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After serving five years as Brown Students Radio's most enthusiastic, loyal, and only fan, Patrick Nilan, a 31-year-old software engineer from Denver, Colorado, and sole listener of BSR, died on Thursday.
"Today is a sad day for everyone," wrote BSR director Frank Henderson '10 in an email to the Noser. "My heart goes out to our programmers and developers whose independent and totally unique news and music shows will no longer be listened to by our [most] beloved fan."
By Friday, BSR reported an approximate 100% decrease in total audience for both music and features programming. Upon hearing the news, members of the BSR reacted with mixed emotions.
"Oh yes, of course I remember Patrick," said Kate Posner '11, host of BSR's show "Indy Rawk," which airs on Monday and Thursday afternoons. "He would consistently instant message my co-host and I with song requests and shout outs. We never obliged him."
Natalie Gates '10 was not so kind. "Everyone keeps talking about how sad it is that Patrick is gone now, about how he was our best fan, but most people don't remember how he was also our worst fan."
BSR's sponsors expect to be heavily impacted by the loss of Nilan. Local businesses that paid to be mentioned in BSR shows have lost a large portion of their exposure; for some, all of their advertising was through BSR. The sponsors released the following statement:
"The loss of Patrick Nilan is tragic. In these tough economic times, Providence businesses can use any promotion they can get. It is disheartening to know that no one will be listening to our ads, even if it only used to be that one guy from Colorado."
Seven Stars Bakery went on to say "Now that no one will hear us on BSR, why would anyone have any reason to buy our expensive bread?"
The future for BSR remains unclear. Finding someone to fill Nilan's role will not be an easy task, according to the station. Efforts to gain a listener on campus have turned futile in previous years. A recent campus poll found that only 2% of Brown students identified BSR as abbreviating "Brown Student Radio", trailing "Breaded and Saucy Raddishes" with 47%, "Brown Students for Regicide" with 39%, and "Bellowing, Sorrowful Roars" with 7%.
For the students who had heard of BSR, the news that its last listener had died came as a surprise. "Oh yeah, uh, I think one of my friends has a show on BSR. He always talks to us about it," said Emily Garcia '12. "I thought BSR had a large fan base."
Added Garcia, "Not that I ever listened to it myself."
