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88.9 WCRB "off the table"?

J

JustinT

<a target="_blank" href=http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2006/04/07/boston_sampler/>http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2006/04/07/boston_sampler/</a>

Apparently Peter Smyth, as an Emerson board member, proposed that 88.9 WERS be LMAd to Greater Media for $10 million per year. From the article, it looks like students would have consisted of the airstaff, while a "satellite" (probably internet) station would have carried the current WERS programming.

At least GM is trying to find a home for the WCRB programming. But will they have any success?
 
Glad to hear that Emerson College said "No". The purpose of a station at a college with a communications curriculum is to provide a training ground for students. WERS also provides access for local musicians to perform live.
 
> The purpose of
> a station at a college with a communications curriculum is
> to provide a training ground for students. WERS also
> provides access for local musicians to perform live.

Who made those rules?

The reason for ALL stations is to serve the public.

The FCC makes no mention of a radio station being a "training ground", etc.

Students at BU can't get anywhere near WBUR.
 
> The FCC makes no mention of a radio station being a
> "training ground", etc.

I agree. But Emerson College always told prospective students that WERS is a training ground for the students. WERS does a very good job of serving the public with various kinds of music that you will not find elsewhere on the dial.

> Students at BU can't get anywhere near WBUR.

I know. That's an advantage schools like Emerson College and Quinnipiac University in Hamden CT have over BU for communications.

A communications school has an obligation to its students to make sure it's station can be a valuable learning experience. I'm glad University of New Haven students successfully fought to prevent WNHU from becoming a PBS station a few years ago. Emerson did the right thing in saying to the LMA proposal.

I graduated from Emerson in the 70s and was on WERS.

Bill Dillane
 
> > The purpose of
> > a station at a college with a communications curriculum is
>
> > to provide a training ground for students. WERS also
> > provides access for local musicians to perform live.
>
> Who made those rules?
>
> The reason for ALL stations is to serve the public.
>
> The FCC makes no mention of a radio station being a
> "training ground", etc.

educational non-comms are meant to serve an educational purpose
per fcc order. training is part of education.

> Students at BU can't get anywhere near WBUR.

nonsense, sure they can. may be not on air, but off air
they can intern for college credit or get paid to work
there. bu students program and run both wtbu am and fm.
 
> > The purpose of
> > a station at a college with a communications curriculum is
>
> > to provide a training ground for students. WERS also
> > provides access for local musicians to perform live.
>
> Who made those rules?
>
> The reason for ALL stations is to serve the public.
>
> The FCC makes no mention of a radio station being a
> "training ground", etc.
>
> Students at BU can't get anywhere near WBUR.
>

Nor can UMass-Boston students go on-air at WUMB -- most of WUMB's airstaff are old enough to be the students' parents, or grandparents.
 
Re: 88.9 WCRB

> Nor can UMass-Boston students go on-air at WUMB -- most of
> WUMB's airstaff are old enough to be the students' parents,
> or grandparents.

Actually, there was one U. Mass Boston Class of 2005 student named Darrell Penta working on-air at WUMB as a producer and on-air co-host, news reader, and sidekick to host Dick Pleasants on their morning show a couple of days a week for the past couple of years. He's been there only off-and-on since he graduated, as he's been also pursuing a number of other things in life.

However, I don't think you'll ever see a U. Mass Boston student host their own show or airshift there. It's a professional Public Radio music station, and in fact, their regular on-air main host lineup has not changed in over half a decade. Having been recently briefly involved there myself, I think it's a safe speculation that there will not likely be any additions or changes to their regular airstaff whatsoever unless any of their current longtime hosts decide to move on.

And you're correct, at age 48 when I was there last year, I think I was younger than all of their regular airstaff. In their defense though, I will say that they are among the best and most seasoned, most knowledgeable hosts for a folk music format in the Boston area.

> > Students at BU can't get anywhere near WBUR.

WBUR is also a professional NPR news station, though under the past years new management there has been more active recruiting of more B.U. communications and journalism students working behind the scenes in newswriting, editing, production, and various other capacities.

Different schools have different philosophies about how their stations are run and what role they want their station to play in the area on-air community. In this area, WBUR and WUMB are professional Public Radio stations with paid (mainly) non-student airstaff. WERS is the all-student on-air representation of the Emerson communications program. WMBR, WZBC, WMFO, WMWM, WHRB, WBRS, WRBB and many others are mainly student-run all-volunteer student stations which happen to also allow some outside community volunteers to be involved both on and off the air, some of them more so than others.
 
> educational non-comms are meant to serve an educational
> purpose per fcc order. training is part of education.

The FCC's definition of an "educational" non-comm seems to be extremely vague nowadays, as it also appears to include religious network translators, most of which have no live or local involvement whatsoever.
 
> > The FCC makes no mention of a radio station being a
> > "training ground", etc.
>

Not true. In fact, when the reserved band was created for non-commercial / educational licensees back in the day...there were such a thing as a totally educational station where programming was SOLELY classroom training. It was not unlike today's distance learning webcast concept...and no doubt was boring as hell for anyone not participating in the class. Hence why there aren't any left that I know of, nor any that my colleagues at the FCC know about.

That's actually where the concept of "exempt" stations mentioned in 73.3527(e)(8) in regards to issues lists and NCE's public files. There's no mention in the rules about what exactly an exempt station is, but buried in an R&O somewhere is a mention that non-translator/booster Class D's and the aforementioned "100% training station" are exempt.

Anyways, what makes WERS impressive is that not only does it provide a useful learning experience, but that the programming actually has pretty broad appeal to the general public. Especially for a block-format station. Of course, the important ingredient here is that Emerson provides an entire radio curriculum so the students can learn in the classroom, and then apply that knowledge in a real-world environment.

As for the $10 million/yr LMA, I generally respect Peter Smyth quite a bit, but what a terrible idea. Ignoring the whole emotional/programming aspect and teaching/environment aspect...how in the HELL would Greater Media ever recoup that investment on a non-commercial station? It just doesn't work that way. I've heard rumors that Emerson has drooled over the concept that WBUR rakes in $15-$25 million every year...but that's because WBUR targets a very affluent demographic that gives way more than any other, and they like news - not music. Just look at WUMB's and WGBH's (radio, not TV) fundraising totals - they're not even close.

There's also the FCC rules that prevent NCE licensees from fundraising for anyone besides themselves and/or their license-holder. So any money WERS raises can't go back to Greater Media.

Christ, WSMU 91.1 only got $750k and that was a one-time payment from an organization that's a helluva lot less concerned about the bottom-line ROI than Greater Media is. Sure 91.1 isn't as valuable a signal, but still...

Hmmm...

Actually, the more I think about it...despite that this was in the Globe, since it came from "an Emerson insider" makes me wonder just how accurate the facts presented are. Smyth's no fool and this whole "offer" smells foolish. Plus there's no shortage of invective floating around at Emerson these days with the mgmt/faculty contract battles of the past few years (no comment). Maybe there was a WCRB fan at Emerson who wants to make Smyth look bad?


By the way, students ARE involved at WBUR...but not in the way they are are WMFO or WZBC. There are several work-studies who just are "go-phers", but there are a decent amount who do some "real work", too: newswriting, audio editong, running the mix board, etc. There's not a lot of leeway - if you screw up you're outta there - but there are some opportunities there. I know several folks who started out at WBUR as students and continued on there after graduation, or have moved on to other radio outlets.
 
> There's also the FCC rules that prevent NCE licensees from
> fundraising for anyone besides themselves and/or their
> license-holder.

I wasn't aware of that rule, but it certainly makes sense...

Can NCE's fundraise for other non-profit organizations? I thought I've heard that being done before.
 
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