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RVU explores sale of broadcast license, shift to online

Based on what I hear, shifting it to online won't change the listening habits of students. The medium isn't the reason they don't listen. This radio station, for better or worse, is has become more of a community station. It mainly plays music chosen by mostly non-student volunteer hosts. They have their own agendas, and not all of them are in line with those of the students. That's the state of college radio today. They can't get enough students to host shows.

Seems to me, earlier this year, the university had a house-cleaning of the non-student hosts. At that time, questions were asked about the role of the station within the university.

This university, like many in this country, is shifting its focus away from serving the broader community towards concentrating on their students and alumni. In the Buffalo group, it was just reported that the University of Buffalo is looking to move operations of their NPR affiliate, WBFO, to a community licensee that also owns the city's PBS station.

One downside to online distribution is the requirement to pay music royalties. They only pay publishing royalties on air, but must pay publishing and performer royalties online. That's why some colleges haven't gone that route. But apparently, the station is already streaming, so they know the costs involved.

But I believe that moving the station from on air to online in order to reach more students is ignoring the primary problem.
 
I wonder, how expensive the station is to operate? IOW, is this more about dropping the ongoing expense of operating the station, or about raising what money could be raised by selling it? IOW, would they be open to transferring the license, without consideration, to an appropriate party, or would they insist on a sale for $$$?

I guess I see a number of possible outcomes:

1. Nothing happens. VSC decides WRVU has a better future than their print publication & decides to keep it...
2. The license is transferred for little or no consideration to a community group. (WRFN?)
3. The license is transferred for below-market consideration to Nashville Public Radio, say, to serve as an all-classical or classical/AAA outlet.
4. The license is sold to the highest bidder. (almost certainly a "religious" organization)

The Rice University station cited in the link, and the University of Rochester's (NY) station, have been taken over by the local NPR affiliates. A college station in Nebraska recently sold to a religious broadcaster in the state. One in New Jersey went to a community group a few years ago.
 
w9wi said:
IOW, would they be open to transferring the license, without consideration, to an appropriate party, or would they insist on a sale for $$$?
Click to expand...

I think it's all about money. The license has no value beyond the cash it could raise because they say the students don't listen. They also say the students don't participate in the station. The board doesn't seem to care about preserving the format. That will be done online. They want to fund "media" operations through the sale of this license.

They specify "media," which leads me to believe they want to take this radio money and devote a big chunk of it to non-radio media, such as video and print. It's an interesting experiment, and other colleges will study it. The broadcasting/media curriculum at Vanderbilt is more academic than practical, so offering practical experience with the station isn't serving much of an instructional purpose.

I don't think Radio Free Nashville or Nashville Public Radio have the resources to buy this station at a fair market price. If either of them did, however, they would change the format and move operations off campus. In fact, I don't know of any entity that would simply buy the license and keep the current format. I suspect they're thinking of some form of religious broadcaster, perhaps a second station for WAY-FM.
 
TheBigA said:
They specify "media," which leads me to believe they want to take this radio money and devote a big chunk of it to non-radio media, such as video and print.
Click to expand...

Video and print, yes, but they are thinking more of Web-based media.

TheBigA said:
It's an interesting experiment, and other colleges will study it.
Click to expand...

Vandy actually is coming late to the game with this one. So many other colleges and universities have sold or investigated in the past couple of years.

And yes, the Student Communication Board says it is looking for the income that could be raise by the sale. You will not see the license being transferred to a community group or public radio for little money. This isn't about simply shutting down operating costs. This is about replacing funding that used to come in from sales of advertising in The Hustler and other traditional media radio streams, and in fact, set the board up for several years to come.
 
I think there's more to this than practical application. This is one man's third attempt (I think that's the number-the two other episodes were at others colleges) to raise his credability within the University by suggesting this idea. It is not going to happen. If nothing else, Vanderbilt is so full of power struggles that the idea will get beaten up and bogged down for three or four years.
The dropped.

Remember the "profits" of this potential sell go to the students, not the college proper - so Vanderbilt University itself reaps no profit. That alone, seems IMO, to almost guarantee that the University will end up convincing the 5 voting members (three faculty/two students - I seem to recall) that retaining the radio station is best for the overall image of Vanderbilt and nothing more.

I bet the station will get more students interested in working there than shifts available. Big question is what will happen if this happens TO NOCKs great JAZZ SHOW.



By the way --- what is WRVU's "format?"
 
TheBigA said:
Based on what I hear, shifting it to online won't change the listening habits of students. The medium isn't the reason they don't listen. This radio station, for better or worse, is has become more of a community station. It mainly plays music chosen by mostly non-student volunteer hosts. They have their own agendas, and not all of them are in line with those of the students. That's the state of college radio today. They can't get enough students to host shows.

Seems to me, earlier this year, the university had a house-cleaning of the non-student hosts. At that time, questions were asked about the role of the station within the university.

This university, like many in this country, is shifting its focus away from serving the broader community towards concentrating on their students and alumni. In the Buffalo group, it was just reported that the University of Buffalo is looking to move operations of their NPR affiliate, WBFO, to a community licensee that also owns the city's PBS station.

One downside to online distribution is the requirement to pay music royalties. They only pay publishing royalties on air, but must pay publishing and performer royalties online. That's why some colleges haven't gone that route. But apparently, the station is already streaming, so they know the costs involved.

But I believe that moving the station from on air to online in order to reach more students is ignoring the primary problem.
Click to expand...

Well BigA, looks like you and I both were wrong about the student involvement --- there's 76 students in the "training" program as we speak. Looks like pretty decent interest for a dead entity. :)
 
From what I can see looking over the academic offerings at Vanderbilt, there's no Radio-TV major, as there is at Belmont or MTSU. There's a Communications major, but it's more of a speech and interpersonal relations major. This chairman of the board guy is an English professor. So there is no practical course of study that I can see at this college where the students need a place to practice what they've learned. That's where the faculty is coming from. But if the shows go after listener support, and that's where the operating funds come from, it'll be interesting if they can maintain that level of support when they move from on air to online.
 
The more I learn about the RUV situation, the more it appears as a one man show in favor of selling the signal off. So far, there is virtually no support for this to happen and huge support
against it. Not that school politics won't prevail and it sells behind our backs, but I find it wildly
amazing that one person has managed to create such a battle. BigA, "the faculty" isn't coming from anywhere. It's sadly one moron hellbent on hating college radio with an agenda.
 
Interesting that the station website is seeking to incite some listener support to keep the station.

As I said, the professor's premise is that students aren't listening to terrestrial media, so they should concentrate their media efforts online. My point is that the medium is not the reason the students don't listen to WRVU. They won't listen to it even if it moves on line. But perhaps fewer non-students will hang around if the signal goes away. This seems to be his way of getting rid of the non-students.
 
Yeah, this is really interesting. Obviously, there's a strong movement from the community and all those great folks that had shifts over the decades at 91 Rock. So, it's like nostalgia being taken away. I am not sure that the bone he has with non-students having shifts is a huge factor here, but you may be right. I also assume that he's unable to change that since he can't control the station directly, but it sounds like a small minded, pin-headed control freak trying to bully his way into his vision. Being totally removed from the situation, again, I could be wrong on that. But this guy has a track record of pulling this same attempt off at Tulane and elsewhere. He certainly isn't silenced or afraid to get into the fray. I just hate the fact that basically, all of our local college radio stations (well, WFSK, WMOT, WNAZ and now WRVU) are all in some state of flux. Some of it is the economy and some of it is the future of radio.

Maybe they should just cease all media next. Then probably the football team. (Although they played a good game against Ole Miss last Sat.) :)
 
Tibbs2 said:
I just hate the fact that basically, all of our local college radio stations (well, WFSK, WMOT, WNAZ and now WRVU) are all in some state of flux. Some of it is the economy and some of it is the future of radio.
Click to expand...

The aspect I find wrong is to blame it on students preference of internet over terrestrial. I'd like to see documented research for the Vanderbilt student body that confirms the issue is the medium. It should be easy to come up with numbers of hits on the web site and compare that with ratings, especially now that Nashville has PPM.
 
What is interesting is the station has never been big on campus. Even in it's heyday, which Tibbs mentions "91 Rock" it was a major influence on the music in this town breaking artists that may have never been broken. It was involved with the community and the community supported it. (Novel concept)

Unfortunately the folks responsible for the future of the station were either not living in this town or were not even born to know what the station has meant to Nashville. There is no representation of the station on the board however the students that are on it have strong ties to The Hustler. I see newspaper racks stacked on campus with papers that go untouched. I guess as long as you print them, that is a number in the plus column showing readership?

Nock
 
Nock said:
There is no representation of the station on the board however the students that are on it have strong ties to The Hustler.
Click to expand...

That is a fundamental problem in the structure of the station. From what I've read, there is funding from the student activity fee, which is fine. But there needs to be student representation on the board. I've run several student run college stations, and we always had students on the board. Then again, I don't know the management struture. I've always had students in management roles. One student station had a Radio Council, with students elected to positions on that council.

At the same time, it's imperative that the station endeavor to provide programming that highlights the university in some way. Do they broadcast college sports? Most college stations provide a student broadcast that is separate from the commercial broadcast. If the college doesn't feel they're getting anything from the station, they'll be less likely to support it.
 
Yeah saw that after I posted. What I am curious about is they have filed nothing since 2004 and the board rotates yearly?

Nock
 
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