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Penn State considering transferring WPSU to WHYY, Inc.

R

Rollo-Smokes

The university's board of trustees are meeting today (9/11) and Friday (9/12) to discuss the possibility. Both radio and TV, it appears.

radio.wpsu.org

Penn State considering transferring WPSU to Philadelphia public media outlet WHYY

Penn State is considering transferring WPSU to Philadelphia public media outlet WHYY, and the university’s board of trustees is expected to review the proposal during its meetings Thursday and Friday, according to sources close to the board.
radio.wpsu.org radio.wpsu.org
 
I wonder if there is any reason the current FCC would not allow this license to be transferred which would probably force WPSU off the air.
 
I think WHYY would keep WPSU's facilities on the air, just like WFYI in Indianapolis has been keeping WBAA (Purdue's AM & FM) on the air for the past few years.
 
The stations lost almost $2 million in CPB money, mostly for TV. I had a feeling WHYY depended on some university money to make this happen. I didn't think it would be $17 million over 5 years. But it's not a big surprise.
 
To put it in context, the State College MSA is about 240K, which puts it at around market #178, similar to Morgantown WV.

Lot of cow pasture, not many people. Hard to run a radio station based on listener support.
 
It sounds like they might entertain a different offer:

Another committee member, Anthony Lubrano, called it a “difficult decision” before joining the unanimous vote against the proposal.

“I don’t think the way this deal is structured maximizes value to this institution,” he said. “And I think we need to do a little bit more exploratory work before I’m comfortable approving a deal like this.”
Click to expand...

Certainly shutting it down and putting 44 people out of work doesn't "maximize value" to anyone.
 
TheBigA said:
The stations lost almost $2 million in CPB money, mostly for TV. I had a feeling WHYY depended on some university money to make this happen. I didn't think it would be $17 million over 5 years. But it's not a big surprise.
Click to expand...

What is interesting is that WKPS, the college station run by students at 90.7 mHz, will not be affected by this.
 
ted chittenden said:
What is interesting is that WKPS, the college station run by students at 90.7 mHz, will not be affected by this.
Click to expand...

The issue in this is the expense. A student run 100-watt station has very limited expense. The budget for WPSU is in the millions. According to the article, it's losing money. Not unusual for a non-profit station. Instead of fixing the expenses, which is what most public stations are doing, they're shutting it down completely.
 
I grew up in rural PA, first receiving WPSX (prior to WPSU) via aerial on my television then subsequently it was added to the cable system within Clearfield, PA. It was one of the vital television stations within our rural area. While I will not pretend to know all the expense and logistics of operating the television station, for me it is a sad state of affairs that Penn State is looking to offload it.

Penn State is considering or has made the decision to close down their DuBois, PA campus. I imagine (no facts to back it up) that they are loosing money from the brick and mortar to online students and with the loss of the CPB funds, this is yet another financial decision that the PSU board has had to succumb to.
 
Here's an example of another college radio station, this one at Baylor, that is also facing a major funding crisis:

www.insideradio.com

Waco’s KWBU Faces Funding Crisis, Could Go Silent By Year’s End.

Public radio station KWBU-FM in Waco is fighting for survival after losing nearly a third of its $1.2 million budget. With Baylor University and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting both
www.insideradio.com www.insideradio.com

The intent of the public broadcasting act was to professionalize non-commercial radio. That's why they set up the CPB funding structure, that required a level of staffing in order to receive funding. Now that funding has been pulled, but the expenses that were mandated are still there. The way to handle this is to cut expenses. That means cutting staff. That's what WHYY proposed with WPSU. The expenses are unsustainable without outside funding.
 
TheBigA said:
Here's an example of another college radio station, this one at Baylor, that is also facing a major funding crisis:

www.insideradio.com

Waco’s KWBU Faces Funding Crisis, Could Go Silent By Year’s End.

Public radio station KWBU-FM in Waco is fighting for survival after losing nearly a third of its $1.2 million budget. With Baylor University and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting both
www.insideradio.com www.insideradio.com
Click to expand...
Baylor has an ace in the hole as KWBU is on 103.3. They could sell it to anyone, who would then convert it to a commercial license. The station won’t go silent, at least not for long.
 
Shocking that a public university would rather turn in the licenses of their PBS and NPR affiliate stations rather than find a way to keep them on the air. $17 million too much? Keep negotiating with WHYY over the dollar amount or how many staff members need to be kept on. If the board of this university doesn't see the value in the news and information that a PBS and NPR affiliate brings to the community then I doubt their commitment to higher education as a whole.
The current regime in Washington is attacking higher education as a whole, starting at the fringes such as cutting funding for public media.
Would they rather see the FM frequency snapped up by one of the nationwide religious networks? How does that promote their (Penn State's) mission? If nothing else simulcast WKPS on it to keep the license out of the hands of EMF or whoever. Tower rent and 1.7 Kw ERP should be affordable.
As far as I can tell, the TV license is an educational allotment and has somewhat less value to the religious broadcasters- I don't see Daystar or TBN, with the scandal driven turmoil they are in, going on a buying spree anytime soon.

One thing is sure- I'm done rooting for the Nittany Lions!
 
valvashon said:
Shocking that a public university would rather turn in the licenses of their PBS and NPR affiliate stations rather than find a way to keep them on the air.
Click to expand...

Based on the news article, they seem to be looking at this as a for-profit enterprise. It isn't.

As I said, other stations are laying off staff to deal with funding cuts. This is an extreme response.
 
The only way EMF or someone else would take over the FM is if Penn State sells the license to them. If they cancel it, there's no current window open with the FCC for someone else to apply for it is there? Maybe Lance can clarify.
 
JJSPC said:
The only way EMF or someone else would take over the FM is if Penn State sells the license to them. If they cancel it, there's no current window open with the FCC for someone else to apply for it is there? Maybe Lance can clarify.
Click to expand...

They haven't actually said they're turning in the license. Just that they're "winding down operations." To me, that says they're open to other offers that don't involve the university spending any more money. Whatever that is.
 


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