For home use, WiFi surely beats HD hands down in value for money. It opens up all kinds of choices that HD is incapable of providing. For example, those who listen to CBC Radio 1 you "time shift" the same national program - e.g., the Sunday Edition. If you miss a given hour from Toronto you can hear the same hour as it repeats in successive time zones to our west. Also, some NPR stations stream their HD schedules on line - and besides, some of their HD programming can also be accessed from its source such as the BBC or CBC. I know you can hear the same stuff on a desktop or laptop, but the WiFi radio is much more easily tuned and breaks the tether to the computer. I wouldn't be surprised if the current difficulties of the auto industry hasten the advent of WiFi as a common value-added feature in vehicles which will open up a multitude of choices on the road.
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Cutbacks at NPR: Will The Economy Also Impact Local Affiliates?
- Thread starter Mark Giardina
- Start date
For home use, WiFi surely beats HD hands down in value for money. It opens up all kinds of choices that HD is incapable of providing. For example, those who listen to CBC Radio 1 you "time shift" the same national program - e.g., the Sunday Edition. If you miss a given hour from Toronto you can hear the same hour as it repeats in successive time zones to our west. Also, some NPR stations stream their HD schedules on line - and besides, some of their HD programming can also be accessed from its source such as the BBC or CBC. I know you can hear the same stuff on a desktop or laptop, but the WiFi radio is much more easily tuned and breaks the tether to the computer. I wouldn't be surprised if the current difficulties of the auto industry hasten the advent of WiFi as a common value-added feature in vehicles which will open up a multitude of choices on the road.
B
Bob1370
Guest
"Sorry but personally I'm not about to spend money on an HD radio just to hear one program from NPR."
In the case of Marketplace, like many of the other signature programs, you don't have to. Any decent AM radio can be tuned to 1370 at 6:30 weeknights and grab Marketplace anywhere in Monroe, Ontario, eastern Livingston and western Wayne counties even in wintertime...along with everything else we have on the schedule.
Enjoy.
In the case of Marketplace, like many of the other signature programs, you don't have to. Any decent AM radio can be tuned to 1370 at 6:30 weeknights and grab Marketplace anywhere in Monroe, Ontario, eastern Livingston and western Wayne counties even in wintertime...along with everything else we have on the schedule.
Enjoy.
Why not download the MP3 and play it back anytime you want? It's not like Marketplace is "up to the minute" reporting.
I got my Slacker radio. Interesting technology. It's about the size of an iPhone, and stores up to 25 radio stations worth of music. You can plug it into the wall to recharge the lithium ion batteries, or run it off your computer via USB port. If you're connected to the Internet with your computer, or there's a wireless connection available, the Slacker radio updates the stations that you've loaded with fresh music. The data transfer rate is slow, but who cares? You can let it sit there and "refresh" anytime. You can also upload music out of your own collection.
When it comes to jukeboxes, this is slick, painless, and works. Did I mention that Slacker basic service is free? And that I can push a button to exclude songs, or make them "favorites"?
It won't replace radio for me because I miss the "human element". If radio foregoes the "human element", I can see myself listening less and less. Why bother with radio - with a music list I can't control - unless there's something else offered along with the music. And, BTW, I don't mean commercials.
I got my Slacker radio. Interesting technology. It's about the size of an iPhone, and stores up to 25 radio stations worth of music. You can plug it into the wall to recharge the lithium ion batteries, or run it off your computer via USB port. If you're connected to the Internet with your computer, or there's a wireless connection available, the Slacker radio updates the stations that you've loaded with fresh music. The data transfer rate is slow, but who cares? You can let it sit there and "refresh" anytime. You can also upload music out of your own collection.
When it comes to jukeboxes, this is slick, painless, and works. Did I mention that Slacker basic service is free? And that I can push a button to exclude songs, or make them "favorites"?
It won't replace radio for me because I miss the "human element". If radio foregoes the "human element", I can see myself listening less and less. Why bother with radio - with a music list I can't control - unless there's something else offered along with the music. And, BTW, I don't mean commercials.
Most of the public radio channels run a flat fee for the multicast channels, and they are extremely low, compared to main channel carriage fees. Some of the mulitcast only services that NPR offers, such as XPN'ential radio are only about $2000 for the entire year, round the clock.aaronread said:
Clarification: WXXI does not have program directors/managers for each of its radio services. There are only two, each overseeing multiple services, and you left out the reading service, reachout radio, and the hd and new media services. As for Houghton, WXXI was asked to take over that station by the college years ago. It provides the only public radio service in that area.The Voice of Reason said:
audio4tv said:
Wasn't Mike Black hired away from the Geneva public radio station to be the PD for WRUR and WXXI-AM? And isn't the Director of Reachout Radio also PD for 91.5 FM? So again why does the station need a VP for radio who is making close to 70k a year when you have people running all these radio stations?
I've also been told by a few employees at WXXI that the place is, using their words, "crawling with middle managers."
As for Houghton, would you not consider Allegany County closer to the Buffalo sphere of influence? Therefore one of the public stations in Buffalo could provide NPR and local programming to that part of the state.
As for the college's request that WXXI take them over; does that have anything to do with the fact that two employees at WXXI are graduates from Houghton College and talked with college officials about affiliating with WXXI years ago?
Yes, he was. You can add HD to those duties, as well. I don't see an issue with the radio division of 5 radio service, a news-room, and multiple stations, having a division head that oversees all of it. It would be like stating we don't need a GM, as we have a PD and a sales manager.The Voice of Reason said:
The Voice of Reason said:
Perhaps, but Houghton asked WXXI, as best I can remember. I believe WXXI and Houghton had a relationship prior to the college asking WXXI to take over the station. It was in terms of program production or events, if my understanding is correct. However, if you applied your arguement to the repeater of WSKG in Hornell, then technically this station should be WXXI's, as they are closer than WSKG. However, that is just the way things worked out. Then again, Minnesota Public Radio owns stations in California and Florida, which does not follow any of this logic.
Ho-Ho-Houghton
Voice, the real question is whether Houghton is a money loser or money winner. If it's even a break-even situation, why wouldn't they want it? Allegany County is probably equidistant from either Buffalo or Rochester, but their location upstream of Rochester on the Genesee River probably means that Rochester has more ties than Buffalo. Besides, why shouldn't the Rochester NPR cluster reap the benefit of any contributors? There's got to be at least a little money in Alfred and Wellsville.
Voice, the real question is whether Houghton is a money loser or money winner. If it's even a break-even situation, why wouldn't they want it? Allegany County is probably equidistant from either Buffalo or Rochester, but their location upstream of Rochester on the Genesee River probably means that Rochester has more ties than Buffalo. Besides, why shouldn't the Rochester NPR cluster reap the benefit of any contributors? There's got to be at least a little money in Alfred and Wellsville.
"Even commercial stations don't have as much middle management as WXXI appears to have"; again a quote from an employee who works there.audio4tv said:
Speaking of the news room, why does the station have two news directors? In these days of consolidation, you mean to say that both radio and TV news operations can't be merged into one, with just one boss? Sounds like a waste of money to me.
With regards to Houghton College, if ratings mean anything, from what information I've seen there are hardly any listeners to the public station in Allegany County. WXXI would have been better off trying to buy a small market AM station, or get a translator in Livingston County.
M
MediaQueene
Guest
Who is VOR?
Who is The Voice of Reason, and why does he have it out "public broadcasting?" You have a lot of inside info. Are you a current or former employee?
Who is The Voice of Reason, and why does he have it out "public broadcasting?" You have a lot of inside info. Are you a current or former employee?
My experience on multiple car radios in multiple cars...some of which I know to be good on AM reception...routinely demonstrate that after dark, WXXI-AM gets questionable by the Eastgate Mall in Victor...and is flat-out gone by Shortsville. I used to drive back and forth from Brighton (literally 500ft from the WXXI-AM towers) to Geneva every day for nearly a year, so I got pretty familiar with the signal reach in Ontario County. I live in Canandaigua now, and I can't get WXXI-AM in my house, or in my car in Canandaigua, after dark.
During the day? Sure, WXXI-AM is fine almost to Geneva. But once you get about 30-60 minutes away from sunset, it goes downhill fast.
Eh? Why would WXXI pay to buy a station (or build one) in a lightly-populated area with few pubradio listeners when Houghton gave them a much nicer station for FREE? Well, okay, I don't know for sure that it was totally "free"...I don't know if there's tower rent or utility costs involved; or other things like that. But I don't believe WXXI had to pay Houghton to get access to the 90.3 signal. Given the likely low ROI, I imagine it was done largely as a favor to Houghton and because it was fairly simple/easy-to-do and didn't strain the budget much. And probably because WXXI would rather see their programming on it than someone else's.
I have zero knowledge on this, but the tone I get from this question is that you think it's a bad thing. Why? So what if they did? I've seen or heard of several college/high school stations entering relationships with pubradio outlets based on networking/personal relationships like this. Networking is, after all, how the business world works. I can think of worse alternatives.
aaronread said:
Because Livingston County, like Ontario County, is growing in population mostly because people working in Monroe County have decided to move there.
Have you ever traveled to Allegany County? It's very rural, with the exception of say Alfred (because of the college) and Wellsville. And IMHO public radio serves a very small minority of radio listeners, while having an AM outlet in Livingston County would serve more people, thus more revenue for the station. Tell me wouldn't your station like a larger service area? And if you had to pick between say Yates County or Steuben, which one would serve your station better?
aaronread said:
Networking is fine if you do it smart. Look at WAMC and how they have expanded their coverage area by purchasing numerous AM stations throughout the eastern half of New York almost into the Utica area. That's the right way to go. To pour money into an operation like Houghton to me is a waste of time, effort, and money, especially when the ratings show little or no audience. Why not ask the folks at WXXI how many calls are generated from the Houghton station? I'm sure they will tell you they get calls, but then ask for the exact number. I bet WGMC gets more donors during their pledge drives.
The Voice of Reason said:
POUR money? Just how much money does it cost them to broadcast on the Houghton station? It's likely that the land alone to put up a small AM in Livingston county would cost more than they've "poured" into the Houghton station. Operating costs would dwarf what Houghton costs them. Furthermore, what about the mission of public broadcasting to reach an underserved public?
I guess that I just don't understand your objections to Houghton.
SirRoxalot said:
I never wrote that I objected to Houghton. My point was that, from a business standpoint, it would have been wiser to purchase or be affiliated with another station a bit closer to Rochester so that the people who work in Monroe County, but live in another county, like Livingston or even Ontario, could actually hear WXXI-AM when they drive home after pattern change at night. I also maintained, for the umpteenth time, that Allegany County hardly if ever registers an audience for WXXI-AM in the ratings that I've seen.
Houghton was essentially a gift to WXXI. I'm sure that they'd accept a station in Monroe, Livingston, or Ontario county if one was to fall into their hands. That's pretty much what happened with WRUR, isn't it? You can't blame them for expanding their reach when they get the chance to do it for little expense.
WRUR wasn't a gift by any means. Let me give you a brief history. For many years the management at WXXI, both current and previous, tried their best to take over WRUR. The first attempt met with protests from students actively involved with the station, which caused the prior management team to pull back. The second time was more successful as WXXI spent a great deal of money upgrading equipment at WRUR and even moving the station's tower and eventually studios to 280 State Street for an agreement with the University of Rochester that WRUR carry some NPR programs like Morning Edition and All Things Considered. I also heard that WRUR was very close to losing its license from the FCC because the station was in such bad shape. You see the original purpose of having WRUR was for programs to be heard at night when 1370 switched over to its night pattern.SirRoxalot said:
The original intent was to simulcast WRUR and WXXI-AM, but do it gradually so not to upset the students or some faculty at the University. Today there is a mixture of NPR and local programs on that station. For instance, after 9am weekday mornings WRUR features it's own morning show, which happens to be hosted by the husband of the General Manager of WXXI.
So you see there was no gift when it comes to WRUR. A great deal of money was spent to upgrade that station; money that had to come from somewhere. As for the Houghton station I wouldn't know if they are required to simulcast WXXI all day long or not since I personally don't listen to that station. I hope this answers your questions?
Comparing WRUR and WJSL is apples and oranges.
AFAIK, WXXI got WJSL for very little outlay, but also sees little benefit...it roughly works out even, but still gives them a nice big FM signal in that area. Small risk, small reward.
WRUR, on the other hand, did indeed cost WXXI a pretty penny for new studios, transmitters, STL, licensing fees, etc etc etc. However, it's a prime FM signal right in the heart of the market, and thus is far more valuable than WJSL is. I'd be shocked if WXXI isn't already seeing noticeable ROI on their WRUR investment. I doubt they've hit "break even" yet, of course...but these things take time. Bigger risk, but bigger reward. Still, it wasn't a very big risk, nor was it a big outlay...I would hazard that it has NOT cost WXXI more than half a million in everything they've spent for WRUR. Less than $500k for a nice fat FM signal like WRUR's? That's a good deal, indeed!
FWIW, I believe WJSL is not a total simulcast; it's mostly classical from the WXXI-FM side, but there's some WXXI-AM programming in there, too.
AFAIK, WXXI got WJSL for very little outlay, but also sees little benefit...it roughly works out even, but still gives them a nice big FM signal in that area. Small risk, small reward.
WRUR, on the other hand, did indeed cost WXXI a pretty penny for new studios, transmitters, STL, licensing fees, etc etc etc. However, it's a prime FM signal right in the heart of the market, and thus is far more valuable than WJSL is. I'd be shocked if WXXI isn't already seeing noticeable ROI on their WRUR investment. I doubt they've hit "break even" yet, of course...but these things take time. Bigger risk, but bigger reward. Still, it wasn't a very big risk, nor was it a big outlay...I would hazard that it has NOT cost WXXI more than half a million in everything they've spent for WRUR. Less than $500k for a nice fat FM signal like WRUR's? That's a good deal, indeed!
FWIW, I believe WJSL is not a total simulcast; it's mostly classical from the WXXI-FM side, but there's some WXXI-AM programming in there, too.
aaronread said:
WJSL simulcasts AM 1370 from 5-8 AM (Morning Edition) and 4-6 PM (ATC) weekdays and from 8-11 AM (Weekend Edition and Car Talk) on Saturdays; it simulcasts FM 91.5 the rest of the time. There's a WJSL advisory council made up of listeners from down there (yes, there are some!) who helped determine that schedule.
Depending on what brand of over-the-air DTV receiver you have, you may be able to hear the WJSL "STL" feed from State Street on WXXI-DT. On my Sony, it shows up as "16.7," and then I have to select alternate audio channel 2 to hear WJSL. (Audio 1 is the feed from State Street to WRUR's studio at Todd Union, which is still the legal main studio; audio 3 is Reachout Radio to WJSL.)
I think that's as involved as I'm going to get in this particular thread, thanks...
If I'm reading this right and picking up on the subtext, it appears that:
(1) VOR is torked that WRUR was hi-jacked by the nefarious suits at WXXI.
(2) WRUR would be better operated by the University of Rochester and
(3) U of R kinda, sorta abdicated and relinquished its authority and/or control of WRUR.
Then again, I could be mis-reading the whole farkin' thread. In which case, you guys in the know can 'splain it to me like I'm a sixth grader.
(1) VOR is torked that WRUR was hi-jacked by the nefarious suits at WXXI.
(2) WRUR would be better operated by the University of Rochester and
(3) U of R kinda, sorta abdicated and relinquished its authority and/or control of WRUR.
Then again, I could be mis-reading the whole farkin' thread. In which case, you guys in the know can 'splain it to me like I'm a sixth grader.
Radknowski said:
Ah my dear friend of the paint brush, before I venture outside to do battle with Jack Frost and Mother Nature, allow me to answer your questions.
Question: VOR is torked that WRUR was hi-jacked by the nefarious suits at WXXI.
Response: No I am not "torked"; why should I be? However I do wonder why the management at WXXI continues to deny, to almost anyone who will listen, that they, as you put it, hi-jacked WRUR. Granted there are programs on WRUR that are run and operated by students and also some specialty programming like the Italian music played Saturday's with host John Sebaste. All I did in my recent post was explain the history behind WXXI's take-over of WRUR.
Question: WRUR would be better operated by the University of Rochester.
Answer Actually I think WRUR is better off under the auspices of WXXI since you have professional broadcasters running the station, versus a bunch of college kids. I was told that a few years ago some students had to be removed from their on-air shifts because they were using foul language. What I do think is amusing is that the VP and General Manager of WXXI managed to find a job for her husband on WRUR. Why does the word nepotism keep popping up when I think about that?
Question. U of R kinda, sorta abdicated and relinquished its authority and/or control of WRUR.
Answer U of R officials didn't really care if they had a radio station or not, otherwise they wouldn't have allowed the station to almost lose its license. Many people may not know this but years ago WRUR could have been granted an increase in power only if certain paperwork had been filed with the FCC. That paperwork was never filed, therefore instead of a 20k FM signal the station today has what...2.5k?
I hope that your questions have been answered. Now if you will excuse me my snow blower awaits.
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