.  Finding tasteful music that is not overplayed can be difficult, but Craven sees it as an exciting challenge.  
The team at WMSV uses a website offered exclusively to radio stations called “Mediabase.”  
According to Craven, this is a go-to source that does a great job at letting stations keep up with music trends across every genre imaginable.  
Wednesday consists of compiling all the new music into build logs that are aired the next week. Thursdays and Fridays are when all the new songs and weekend specialty shows are loaded.  This is vital seeing as WMSV has a live DJ Monday through Friday however most Saturday and Sunday airings are pre-recorded.
 
Craven spoke fondly of his student staff: the on-air DJ’s, the news team, the IT programmer, the public affairs coordinator, and the music intern, all vital for WMSV’s existence.  
One member of this team, Casey Griffin, a senior accounting major, has been a webpage programmer for WMSV since 2012.  The job was offered to him on the spot after the discovery of his technological talents. 
Griffin’s role at WMSV is to program the playlist schedule for the radio station on MSU’s website through a series of codes.  Although Griffin did not do the original programming for the website, he has spent a lot of time on it and turned it into something vastly different than what he began with.  Full of passion and enthusiasm over this complicated skill, it would seem that the 15 hours Griffin puts into his work at the station are thoroughly enjoyed.
Senior communication major, Emily Damm, better known as Emily Belle on air, also works under Craven as a student worker.  Damm, an experienced WMSV employee, started working at the station the summer before her freshman year. After talking to Dr. Forde, the communication department head, about what opportunities there were for communication majors to work on campus. 
Forde recommended the campus television and radio stations to which she immediately applied, receiving job opportunities in both for that summer.  Damm has worked for WMSV ever since, commenting that she really enjoys the people she gets to work with every day.
Originally a DJ, Damm said she has now moved on to broadcasting local news.
“I enjoy [local news] a lot more because it’s a lot more interactive with people,” Damm said. “As a communication major this is something really interesting to me and something I enjoy.”
Damm tends to spend about 10 hours at the station and keeps an eye out for current local events, mindful of whether it would make a good story and if WMSV’s listeners would care about it.  Damm sets up and conducts interviews and tends to edit 10-minute interviews into a 2-minute story.
According to Damm, Craven’s role change to manager has been an exciting and positive one. 
“He’s amazing to work with and he’s the best boss ever,” Damm said. “I think he does a great job of making sure people are where they need to be with their skills and if you’re not doing something right, he’s always constructive about it which I think is the best thing.  I think that’s the best quality as a boss, that you know he’s trying to help you as a person.”