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Fate of NJN Radio Now More Clear

K

KC2LDY

Guest
From the WNYC Blog... it says a new public radio station for NJ is planned - but I can't help but think these signals would be used to help boost reception of WQXR.:

"New York Public Radio, the owner of WNYC, will acquire four stations from the NJN network, New Jersey’s public television and radio broadcaster: WNJY FM 89.3 Netcong, WNJP FM 88.5 Sussex, WNJT FM 88.1 Trenton and WNJO FM 90.3 Toms River.

"New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said New York Public Radio will create a new public radio station focused on New Jersey news, and with a bureau in the Garden State.

"In addition, the state is turning over operations and programming of the NJN TV network to WNET/Channel Thirteen, which will rename it NJTV. Governor Christie said the goal is to end the state's role in public broadcasting.

"Christie said WNET won the bidding for the valuable TV license by demonstrating "the ability to deliver Jersey-centric programming, including a nightly news program."

"WHYY, a public radio station in Philadelphia, will buy the state's other five public radio licenses for stations in South Jersey.

"No information was immediately available about the price being paid for the stations.

"In 2009, WNYC acquired WQXR from The New York Times, paying $11.5 million.

"The acquisitions are subject to review by the New Jersey Legislature and approval by the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority and the FCC."
 
Hard to see how this creates a New-Jersey centered broadcast service, when it's being sold off, split-up, and headquartered in Manhattan and Philly. Did they even give the NJN Network a chance to be fully self-supporting, or is this more of a politically-motivated quick sale?

This really does make New Jersey seme like little more than a set of two suburbs, instead of its own state. The radio network didn't cost much. Perhaps the Gov and legislature think this will help to insulate them from any journalistic coverage or examinations, if the Trenton-based network is broken up??
 
Goldilocks94941 said:
Hard to see how this creates a New-Jersey centered broadcast service, when it's being sold off, split-up, and headquartered in Manhattan and Philly. Did they even give the NJN Network a chance to be fully self-supporting, or is this more of a politically-motivated quick sale?

This really does make New Jersey seme like little more than a set of two suburbs, instead of its own state. The radio network didn't cost much. Perhaps the Gov and legislature think this will help to insulate them from any journalistic coverage or examinations, if the Trenton-based network is broken up??
Click to expand...

Yup, a radio and TV network are all that is needed to get the state back in financial shape. I think they gave them 23 years to become self-supporting.
 
Scott Fybush announced on his Facebook feed that WHYY will pay $1 million for the 5 southern NJ stations (Atlantic City, Berlin, Bridgeton, Cape May Ct. House & Manahawkin) and WNYC will pay $1.8 million for the northern NJ stations (Trenton, Netcong, Sussex & Toms River)
 
Pirate_Jim said:
Scott Fybush announced on his Facebook feed that WHYY will pay $1 million for the 5 southern NJ stations (Atlantic City, Berlin, Bridgeton, Cape May Ct. House & Manahawkin) and WNYC will pay $1.8 million for the northern NJ stations (Trenton, Netcong, Sussex & Toms River)
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Kind of odd how they're splitting Ocean County; while it is OBVIOUS that Southern Ocean leans Philly and Northern Ocean leans NYC most radio decisions don't make that much sense!!!
 
NJN radio has always ignored South Jersey, even worse than NJN TV. With WHYY running them at least they may be .6% South Jersey oriented instead of .00000000021%
 
I wish BigTom could have bought WNJO and brought back the format that those call letters represent.
 
Just to put it in context, the $11 million this will save translates to $1.25 for every man woman and child. I'm sure the state will find some other place to waste it rather than actually refund that money to taxpayers.
 
TheBigA said:
Just to put it in context, the $11 million this will save translates to $1.25 for every man woman and child. I'm sure the state will find some other place to waste it rather than actually refund that money to taxpayers.
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And that's why I think anyone complaining about the "onerous" fees that keep NJN running is disingenuous. For a $2.50 (let's fold in the children) annual burden, you're willing to put people out on the street. That means:

- You have an overinflated sense of your NJN tax burden. Where's your outrage over half your federal income tax going out of the state? But for a coupla bucks, you don't mind taking away peoples' jobs.
- You have an agenda, and your opposition is ideological. One cannot argue rationally with a position that has no rational basis.
- You just go along with what your side says is right, in which case wouldn't you prefer following a football team?

This is a ginned up crisis, and it's wrong. While I'm curious to see how the new stewards of the frequency meet their NJ obligations, I'm also pretty sure it shouldn't have come to this.
 
From the WNYC Blog... it says a new public radio station for NJ is planned - but I can't help but think these signals would be used to help boost reception of WQXR.
Click to expand...

The WQXR signal, which is licensed to Newark, really can be disappointing in its reach in New Jersey, especially in North Jersey where there is no classical alternative. Using the two NJN stations in Netcong and Sussex would make a lot of sense.

But the problem is that for the WNYC NJ information effort to make any sense it needs all four of the stations it is buying to carry the Jersey centric news and information programs it plans to produce. Those programs are also likely to be carried on WNYC at some times so that NJ listeners in the Northeastern part of the state can hear them too.

Also, if the Trenton and Toms River stations WNYC is buying carried classical music they would be in direct competition with WWFM from Mercer County College with its classical network. WWFM has stations in both Trenton and in Toms River. And Princeton's WPRB offers some classical music to listeners in those areas too.

In the South, WHYY will be getting stations that really extend its natural audience for NPR programs. It now shares a political reporter in Trenton with WBGO, so possibly it will have incentive to increase its New Jersey coverage, and it will likely have access to any Jersey centric programs produced by WNYC too.

This plan is a whole lot better than many of the potential alternatives might have been, like selling all the radio stations to an out of state satellite fed religious broadcaster. And the new radio owners do good jobs in their own states, and it may all be for the best.

So, I guess the "anti-tax for any reason" penny pinchers can now go out and buy a beer to celebrate the fact that their "hard earned tax dollars" will no longer go to funding freely available news and information about their state, OOOPS! Gee, in some places a beer might cost them more than they would save on taxes in a couple of years. But since the beer is only for them, and benefits no one else too, that's the way they want the world to work as often as possible. Its all to often just more for them and less for everybody else that makes them happy.
 
TimeIsTight said:
So, I guess the "anti-tax for any reason" penny pinchers can now go out and buy a beer to celebrate the fact that their "hard earned tax dollars" will no longer go to funding freely available news and information about their state, OOOPS! Gee, in some places a beer might cost them more than they would save on taxes in a couple of years. But since the beer is only for them, and benefits no one else too, that's the way they want the world to work as often as possible. Its all to often just more for them and less for everybody else that makes them happy.
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Sad but, when you get right down to the nitty-gritty, this is very true.
 
Maybe NJ 101.5 could have picked up the slack by becoming more news focused. I noticed NJN was mostly NPR. I never really listened to NJN, but it should exist as a state resource. It wouldn't have been hard to convert the NJN stations to become member supported. The best news stations are member-supported non-commercial stations. They won't need to answer to advertisers and are free to criticize state politics and any business (unlike commercial stations which can't offend their advertisers). They exist to serve their members.

Now that the state won't support NJN, Governor Christie has more money to fly around in State Police helicopters.
 
Here's the reality: The governor gets a press release where he says the state is no longer in broadcasting.

But the fact is that as long as the state owns the licenses, it's still in broadcasting. And even though it sold the radio licenses, it still needs to oversee how WNYC and WHYY operates those stations.

So that means that the NJ Public Broadcasting Authority will still exist. It will still have an Exec Director overseeing that the stations do what the new operators promised. He will still have an office and a state car. He will still get benefits when he retires.

This is really a pile of political poo poo, and the people of NJ will still be paying money for something the Governor says is gone. And we've just made the non-profits in NY and PA a little richer and a lot more pwerful on the backs of NJ residents. Thanks a lot. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
 
NJN Radio was a waste, at any price. 99% of it was NPR fare that the state paid for and a simulcast of the NJN nightly TV news. WNYC might program it better than the state of NJ could ever do.

And if you need your tax money going to public radio fix, CPB still kicks in a good amount of change.

The one thing that baffles me is that the state is giving up $2 MILLION in tower revenue in this deal. How stupid is that? Lose the stations, keep the towers. Vertical real estate is very valuable these days.
 
WNTIRadio said:
WNYC might program it better than the state of NJ could ever do.
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And what does that say about New Jersey? Got to call in someone from another state. Same as it ever was.
 
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