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Ken Berryhill Laments Sale Of WRVU
- Thread starter DToTheJ
- Start date
Tibbs2 said:
Ha! Not much for me to say, other than I agree with the past two or three posts.
I was at a student run radio station at one time, and we invited the college president to the studio every few months for a call-in show, promoted in the school paper. He knew us all by name, and wrote us recommendations. But the biggest thing we did was promote the school's sports teams with lots of exclusive programs, far exceeding anything the commercial stations did. Sports equals money in the university world. We more than earned our keep with that stuff. I went back to the station recently, and they are still doing the same stuff we did, and they're still student run. Smart kids.
Sounds like a good plan that worked. I had similar situation with our President. Although once I was nearly arrested for using sound effects (old albums complete with skips) of hitting a golf ball followed by breaking glass and claiming to be doing a live remote in the same President's front yard. Innocent by today's standards. Is that station from your college days still the same format?
I wonder how many college stations are of a similar mindset in today's wild radio world.
P.S. Back then it was pretty cool to be one of the team on the air. Nowdays, I am not so sure.
I wonder how many college stations are of a similar mindset in today's wild radio world.
P.S. Back then it was pretty cool to be one of the team on the air. Nowdays, I am not so sure.
I see your point. I don't know if a Vandy President would come over to hype the sports cause in order to reach the masses, or give posture to support a sports program. It might have been a more self serving cause frankly and different presidents of schools do radio appearances for different reasons, but mostly respond to a request from a close advisor on staff.
Or put another way, I doubt the President(s) had the station on in their office all day to hear another 10 in a row.
It's easy to isolate a hour presidential appearance every now and then from a president a few administrations back and suggest it was good school PR. But just like a real radio station needs more than a strong morning show to succeed, the overall impression of WRVU had so many inconsistencies from well meaning people who did not continue with a real radio career, frankly, that it's hard to translate a basically cult following into a growing program.
Bottom line: Vanderbilt isn't broke by any means. If the powers that be felt the radio station was helping the cause they wouldn't have agreed to dump it. If they were wrong the current team didn't impress the school with their efforts it seems. Otherwise, this has probably been coming for years and now those most affected, too close to see another side of the story, are the most surprised.
Or put another way, I doubt the President(s) had the station on in their office all day to hear another 10 in a row.
It's easy to isolate a hour presidential appearance every now and then from a president a few administrations back and suggest it was good school PR. But just like a real radio station needs more than a strong morning show to succeed, the overall impression of WRVU had so many inconsistencies from well meaning people who did not continue with a real radio career, frankly, that it's hard to translate a basically cult following into a growing program.
Bottom line: Vanderbilt isn't broke by any means. If the powers that be felt the radio station was helping the cause they wouldn't have agreed to dump it. If they were wrong the current team didn't impress the school with their efforts it seems. Otherwise, this has probably been coming for years and now those most affected, too close to see another side of the story, are the most surprised.
Nock said:
It's their station. They can do with it what they want. Willing buyer, willing seller. Unless the University wants to replace or overrule the VSC, the deal goes through. Just like at Rice and USF. The folks at Rice took it to the FCC, but their appeal was denied. The FCC doesn't deny sales based on preserving a format. The rest of the issue is internal Vanderbilt politics.
DToTheJ said:The fact that there's a Vice Chancellor of Athletics implies that there's also a Chancellor of Athletics higher on the Vandy tree. Do they have a Speaker of the Gym, too? :
No, Vandy no longer has such a post for sports. Only school in the SEC that doesn't even have an Athletic Director...
Without meaning to sound condesending, letting the athletic guru on once a week gave him a chance to spin stories and devote massive amounts of time to a product that they thought deserved more attention.
Most sports stations here, including tv sports shows, just aren't going to waste an enormous amount of time lingering on Vandy this or that. From the Titans to the Predators, and UT to Kentucky with some Alabama and Auburn thrown in, Vandy might have presumed they deserved enormous amounts of media coverage only to learn they had to have their own station to do it.
We've beat this to death but look at this picture and I don't have numbers..how much revenue does Vanderbilt Hospital do annually? It's in excess of 200 million. Vanderbilt Univeristy? Any guess on revenue from students + investment revenue from the endowments?
I have a feeling in that big money picture there was more book value in the Vanderbilt parking garages than in a radio station only a few thousand bothered to listen to for any length of time each week. If i were a betting man I'd guess they already have that space allocated for something else...maybe office supplies. After seeing the photo of the equipment in the Tennessean article, it looked like a dorm room vs a professional facility.
Most sports stations here, including tv sports shows, just aren't going to waste an enormous amount of time lingering on Vandy this or that. From the Titans to the Predators, and UT to Kentucky with some Alabama and Auburn thrown in, Vandy might have presumed they deserved enormous amounts of media coverage only to learn they had to have their own station to do it.
We've beat this to death but look at this picture and I don't have numbers..how much revenue does Vanderbilt Hospital do annually? It's in excess of 200 million. Vanderbilt Univeristy? Any guess on revenue from students + investment revenue from the endowments?
I have a feeling in that big money picture there was more book value in the Vanderbilt parking garages than in a radio station only a few thousand bothered to listen to for any length of time each week. If i were a betting man I'd guess they already have that space allocated for something else...maybe office supplies. After seeing the photo of the equipment in the Tennessean article, it looked like a dorm room vs a professional facility.
onetake said:
"The Vice Chancellor Show" is not a sports program; rather, it is a show where the vice chancellor plays a variety of R&B music.
To clear up three points in this paragraph:
1) Vanderbilt had no involvement in the sale of the 91.1 FM license - the license is held by the VSC board, and the decision to divest the license and develop a media endowment was made exclusively by that board, with no involvement from the chancellor or university officials.
2) Because VSC is independent from the university, VSC pays rent to the university for the WRVU studio. It's not going anywhere, and will surely not be re-allocated to office supplies.
3) The picture of Berryhill in front of the mics in the main WRVU studio is nine years old - there have been many improvements since then. Last year, VSC constructed a new mixed-use WRVU/VTV/multimedia studio in a high-traffic area of the student center. As further investments in WRVU are needed, the board will make them happen.
If there are any further questions, feel free to PM me.
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