WERS (Emerson College) seeks morning on-air host

[notlob]

From "Community and Independent College Radio" - https://www.facebook.com/groups/148693875252110/315285831926246/

To my knowledge this is the first WERS has publicly solicited for a paid non-student on-air position, Maybe they are going commercial, like WHRB. Maybe they are going after the AAA neo-Nashville pop singer-songwriter audience. In any event it will be interesting to watch how this shakes out.

WERS Boston (Emerson College) seeks morning on-air host
On-Air Host is responsible for hosting the WERS morning show Monday through Friday, partnering with Emerson student volunteer hosts on a rotating basis as determined by station management. The host is responsible for creating, directing and producing all local content aired during the morning show, not including music and news. However, host is responsible for airing music according to parame…
https://emerson.peopleadmin.com/postings/5771

 

[Eli Polonsky]

To my knowledge this is the first WERS has publicly solicited for a paid non-student on-air position, Maybe they are going commercial, like WHRB. Maybe they are going after the AAA neo-Nashville pop singer-songwriter audience. In any event it will be interesting to watch how this shakes out.

As far as I know, I don't think that WERS can get a commercial license. I think that all frequencies below 92 on the FM band are still exclusively assigned for non-commercial use. Though there are some non-commercial stations above 92 among the commercial stations, I believe that the converse is still not permitted as far as I know.

However, even as a non-comm they can still seek to boost their ratings with a professional host in morning drive, possibly resulting in increased underwriting, fundraising donations, and other revenue.

 

[w9wi]

As far as I know, I don't think that WERS can get a commercial license. I think that all frequencies below 92 on the FM band are still exclusively assigned for non-commercial use. Though there are some non-commercial stations above 92 among the commercial stations, I believe that the converse is still not permitted as far as I know.

You are correct: stations operating below 92MHz are not allowed to sell airtime. (although there are ways to legally do things that come awfully close)

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

It would have made sense if WERS-88.9 had long had community people working alongside Emerson students at various times of the week.

My guess is that they may to get "professional", probably with a Triple-A format, to get funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Emerson may eventually decide to have the students just go "on the air" via a streaming Internet station, while making 88.9 a CPB-funded professional operation.

I believe that for a noncommercial station to qualify for CPB grants, I think they need at least a half-dozen "paid" employees.

In short, WERS will become Boston's fifth public radio station (counting NPR news/information WGBH-89.7 and WBUR-90.9, folk/acoustic WUMB-91.9 and classical WCRB-99.5).

 

[faderraider]

hmmm, wonder what it pays?

 

[WNTIRadio]

WERS already has 6 full time employees... GM, OM, underwriting director, membership coordinator, chief engineer and marketing/promotions director.

CPB money is about the air product. It can't be student produced.

The college gives the station plenty of funding, if you're in doubt, look at the studios they broadcast out of on Tremont Street. When I was doing some contract work there, I would always tell the students that most likely, this is the nicest, most well-equipped place you'll ever work in.

 

[radiorama1]

There you go Lauro, an on-air position! And for Morning Drive too... time to send your stuff over.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

Emerson may eventually decide to have the students just go "on the air" via a streaming Internet station, while making 88.9 a CPB-funded professional operation.

Emerson has had a separate fully student-run, student-programmed streaming internet station WECB for many years. Before the internet, it was on carrier-current 640 AM in Emerson College buildings for many decades (and could be heard in spots on car radios near the buildings), and later on WECB also added very low-power ("leaky cable") FM on 99.9 in Emerson buildings. As far as I know, WECB has given up on low-power radio broadcasting and is now only streaming online, and is also on an Emerson cable TV channel on campus.

 

[WNTIRadio]

WECB is run solely by the SGA. It's an entirely separate entity, doesn't receive any funding from the school.

The only thing it has in common with WERS is that its studio occupies space in the main radio station offices.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

I remember a very brief period, maybe a few weeks, around 1970 when WECB illegally boosted its power on their old 640 AM and I could hear it faintly, though just well enough to tell what song was playing and what the DJ's were saying, out in Newton where I grew up seven miles west of Boston. It must have been coming in quite well throughout the Back Bay and Kenmore area at that time.

 

[vmorrison]

WERS will never go totally professional. It would be very hard for the nations only College dedicated solely to the study of Communications not to have a FM radio station available to students.

They have been trying to secure sponsors and underwriters with some success for the last three or four years.

I think the opportunity to work with a professional broadcaster on a regular basis will actually benefit the student co-host.

 

[4CX1000A]

From "Community and Independent College Radio" - https://www.facebook.com/groups/148693875252110/315285831926246/

To my knowledge this is the first WERS has publicly solicited for a paid non-student on-air position, Maybe they are going commercial, like WHRB.

WHRB has no paid staff; it is commercial, in that it has a commercial license and sells advertising, but it is an all-volunteer operation. You may hear one or two alumni on the air, but they too are volunteers.

 

[WLYNWAZNgm]

As a graduate student at Emerson in 1979-80, I was involved with then-carrier current WECB 640. It was a boatload of fun - what I like to call "Screamer Top 40". Using a format clock, it was a really good training ground for commercial radio. (back then, the school was housed in a bunch of brownstones near Beacon and Berkeley Streets in Back Bay) I approached WERS when I first arrived, about doing an airshift there (having already done 4 years of college radio at WMUA at UMass, Amherst). They were so elitist and so snotty, at the time, I just walked away. Their attitude was that they were a big-time force in radio. (most of the students were from out of state) Dude, I grew up in the Boston area - I never knew of anybody who listened to WERS, until I went to school there!

 

[pariho2013]

As a graduate student at Emerson in 1979-80, I was involved with then-carrier current WECB 640. It was a boatload of fun - what I like to call "Screamer Top 40". Using a format clock, it was a really good training ground for commercial radio. (back then, the school was housed in a bunch of brownstones near Beacon and Berkeley Streets in Back Bay) I approached WERS when I first arrived, about doing an airshift there (having already done 4 years of college radio at WMUA at UMass, Amherst). They were so elitist and so snotty, at the time, I just walked away. Their attitude was that they were a big-time force in radio. (most of the students were from out of state) Dude, I grew up in the Boston area - I never knew of anybody who listened to WERS, until I went to school there!

I will say there was ONE show I listened to pretty faithfully on WERS....back in 1980s when they did the show "Fusebox" from (I believe) 1-4PM M-F.....That's where I got my fill of Jon Luc Ponty, Pat Metheny, Weather Report et al of the day....

Other than that...no, I did not listen to 88.9

 

[vmorrison]

As a graduate student at Emerson in 1979-80, I was involved with then-carrier current WECB 640. It was a boatload of fun - what I like to call "Screamer Top 40". Using a format clock, it was a really good training ground for commercial radio. (back then, the school was housed in a bunch of brownstones near Beacon and Berkeley Streets in Back Bay) I approached WERS when I first arrived, about doing an airshift there (having already done 4 years of college radio at WMUA at UMass, Amherst). They were so elitist and so snotty, at the time, I just walked away. Their attitude was that they were a big-time force in radio. (most of the students were from out of state) Dude, I grew up in the Boston area - I never knew of anybody who listened to WERS, until I went to school there!

I did a Saturday night music show on ECB my freshman year. We thought it was a big deal that ECB was an ABC Network affiliate. For a carrier current station it was well run everyone tried to be very professional and have fun. By second semester I moved on to ERS. I also had regular stringing gigs for a number of stations outside of Boston. One afternoon the Sports Director at WTAG called WERS looking for me as I gave him that number to reach me so I could file a report. After I got on the phone he said what is WERS?. I had to talk to 2 people before I could talk to you what attitude I thought I was calling CBS in New York.

 

[maradiogeek]

The qualifications for this job are very interesting. They’re looking for someone with “5-10 years major market experience… familiarity with AAA…some experience as a Morning Show host…and a high level of familiarity with the Boston market?” Sounds like this position is earmarked for someone local who’s out of a job. Any guesses who this might be?

 

[raccoonradio]

>> ECB was an ABC Network affiliate. For a carrier current station it was well run

WMWM was carrier current "WSSC 640 kc The Viking Voice" until 1976 when it went to FM.
I started in March of 81 and at the time we actually were part of the ABC-FM network. I'm not sure
if we were officially part of not--supposedly we had some of line patched into WLYN-FM,
later WFNX. The 'casts were at :40 past the hour. I was pretty sure we still had it by
'83 or '84 or so, as I was on Sunday night and one 'cast had the not surprising news that
Reagan was running for re-election. I don't think we had it much beyond that point but
WMWM did have "ABC-FM" with PSAs inserted in the ad break.
Though looking up Cumulus Radio Networks on Wikipedia leads me to believe maybe we had
the ABC "Rock" or "Direction" feed at :45 past? Hmm, thought it was '40.

>>Two additional news networks, "Rock" and "Direction," which carried news at :45 past the hour, were added on January 4, 1982.

(And speaking of Reagan and news, on 3/30/81, a couple weeks after my first show, the UPI
teletype at our then-studios in the basement of the Sullivan Bldg started going crazy with beeps and printing and I was there. It was news of the assassination attempt on Reagan.
I can't recall if we aired ABC news coverage but we probably read the bulletins on air.
Press secretary James Brady was originally thought to have been killed.)

Wiki.: >>All three networks erroneously reported that Brady had died.

But he was paralyzed.

 

[aaronread]

WERS currently has a 1.3/156000 6+ rating. Not terribly great, but not chicken feed, either.

As has been mentioned, there is absolutely no way WERS can be a commercial station. Even if they somehow moved from 88.9 to the commercial band, they'd still be a non-commercial license; commercial licenses can only be created through the allocations and auction process. WERS could SELL 88.9 and buy a commercial license, but that would be a massive money-loser for them and make little sense considering their mission of education (one of the very few college radio stations that actually has a formal mission of education with a curriculum backing it up).

It's also exceedingly unlikely that WERS could receive CPB funding. It's not a staffing issue; you can have just one FT or FTE staff member and still qualify for a certain grade of funding from CPB. It's an issue with the fact that WBUR, WGBH and - I think - WUMB already receive CPB funding. CPB doesn't fund that much "redundant" service in the same region.

I have no inside line, but to me the logic on this is kinda obvious: WERS is almost certainly revenue-negative to the overall Emerson enterprise. They make money off the "Live Music Week" annual fundraiser, and also off selling underwriting, but I'll bet it's still revenue-negative. IIRC all their student manager positions are paid, and there's several FT professional positions directly (and a few more indirectly) assigned to WERS. That adds up.

Now that's been acceptable because of the educational mission, but like many private colleges, times are very tight. Unlike many colleges, that would just sell the license, take the money and run...Emerson is realizing that if they put a little money into it, very strategically, they can increase listenership to the point where it becomes at least revenue-neutral, if not revenue-positive. There's no reason they can't; the signal is great, the facilities are top-notch, and the programming ain't bad now. Put in a solid morning person and I could see them snagging some real audience.

Sounds like this position is earmarked for someone local who’s out of a job.

I wouldn't say that the job description is all that tailored to a specific person. But I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if WERS/Emerson didn't have a couple somebodies in mind already. Undoubtedly, though, they're casting a wide net and seeing who applies. They'd be crazy not to given how many professionals in the industry are Emerson grads.

 

[frnkp2000]

Not sure about the "wide net" here. They are requiring 5-10 years experience in a top 10 market?? Who would apply for this? At a college station? Why?? I just hope it pays well! All my donations to WERS over the years hopefully will pay off! (Class of '84 here!)

And, WLYNGM, you are absolutely right. I had the same "experience" when I went to "audition" there as a sophomore.

 

[stevensonair]

I'd imagine the people that would apply for it are people who appreciate the format and value of the programming, and would enjoy the role of mentoring future broadcasters.