And with so few profitable format holes in most markets, a station that's been locked for many years into a format that Madison Avenue now believes appeals to listeners reluctant to respond to advertising probably won't get much interest when put on the market -- certainly not from anyone looking to get into a bidding war with EMF, which rakes in so much money from the weak-minded and superstitious that it need never worry about losing such a war.
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WBRU's Sale Coming Soon
- Thread starter Jacko
- Start date
And with so few profitable format holes in most markets, a station that's been locked for many years into a format that Madison Avenue now believes appeals to listeners reluctant to respond to advertising probably won't get much interest when put on the market -- certainly not from anyone looking to get into a bidding war with EMF, which rakes in so much money from the weak-minded and superstitious that it need never worry about losing such a war.
The EMF business model is privately funded, so it is participating in the free market. They just have a different customer base.
And as I've stated before, I'd rather have the worst of iHeart's or Cumulus's programming - Bobby Bones, Elvis Duran, Nash Nights Live, Premium Choice all the time - than K-Love.
From these very boards: http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?600626-K-LOVE-FAT-CAT-GETTING-RICH-OFF-DONOR-DOLLARS. And even if EMF is privately funded, they rely on a completely different model than commercial stations. They don't rely on ratings at all. They could have no one listening and it wouldn't matter. That would not be the case for a commercial station.
From what I can see WBRU didn't rely on ratings either, since they don't appear in them.
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They probably chose not to subscribe. But they did middle of the road-ish back in the pre-PPM Arbitron days.
I've said this on many local radio boards, and I'll say it again. Colleges and universities are all looking very carefully at the money they spend on broadcast radio. Most private schools have determined that owning broadcast radio is not part of their core mission any more. So they're looking to sell those stations, or at the minimum get rid of the expense. EMF and other religious broadcasters know that, and they're buying a lot of great properties at good prices. The way to prevent that from happening is to make those stations financially independent. That's what they've done at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. They could have done it at Brown, but clearly the station alumni weren't as committed as they were at the other Ivy schools.
I always wondered why schools that didn't have journalism/broadcasting degree programs even bothered with radio at all. A very expensive extracurricular activity to maintain.
At one time, that wasn't a problem. Schools were interested in doing community outreach, promoting the school, their faculty, their research, and their athletic activities beyond the campus on their own broadcast facility. The expense was comparatively nominal, they had endowments and donors to support it, and it was another way to pitch the school to new students. Today, there are lots of other, cheaper ways to do that kind of outreach.
They were 9th in 2015 revenue in the market, and averaged about 9th in 12+ and 8th in 25-54 audience.
Since EMF is funded by listeners, not grants, they require a certain audience level to get the donations needed to sustain and grow the organization.
So they definitely do need to have a significant number of people listening, as audience size matters since that is where the funds come from.
But again, the funds don't have to come from within market. Moreover, national donations do not equal listeners in individual markets.
R
Rick Rose 2.0
Guest
With K LOVE being a national Christian AC format, that spreads the cost of programming over hundreds of stations they are still mindful of where the support comes from and if the signal is not drawing enough donations to cover the cost of running they tend to dispose of it. Many markets could not support the format with a local station but with K LOVE they now have access to the music.
They posted "losses" for '13, '14, and '15. Those are 3 years that they deserved to lose money. Plenty of listeners complained that the station sounded like it was being programmed by somebody's mom. Check the posts from that time period on this board and Radio Insight. The station's problems have always centered on the decisions secretly made by Brown Broadcasting Services, without student input. Apparently, the only criteria to be appointed to that board is to be a complete radio dilettante. I will deal with my observations in a general post to others about this topic. FWIW, I have never met one K-Love listener among the many Christians that I have asked over the years.
I appreciate the mountains of excellent radio wisdom and experience that you have always shared with us and I very much thank you for that! I also thank you to the max for providing www.americanradiohistory.com! I cannot bless you enough for the education I've received from your incredible efforts in radio!
Two questions I would like to ask. 1) How much do you believe WBRU could sell for? 2) How much do you believe WWBB is currently worth?
Thank you!
December 30, 1967 Billboard Magazine, page 22, has a brief article by WBRU's Paul Payton regarding their plans to provide 3 hours daily of progressive rock Monday through Saturday. Mr. Payton was a solid radio man. WBRU would never had existed as a rock station if not for his tireless efforts to establish the format! He started a program on a local 250 watt 1450 AM entitled "The Rock Garden" where he played progressive rock nightly. Meanwhile efforts to ramp up rock on WBRU floundered in the face of strong opposition from management. What cheer, Netop.
Jump ahead a half century. Management wants to sell WBRU to create a successful on-line "workshop". This "workshop" is an arts and crafts foray into obscurity. They lost around 60 Large three years in a row. Why? They (management) refused to heed their audience and the students who do listen to their audience, open the microphones and play the tunes people tune in to hear. Let us look at "workshop". WBRU has been a legitimate hands on "workshop". The students learn first hand how to operate a business in the real world. The station has faced a number of serious challenges from a number of serious competitors and is still standing! WPRO-FM, WHJY "The home of rock and roll", WDGE and then WDGF too. Hows about a 3 1/2 year battle with WFNX and their superior signal and Phoenix newspaper support? I'll be back!
Jump ahead a half century. Management wants to sell WBRU to create a successful on-line "workshop". This "workshop" is an arts and crafts foray into obscurity. They lost around 60 Large three years in a row. Why? They (management) refused to heed their audience and the students who do listen to their audience, open the microphones and play the tunes people tune in to hear. Let us look at "workshop". WBRU has been a legitimate hands on "workshop". The students learn first hand how to operate a business in the real world. The station has faced a number of serious challenges from a number of serious competitors and is still standing! WPRO-FM, WHJY "The home of rock and roll", WDGE and then WDGF too. Hows about a 3 1/2 year battle with WFNX and their superior signal and Phoenix newspaper support? I'll be back!
That was then. This is now. And the problem now is that rock -- other than classic rock and the occasional rock-ish song that makes CHR playlists -- is struggling at radio. Current rock is hopelessly fragmented, and advertisers don't like the demographics of alternative/modern rock listeners (not enough money, very cynical about advertising), so any station in those formats is at a real disadvantage in that it can't possibly overcome advertiser reluctance by attracting a big listenership. The result is marginal ratings with music advertisers don't want to support, no matter who's programming it, an alt-rock hipster or your mother. Sell! Sell! Sell!
The station exists for Brown students. The students want the station. A student attending the Fall and Spring semester pays $68 Large for books, tuition, dorm and $1,000 month stipend. They have a right to keep the station. That is its purpose. Many WBRU alumni have gone on to make incredible careers and coin thanks to the opportunities provided by their WBRU experience. If the kids want to sell it, fine! If the kids want to keep it I'm going to fight for it just as much as I did 50 years ago.
How would you feel if the station changed to more rhythmic forms of music, which are what a growing percentage of the college-age audience is listening to? Or even programmed Latino and other ethnic music to cater to an increasingly diverse student body? Or is a rock-only WBRU, stuck in the past while pretending it's in the present, all you can accept?
Duh! WBRU completely changes its format every Sunday! You can not find any better rhythmic sounds than our Brothers and Sisters provide on the 360! WBRU is where its coming from! Rock or rhythmic. 360 stays with us!
I've heard this many times from many college stations, most recently Rice and Vanderbilt. "The kids," as you put it, are not in a position to make that demand. Even though they pay the fee, they're not responsible. You state there were three years when the station lost money. There were many opportunities during three years for "the kids" to take matters into their own hands, and maybe open the door to listener contributions. Did that happen? Even if it did, there needs to be an adult who represents "the kids" in this matter.
In any case it's too late. You are fortunate that there's an LPFM, and the Brown students will be able to listen to that. It's much better than what the Rice and Vanderbilt students got.
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