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WCSB 89.3 Switches to JazzNEO

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radiofollower said:
CSU screwed this up. They could have very easily left the station alone and let them continue online from the same studios with no changes.
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Some have hypothesized that the university wants that former studio space for something else. They also don't want to be in charge of any radio station, online or otherwise. The president said the students are free to start an online station themselves, and they would be responsible for the costs, not the university. However, the students don't seem to want that. They want their FM signal back.

radiofollower said:
I would even have established an HD service on 89.3 with the online WCSB as HD-2.
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There is no HD transmitter on 89.3. The students said during the roundtable that they want jazz back on HD, and their programming back on FM. The students have shown no willingness to compromise. How would you describe that kind of behavior?
 
TheBigA said:
Some have hypothesized that the university wants that former studio space for something else. They also don't want to be in charge of any radio station, online or otherwise. The president said the students are free to start an online station themselves, and they would be responsible for the costs, not the university. However, the students don't seem to want that. They want their FM signal back.



There is no HD transmitter on 89.3. The students said during the roundtable that they want jazz back on HD, and their programming back on FM. The students have shown no willingness to compromise. How would you describe that kind of behavior?
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CSU could easily put an HD on 89.3 and make the HD-2 the classic WCSB along with their online, changing the call letters of 89.3. As far as what is on FM and what is just online and HD-2, consider this: Most people I know who are under a certain age do not listen to the radio. Most don't even own a radio. It makes sense to put the older demographic service on FM, and the classic WCSB online and HD-2. If WCSB does this, I guarantee you that they would not lose many listeners. But once again, CSU never apparently had any concern about the station, its staff or its listeners to try to work out something.
 
radiofollower said:
CSU could easily put an HD on 89.3 and make the HD-2 the classic WCSB along with their online.
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Really? Do you know what's involved? From what I understand it requires a different antenna, a different transmitter, and a royalty payment to the owners of the HD radio copyright. So there's money involved, and the university doesn't want to spend any more money on a club that only has 40 students involved.

radiofollower said:
Most people I know who are under a certain age do not listen to the radio. Most don't even own a radio.
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I understand all of that. Which is why these students SHOULD be excited about putting their station online. But they aren't. They want to stay on a platform that very few people of college age listen. Which is once again why the university wants to get out of radio.

radiofollower said:
CSU never apparently had any concern about the station, its staff or its listeners to try to work out something.
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It's an expensive club with only 40 student members. The university has said the students are free to use all the money they've raised to start an online station themselves. But the university wants to get out of the radio business.
 
TheBigA said:
There is no HD transmitter on 89.3. The students said during the roundtable that they want jazz back on HD, and their programming back on FM. The students have shown no willingness to compromise. How would you describe that kind of behavior?
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Stubborn. Short-sighted. Clinging to a past that no longer exists.
 
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"Really? Do you know what's involved? From what I understand it requires a different antenna, a different transmitter, and a royalty payment to the owners of the HD radio copyright. So there's money involved, and the university doesn't want to spend any more money on a club that only has 40 students involved."

First of all, you do not need a new antenna. And the transmitter modification is fairly simple. And as far as money is concerned, did CSU just get a million bucks to do this conversion? The university can't peel off a few bucks for this project? The way that they stormed the station which has been operating for 50 years with the police and threw everyone out right then and there was shameful and totally unnecessary.
 
radiofollower said:
did CSU just get a million bucks to do this conversion?
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No. Ideastream got a $1 million donation for jazz on FM.

Someone should be asking where did the listener money the students raised go? It didn't go to the university. The university says the students can keep it. Maybe they should look into spending the listener money on something for the listeners.

radiofollower said:
The way that they stormed the station which has been operating for 50 years with the police and threw everyone out right then and there was shameful and totally unnecessary.
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The students would have used the airwaves to continue to bash the university the way they're doing now. Instead of devoting time and resources to building an online station, the student GM is flying to a radio conference in Denver where she'll continue to lie about how the university has taken away her voice.

Once again, the university wants out of radio. What part of that don't you understand?
 
radiofollower said:
But once again, CSU never apparently had any concern about the station, its staff or its listeners to try to work out something.
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www.cleveland.com

From punk rock to elevator jazz -- CSU traded free expression for easy listening: Leslie Kouba

Cleveland State University and Ideastream silenced student voices by abruptly seizing control of WCSB’s independent, student-run radio station — a move that columnist Leslie Kouba sees as part of a growing and troubling trend of suppressing free speech in America.
www.cleveland.com www.cleveland.com
 
VintageMac said:
www.cleveland.com

From punk rock to elevator jazz -- CSU traded free expression for easy listening: Leslie Kouba

Cleveland State University and Ideastream silenced student voices by abruptly seizing control of WCSB’s independent, student-run radio station — a move that columnist Leslie Kouba sees as part of a growing and troubling trend of suppressing free speech in America.
www.cleveland.com www.cleveland.com
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It's an interesting article, turning this into a freedom of speech issue. Nowhere in the constitution does it say that everyone is entitled to have their own radio station. Obviously no one is stifling free speech, because the student GM is speaking everywhere. She's even flying to a radio conference in Denver to speak. So speech isn't the issue here at all. The university is fine with students expressing themselves anywhere they want. But they've decided to get out of the radio business, and turn over operations of the station to professionals. That's really all that happened.
 
TheBigA said:
The students would have used the airwaves to continue to bash the university the way they're doing now. Instead of devoting time and resources to building an online station, the student GM is flying to a radio conference in Denver where she'll continue to lie about how the university has taken away her voice.
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It is very fair to say Alison Bomgardner is grifting off of her newfound popularity and is being paid good money for their trip to Denver. Nice to be in their position, I guess.

And honestly, shame on RAMP 24/7 for giving her attention and a platform, apparently conjecture only matters to them. They failed their readers badly.
 
skiwest said:
I would not consider the new format on 89.3 to be "easy listening". Perhaps that would be the case if was "smooth jazz", which it is not.
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Facts always get in the way of a good narrative. That op-ed is laughably bad, how much has the Plain Dealer fallen?

And Mac, reacting with a laughing emoji says a lot.
 
A public request for this thread to be closed as it has become obvious that the argument is continually circular and the differences are irreconcilable. One can only state the same exact thing 100 times.
 
VintageMac said:
www.cleveland.com

Cleveland State gives up WCSB radio station to Ideastream for free. Why?

CSU will maintain FCC license while Ideastream transforms student-run station into JazzNEO, sparking community protests despite promises of student opportunities.
www.cleveland.com www.cleveland.com
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Why? Because universities are getting out of the radio business. All across the country. Some universities are selling their licenses. CSU wanted to retain the license. But they used it as leverage to get paid internships for its students. If K-Love had bought the station, they would have simply taken over the station, paid the university some money, and the students would get nothing. K-Love has no local studios, so they can't offer internships to students.

Brown University sold to K-Love. If you want an article to read about what's happening to radio, try this one:

www.rollingstone.com

Why Is the Radio Full of Christian Rock? Thank This Nonprofit

Why is the radio so full of Christian rock? Thank the Educational Media Foundation, the little-known nonprofit taking the devil’s music off the air
www.rollingstone.com www.rollingstone.com

The university is in the education business. Ideastream is in the radio business. Understand?
 
inter1097 said:
uwm.edu

Does the First Amendment apply to public universities?

The U.S. Supreme Court has long held that the First Amendment’s freedom of speech tenets fully apply to public universities. In Healy v. James (1972), the Supreme Court declared that “the precedents of this Court leave no room for the view …
uwm.edu uwm.edu
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This is not a free speech argument! It's about a radio station owned by a state-run university and was previously operated by a student organization. Those students and non-student volunteers were tenants of the license. CSU could do whatever they wanted with the license and they did not want to continue with the legal responsibility of administering it. Especially when, YET AGAIN, it was not or ever operated as actual curriculum.

Honestly, the longer people keep trying to disregard this to further their own narrative, the more I feel sympathetic towards CSU and Ideastream.
 
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Nathan Obral said:
Honestly, the longer people keep trying to disregard this to further their own narrative, the more I feel sympathetic towards CSU and Ideastream.
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This is literally the only corner of the internet that is.


I'm familiar with your past. I was pissed when V103 and 87.7 went down, but I got it, it was about ratings, but I thought a station that wasn't out there for ratings would of been treated a little different. I guess I was naive
 
For people who don't know, here's what the first amendment says:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

So the key word is Congress. The university, even one owned by the state, is not congress. It's not even the government. Nobody, including the university, has made any laws. Students are free to speak anywhere they want. But that doesn't mean the university is required to provide them a radio station.

My take is the university is being very patient. Because there's an issue of the students using university property to raise money and not sharing it with the university. I read where the students used that money to pay themselves "stipends." I think there's potential for legal action.
 
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