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Duquesne May Need To Fork Over $7M After WDUQ Sale

This has more to do with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and its standards. The $7M would have to be given back to the CPB.

From the article:
Public broadcasting refers to nonprofit, noncommercial outlets that get money from community sources. To get money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, they cannot offer religious programming and must meet standards for budget size, staff and audiences.

WDUQ can never go commercial because of its dial position. . . 90.5
 
freddyb590 said:
From the article:
Public broadcasting refers to nonprofit, noncommercial outlets that get money from community sources. To get money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, they cannot offer religious programming
Click to expand...

Not that there aren't enough religious broadcasters, mind you, but that's an interesting little piece of discrimination.

ANY religious programming? Duquesne, after all, is a Catholic university.

C.
 
they can't change it from a nonprofit unless they move from 90.5, can they?
 
90.5 is in the reserved band. That means it is a non-com. No way to change that without changing the entire reserved band. Not happening.
 
They could only become commercial if they did something like swap frequencies with WAOB.

It's interesting that WAOB has a non-commercial license in the commercial band. When we originally put Pitt's WPTS at 98.5 (later moved to 92.1 to accommodate the WESA move-in from Chraleroi to Duquesne, PA) the FCC was very concerned about setting the precedent of approving non-comms in the commercial band. A different Commission obviously has different views...
 
Are you sure that WAOB converted the license? Usually in cases like this they just run it non-com and don't have to be careful of the non-com underwriting rules because they can run full commercials if they like. Any commercial station can do that. No permission required.

That's a choice and not a requirement to convert a license and I suspect it is a full commercial license still but they just choose to run it differently.
 
I had read that they were applying to convert it, frankly I'm with you, I didn't see why that was necessary. Not sure if it was actually changed, though.
 
They are converted to a non-com license. Any station above 91.9 can convert to a non-com if they justify the reason but it is still up to the commission to decide. A station 91.9 or below cannot however be converted unless they change the rules altogether.
 
Oh. Now I see they filed 860 to be non com at file BML-20090709APC. Don't see one for FM or 1510. Sure drops the value of the facility.
 
gimmus said:
Oh. Now I see they filed 860 to be non com at file BML-20090709APC. Don't see one for FM or 1510. Sure drops the value of the facility.
Click to expand...

Doesn't drop the value of the facility by a penny. There are no reserved channels on the AM dial for noncommercial use, and 106.7 Beaver Falls is not reserved noncommercial, either. As a result, anyone owning 860, 1510 or 106.7 can convert any of those licenses to noncommercial status, and back to commercial status, at any time, just for the asking.

So why bother making them noncommercial licenses for now? That's easy: as noncomm licenses, they're exempt from FCC spectrum and filing fees and eligible for reduced fees for other things, too, like music licensing and streaming.
 
OK, so how about THIS to fire-up the local Rotisserie League?

WAOB swaps 106.7 to Duquesne Univ. for 90.5. Since WAOB wants to run Noncommercial
anyhow, that will work out just fine. (plus giving that freq. to a Catholic group will likely create fewer headaches for the Duquesne administration than some of the other groups who may be out there bidding for it).

Duquesne can then turn around and sell 106.7 to the highest bidder, who would then be free
to file and take it back to commercial. ESPN 1250 being a likely suitor.
 
Insane. The lawsuits would fly so hard and litigation taking years and costing millions over and over again would be a complete distraction from Duquesne's primary purpose which is education. The bad PR alone would take years to recover from. Don't underestimate how popular WDUQ is.

WAOB's 104.1 coming from Wexford along with the AM's and their new signal coming in from the other side at Ligonier is a setup they can build from. Insane for any of the parties to entertain a "flip".
 
gimmus said:
WAOB's 104.1 coming from Wexford along with the AM's and their new signal coming in from the other side at Ligonier is a setup they can build from. Insane for any of the parties to entertain a "flip".
Click to expand...

104.1?
 
Kurt Toy said:
I hope who ever takes over keeps the jazz programming.
Click to expand...

I think that is unlikely. It will either go religious, or some community group that buys it will
alternate between NPR programming off the bird, and locally produced political shows from
activist groups who have axes to grind.
 
I don't think this means stalled at all. This looks to me like the chance for all the parties to get together and forge a good future. Its a chance for the employee group to move ahead with it's bid with the support of the foundations in partnership instead of being opposed to each other. This is a very good thing for all involved.
 
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