I think that's really what this is about.
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Palm Beaches 104.7 The Flame to be purchased by WLRN group
- Thread starter strangelove
- Start date
I think that's really what this is about.
The School Board returned fire and now says that per the management agreement, the funds SFPMG intends to use to buy WFLM are for the benefit of the WLRN stations only. Don't be surprised if this ends up in court at some point.
School Board voted unanimously to sue:
radioinsight.com
and since WLRN is a partner with the Herald, here's the Herald's story about WLRN getting sued on WLRN:
www.wlrn.org
Miami-Dade School Board Sues WLRN Management Over WFLM Purchase
After filing a petition to the FCC to deny South Florida Public Media Group’s $6.45 million purchase of Hip Hop
radioinsight.com
and since WLRN is a partner with the Herald, here's the Herald's story about WLRN getting sued on WLRN:
Miami-Dade school board sues WLRN’s management over West Palm Beach radio deal
Miami-Dade’s School Board authorized its attorneys to file a lawsuit against the company that manages WLRN, the public radio and television stations for which the board holds the broadcasting license.
www.wlrn.org
I don't see what the big deal is. SFPMG is just increasing the coverage of WLRN and providing Palm Bch County with a full power signal the same way they do the Keys with the Marathon station. The increased coverage should increase money collected by SFPMG for the benefit of all of the stations. Is this just a family squabble with Dade County Schools just throwing a hissy fit?
TL,DR.. as i understand it: The schools own the station, SFPMG is a seperate entity running the station for the school.. and SFPMG didnt have permission and or cant use WLRN Funds for this, as the funds are exclusively for WLRN.. and 104.7 isnt WLRN
The accusation is that SFPMG is using WLRN money to buy a radio station that it will own.
It's all about the money.
They are using money raised originally from WLRN facilities to buy a station that the School Board won't own. If the new station was owned by the Board, it would be as you describe and maybe they would have approved. The School Board will not own the new station; SFPMG will. So if SFPMG says "You know, we don't want to run WLRN anymore, we'll just compete with you in PBC with a station that we own. And we'll use all of your donor data to undercut your success in PBC.
Imagine if you hired me to run your Car Dealership, and then I use the money we made to buy another Car Dealership (without telling or even asking you), but this time I say I own it. But don't worry, I'll still run yours in good faith! Even though I obviously have a vested interested in mine being more successful....
Even if I used my own money (which is what they are arguing), do you still want me running your business when I own a complementary (or competing) business?
I worked for a 3 station cluster... # 1one fm originally, they bought two more.(#2 and #3) the two more were originally competition and the news at those 2 was done by a guy who owned yet another nearby station (#4) that legally had nothing to do with 2 and 3.. no common ownership, etc at all....
When we took over and moved #2 and 3 to our place and #4 guy still did news for #2 and 3.. i didnt like that idea
In the very least, it changes the terms of the agreement that SFPMG had before. Ground rules should have been set up in advance, and they weren't.
But th
But this is buying a car dealership in another town. There is little overlap and it just expands your market.
It sounds like the court will need to decide whether or not the money for the purchase was obtained from a resource that should have otherwise gone towards operating WLRN.
I'd like to believe the management group wasn't dumb enough to try and buy their own radio station using money that wasn't theirs to spend as they pleased.
I'd like to believe the management group wasn't dumb enough to try and buy their own radio station using money that wasn't theirs to spend as they pleased.
The other issue is knowledge of membership lists. Which would include any WLRN members in PBC.
I doubt K Love will make a move for 104.7 so Im guessing some other religious station operator will end up with 104.7 and west palm market will have to rely on what they have for public radio. I just feel a stronger WLRN all over south florida would be ideal but WLRN does not want that and happy with a translator. The reality is that all the Florida npr stations need to join forces as one network and save the expenses of trying to operate multiple independent stations across the state like we have now.
Little overlap is hard to argue when WLRN and its translator regularly do as well or better in the ratings in WPB than in the Miami Market. There's no doubt that the School Board knows some of those Palm Beach listeners will stop giving to WLRN when they have a 50kW station owned by someone else in the market that is soliciting them.
So you'd be ok with those people in that town buying their car from me instead of you? When a greater share in "the other town" already buy their cars from you than the people in your town? WLRN will lose market share.
And that doesn't even get into the ethics of SFPMG running WLRN when they own a competing station. Who do you think is going to get priority?
While I agree with all of what you and TheBigA have to say, it should be pointed out that WFLM would have served areas north of West Palm Beach (such as Jupiter) that WLRM currently does not cover. In other words, by handling this the way both the school board and the station management did, people north of West Palm Beach are not really going to be served by an NPR outlet for some time to come.
I was thinking that Indian River College, the owners of WQCS-FM in Fort Pierce, the next city with an NPR affiliate up the coast, might assist, but, as it turns out, a lot of the expansion of public radio stations and networks came with the assistance of the CPB, an entity that will no longer exist come October 1.
I mean, they "don't want that" the way a local hardware store doesn't want Home Depot building across the street. Oh and Home Depot is also running your store for you. They aren't specifically "happy" with the translator; maybe they would have been okay with buying WFLM. But SFPMG tried to do it behind their back. So they have to defend their market share. I don't understand how people are still parsing this, there's not much of a gray area on why WLRN is doing what they are doing. They were stabbed in the back by the company that's supposed to be working for them, who now wants to go out on their own and compete against them, and I'm sure still run their station too. Every single business or company with half a brain would be doing what they are doing in fighting it.
Building penetration aside, I was on 95 by PBI a few weekends ago and I got WLRN 91.3, WQCS 88.9, and 101.9FM all crystal clear in the car. WFLM will make four stations! WQCS's 60dB goes to Jupiter. There isn't a large area that doesn't have coverage. Plus Indian River College has 4 FMs and I wouldn't be surprised to see them continue to grow.
The entire court filing by Miami-Dade Schools against SFPMG is available to read as part of their Motion For Leave filing with the FCC.
I hope they teach SFPMG a lesson!
They'll have them write 'I will not misappropriate funds' on the blackboard 200 times