WENIS
Willemstan Entertainment, News, and Information System
This article was last updated on: January 31st of 2021
Another sneak peek of WENIS TV, shared to Willemstan on July 9th of 2021 by Charlie.
"The tape copy of Mr. Weber's Spanish II project will soon be destroyed (even though that isn't even the original). Don't worry though, I will be duplicating it to a shorter length tape that will only have the project on it... I'll be using [the Weber tape] to record for the TV station."
- Charlie Nolan on the re-purposing of the Weber VHS for the WENIS project, 05/15/21.
Lore
WENIS (Willemstan Entertainment, News, and Information System) is the official acronym for Willemstan government broadcasts. The term has been around since at least October 2018, as it was mentioned in the Urban Dictionary definition for Willemstan. WENIS was also mentioned in Charlie Nolan's infamous Willemstan: "Civil War" (kind of a joke but kind of serious) video released on June 17th of 2020, shortly after the Willemstan Coup. This video hasn't been publicly available since the March Incident.
The acronym made a return in 2021 for a planned official Willemstan TV channel. Development of WENIS television has been ongoing since May of 2021. It is probably the most ambitious Charlie project to date. While operational, WENIS currently does not have enough power behind it to reach many citizens of Willemstan. Throughout its development, it has experienced many setbacks and reliability issues. To date, developing WENIS has cost Charlie hundreds of dollars. A tax collection date has been declared for February 2nd 2022 in an effort to pay back some of the expenses.
Development of WENIS TV
February 2021 - May 2021
The origin of WENIS television can be traced back to February 11th of 2021, in which Ian and Charlie were discussing ideas to revive Tax Collection. Charlie suggested creating a Willemstan radio or TV station, and began researching the idea. However, he soon wrote it off as "too expensive and difficult". However, after doing further research on the subject, he returned to the project in May of 2021. The plan was to broadcast on an abandoned analog TV channel. On May 15th of 2021, Charlie announced that he would be cannibalizing the VHS tape with Mr. Weber's Spanish Project, which was recovered during the monumental 2019 Salvage Operation. While this initially generated some controversy, Charlie reasoned that the massive length of the tape would be invaluable for the WENIS project, and that he could just copy the project to another tape. On May 25th of 2021, he uploaded a sneak peak of the project, but noted that he lacked an antenna amplifier. As a result, the signal barely reached across his room.
July 2021 - August 2021
On July 9th of 2021, Charlie gave the Willemstan public an update on the project in the newly created #market-updates channel on the Discord server. He announced that WENIS will be broadcasting on analog cable channel 60, possibily within a couple weeks time. He also uploaded a short trailer for WENIS, which may serve as an intro for WENIS broadcasts in the future. A few hours later, Charlie also shared the "please wait" screen for the channel. A section of Willemstan.com was established for WENIS to allow citizens to view upcoming programs and request content.
Over the next few weeks, Charlie built a shelf of the broadcast equipment, consisting of 2 VCRs, a DVD/blu-ray and internet video player, the signal modulator and amplifiers, and 2 monitors to view the broadcast content. An amplifier arived in August, allowing for low-power broadcasting. The project had various setbacks during this period, including incorrect calculations and dysfunctional electronics. There was a high power broadcast (through a wire and antenna on the floor of a bedroom) in late August, but then 2 components broke, including the amplfier. This haulted progress on WENIS for some time, as Charlie had to wait for the replacement parts to arrive.
September 2021
On Friday, September 24th, all remaining components arrived, and were set up and tested. In the preceding week, radio equipment was moved to a different room to insulate it from the video sources. The radio amplifier setup was completed on the 25th, and the antenna was mounted on the 26th. Throughout the 26th, various test broadcasts at different powers were run. Test broadcasts included some broadcasting on cable channel 60. On the 29th, Charlie released a comprehensive update video on Silly Goose. In that video, he declared that WENIS would be ready in a matter of days.
The tape in which Mr. Weber's Spanish II project was found in the salvage operation, which was supposed to be used for WENIS.
October 2021
WENIS was operational this month. Unfortunately, not many (if any) citizens were tuning into WENIS, probably due to the fact that an older TV was required in order to view the channel WENIS was broadcasting on. On October 19th, Charlie asked the citizens to "express interest in WENIS now that it is operational."
January 2022
Due to more component failures and lack of citizen interest, WENIS was down for several months. On January 2nd 2022, Charlie announced that he would resume broadcasts that day and may attempt to move to a different broadcasting channel. On January 15th, Charlie announced that WENIS would be broadcasting on UHF Channel 15 going forward. This way, WENIS could be picked up alongside cable stations. He also stated that more broadcasting equipment had been ordered. A few days later, during school hours, Charlie calculated just how much money he has spent directly and indirectly on WENIS. This totaled to over $800. As a result, Charlie began to sell things and look for ways to earn money to pay off WENIS debt. On the 20th, he announced he was selling a 1996 VCR. On the 23rd, he announced he was selling the original copy of Mr. Weber's Spanish Project, which never ended up being canabalized for WENIS after all. On January 30th, Charlie declared that WENIS was running at full power. On January 31st, a tax collection day was declared for February 2nd, in order to pay off more WENIS debt.