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Will RIPR's Newport Station Be Built In Time?
- Thread starter reelyreal
- Start date
How old is the CP? I'm guessing that the CP was applied for before the deal was made with the Wheeler School to LMA the school's station in Providence on 88.1
Could a potential low-power 88.1 in Newport possibly cause some interference to the existing WELH-88.1? If the answer is "yes"...then why would RIPR bother to continue with the build-out?
Could a potential low-power 88.1 in Newport possibly cause some interference to the existing WELH-88.1? If the answer is "yes"...then why would RIPR bother to continue with the build-out?
The license was granted before the Wheeler deal, but after the upgrade to WKIV Westerly, which is the closer 88.1. The CP was approved in May 2010, so it expires May 2013. I wouldn't really see the value of 100 watts on a crowded channel like 88.1 in an area that's more or less covered by the 102.7 Narragansett Pier signal, but if it could be built on the cheap, why not go for it? Worst case, build it and sell it to another non-profit interested in running a non-commercial station focused on Newport. It'd be a nice opportunity for what's essentially an LPFM.
DG02816 said:
Dave:
I think you're right on the money. The crazy-quilt of low-powered FM's should have been used as supplements to 1290, not a replacement for it. Depending on where you are geographically, you have to keep switching frequencies. And in some areas......NONE of the FM signals are adequate.
The blunt reality is that ...for a lot of us...it's just more convenient to "keep it locked" on 89.7 or 90.9.
Latino Public Radio is a fine and noble idea......but there's got to be a better way to do it.
This is a drastic oversimplification. "How involved the students are" is only one part of whether or not an collegiate/high school owner of a radio station decides to keep, sell or LMA a license. Revenue generation...both direct fundraising/underwriting and indirect alumni support...is probably the biggest determining factor, assuming that it is a factor at all. Hard for a college to sell off something that's making them money (by which I mean actually showing a "profit" in that it earns more than it costs). There's also the political factor among the alumni, the trustees and (moreso for public institutions) the reaction of the local community and, often by extension, local elected officials....or any combination thereof. Also depends a lot on how integrated the radio station is with the school's public image (aka "marketing") and especially with its course curriculum.
That's why, for example, Emerson College will never sell off WERS. It's both a major part of their image, a major part of their TRF (TV/Radio/Film) course curriculum, and also a major selling point for alumni donations, too.
Similarly, AFAIK the WUMB network is financially self-sufficient so even though there's no real connection to the educational aspect of UMass Boston, there's little reason for UMB to sell off WUMB; it would offend the community (and the WUML/Lowell Sun debacle has shown that listeners can and do get elected officials involved with such things) and it simultaneously brings prestige to the campus. Small upside to keeping it, no downside, and substantial downside to selling. It could happen, but it's unlikely.
Conversely, KUSF was popular in the community of San Francisco...but USF was a private school, not public, and had no marketing around the station, no course curriculum, and worst of all: multiple paid staff being subsidized by the college (I don't think KUSF was fiscally self-sufficient...I could very well be wrong, but I don't think they were) but very, very few students involved. In retrospect it's surprising USF didn't offload the station sooner...it had no real or perceived benefit to the parent institution.
And unless you're prepared to make some pretty hefty donations to the parent institutions, then you are but one voice and not a very loud one. If you can demonstrate that student programming garnishes a lot of listeners (which, statistically, it does not for the most part...there's exceptions but they are few) then you might represent multiple voices and thus you would be "louder". But otherwise, well, either it's a lot of people talking or a lot of dollar bills talking, or it's screaming at the wind. (shrugs)
No idea if Portsmouth Abbey would sell, but last I looked at it, 90.7 is completely hemmed in by WRIU 90.3 and by WBUR 90.9 (also to a limited extent by I.F. spacing from WWBB 101.5). I don't think it can be moved nor can it increase ERP in any meaningful way...and the current signal is badly affected by terrain; IIRC you can't even really hear it in Warren/Bristol very well, nor in Newport.
FWIW, there are reasons why Latino Public Radio was put on 1290 when RIPR went to 88.1. Some are big, some are small...but all of them make perfectly good sense depending a little on what your perspective is. And that's as far as I'm going to talk about that, save for this: take a look at the changing demographics of the state of Rhode Island.
Other than that...well, if anyone from Clear Channel, Cumulus or Entercom is willing to donate one of their RI Class B FM's for a fat tax write-off? Well, by all means, give me a ring and I'll introduce you to my GM. He'll GLADLY talk to you!
Other than that...well, if anyone from Clear Channel, Cumulus or Entercom is willing to donate one of their RI Class B FM's for a fat tax write-off? Well, by all means, give me a ring and I'll introduce you to my GM. He'll GLADLY talk to you!
aaronread said:if anyone from Clear Channel, Cumulus or Entercom is willing to donate one of their RI Class B FM's for a fat tax write-off? Well, by all means, give me a ring and I'll introduce you to my GM. He'll GLADLY talk to you!
aaronread:
Here's the ultimate "out of left field" food-for-thought theoretical question:
If 990 were made available to RIPR....as a donation....lock...stock...and barrel...er..transmitter site...
Would RIPR take the gift?.....and perhaps more importantly....Would the gift be WORTH taking?
RIPR would have to dole out a LOT of money to get 990 back up to snuff.You'd need to replace towers and sampling loops.
Then there's the case repairing or replacing that gone-to-hell-and-back Nautel AMPFET 50. Nautel's Jeff Welton told some stories on an engineering board I look at. Here's what Jeff had to say:
That 50 has definitely made that trip a few times - grounding and lightning protection improvements were suggested over the years on several occasions. There was never enough budget to fix the site... but always enough (usually) to repair the transmitter.
I'm surprised RIPR never went after 1220; its Spanish programming seemed to do well in its WRIB days.
Then there's the case repairing or replacing that gone-to-hell-and-back Nautel AMPFET 50. Nautel's Jeff Welton told some stories on an engineering board I look at. Here's what Jeff had to say:
That 50 has definitely made that trip a few times - grounding and lightning protection improvements were suggested over the years on several occasions. There was never enough budget to fix the site... but always enough (usually) to repair the transmitter.
I'm surprised RIPR never went after 1220; its Spanish programming seemed to do well in its WRIB days.
If it were offered COMPLETELY free of charge? I'd look hard at it but I wouldn't be interested in using it as a platform for RIPR programming.
It would cost WAY too much to bring the engineering up to snuff, and it's still be a wildly inferior signal for our needs. Plus we'd have to spend a fortune on marketing to drive listeners to that inferior signal, and NPR listeners are more "trained" to listen on FM than AM, too.
give it to me i could play classic hymns (sarcasm)!!
Ehh. On paper it does. But no high-band AM station under 1000 watts covers squat in today's high-noise-floor world. Too many other stations on the same frequency and too much noise from plasma TV's and smartphone chargers. I'll bet you can hear 1220 in a car reasonably well in their coverage area, but indoors is probably a dicey proposition unless you live only three blocks away from the stick, like I do. :
If students could be shown that the radio is more than a glorified iPod then they would be. Let's face it: radio today is DULL. Lifeless personalities talking about who-cares-what is what most people hear today. Wheeler, Coventry & Bryant did it wrong. They could have aired their football & basketball games as well as talks from any speakers that may have come (we did that at my college's radio station). I hope WDOM, WJHD & WQRI stay independent & try this avenue. At the very least, it would show the schools' faces in the public. Yes, WDOM airing Providence College's mass would be more beneficial than having an automated playlist.
Let's not forget that these are educational stations & while I haven't seen the educational aspect defined by the Commission other than being OWNED by an "educational" institution, even the kids who remain & jock shows are being taught the mechanics of broadcasting. It's a public classroom & should be better utilized.
After all, N.P.R. & the churches don't own 88-92!
Let's not forget that these are educational stations & while I haven't seen the educational aspect defined by the Commission other than being OWNED by an "educational" institution, even the kids who remain & jock shows are being taught the mechanics of broadcasting. It's a public classroom & should be better utilized.
After all, N.P.R. & the churches don't own 88-92!
Those are all things that, primarily, are of interest to the campus communities...but are of little interest to their Cities of License outside their campus. The campus community at most colleges is disproportionately equipped with high-end smartphones and laptop computers, and generally is more inclined to consume their media over the web while simultaneously not even owning an AM/FM radio. So in other words, you're suggesting that these stations air programming that is likely to be of little relevance to anyone who has an AM/FM radio and would be willing to listen to a radio station using it.
With some exceptions (Providence College and maybe URI come to mind) the local communities care very little about campus sports these days. Why should they? In the pre-cable/satellite TV days, if you wanted to listen to a ball game and your local professional team wasn't playing, then your local college team was the ONLY option. Nowadays, there is never NOT a ballgame on some TV channel, so a much smaller group of people care about college games: current students, alumni and parents. The latter two usually live outside the broadcast reach of the campus radio station and thus a webcast is a far superior option. The former probably is within range of the station, but if they cared all that much about the game, they'd just go to it in person; they usually get free or steeply discounted tickets after all.
So while college sports on the web is a hot ticket, sports on the radio is often a bust.
HIGH SCHOOL sports can be a different beast altogether, since the primary consumer of those is parents of students and they probably DO live within the broadcast range of the station. Granted, sports on the web is still probably a better business model for the school; they can more easily provide a PPV service to help defray costs. But yes, high school sports can be a moneymaker; just ask any small town Class C AM station out in the boondocks (not too many of those in New England, but a LOT of those in the rest of the country). Depends a lot on the local demographics, though. Not sure how much it really plays here in Rhode Island; I'm too new to this state to know if any of the high schools are really all that big into sports. And by "big" I mean like "Friday Night Lights in Texas" big. I would imagine that the close proximity to two major New England professional sports (Sox and Pats) dampens things somewhat, though.
FWIW, I have long been a proponent of the idea that with the proper investment in manpower and budget, any educational outlet can re-create the radio environment equally well, or even better, using a web-only distribution platform instead of an AM/FM FCC-licensed station. In fact, the license often gets in the way because it introduces a potentially nasty regulatory burden, and it can mask how small your listening audience really is; people tend to think that because you're on a real radio station that there simply MUST be more listeners than the 2 to 5 webcast listeners would tend to indicate. Admittedly, it takes a lot of effort and a high-4/low-5 figure budget just for promotions alone (swag, live events, adverts in other media) but it can work quite well.
But simply having an AM/FM FCC license is utterly meaningless in determining whether or not a program is either capable or actively providing a true educational experience for its students.
No. What I am suggesting is another way for whichever school to increase their public view. As for U.R.I. & P.C., I wonder if anyone even cares about them anymore either. I can remember the interest when P.C. was in March Madness in 1995. Now? Does anyone know P.C. has a basketball team?
Going with the premise of now there's a game on around the clock then the schools should try even harder to get their (I hate this term) "brand" out there to raise their door revenue. Show they give more to their communities than drunken college kids! I've heard people say that colleges are isolated in respect to the rest of the town/city. They don't really show their worth, just get the tax breaks. As for the webcast, it's a good secondary platform for listeners outside their coverage areas. As for the station itself, if the students have to study or otherwise cannot attend, the radio does provide that option. This is going back to ~1999-2000 when I was in college but the only complaints we got on my college's then-6kW (now 10kW) station about the sports were the D.J.s we displaced because we cut into their fiefdoms. Personally, I enjoyed it because I was the on-site engineer & got to run the phone & electric lines!
On to high school football, there are a few rivalries which create something on that level of Friday Night Lights. Just over the border, North Attleborough has that level of interest. In R.I., East Providence & Lasalle do, from what I've heard (East Providence native but went to P.C.D. instead & honestly, don't like football) as well as Westerly, West Warwick, Rogers & Woonsocket. The catholic school in Woonsocket's hockey team also has a big following up there & that's what I mean: if the high school has a station, why not get their teams out there? Go with football, basketball, hockey & baseball.
An internet station is functionally the same as an old cable/leaky cable F.M. or carrier current A.M. albeit even less because in the R.F. situations you had to make sure that you don't interfere with any other stations. Plus, with web radio you have to pay performance royalties every time you hit play. That seems an unnecessary burden. At least the F.C.C. paperwork would be beneficial for anyone who wanted to pursue a career in radio.
Yes, I was one of those kids who wanted to start a radio station. We didn't because there was no space on campus nor on the dial. Plus, since this was before the web, there wasn't nearly as much information as there is now. When I read how the NAB & NPR conspired to do away with the Class D licenses in 1978 I got mad & have been mad ever since. Of course, these days, anybody can open up a pirate station on any frequency & so long as they don't interfere with the aircraft service, they get nary a peep from the F.C.C..
Going with the premise of now there's a game on around the clock then the schools should try even harder to get their (I hate this term) "brand" out there to raise their door revenue. Show they give more to their communities than drunken college kids! I've heard people say that colleges are isolated in respect to the rest of the town/city. They don't really show their worth, just get the tax breaks. As for the webcast, it's a good secondary platform for listeners outside their coverage areas. As for the station itself, if the students have to study or otherwise cannot attend, the radio does provide that option. This is going back to ~1999-2000 when I was in college but the only complaints we got on my college's then-6kW (now 10kW) station about the sports were the D.J.s we displaced because we cut into their fiefdoms. Personally, I enjoyed it because I was the on-site engineer & got to run the phone & electric lines!
On to high school football, there are a few rivalries which create something on that level of Friday Night Lights. Just over the border, North Attleborough has that level of interest. In R.I., East Providence & Lasalle do, from what I've heard (East Providence native but went to P.C.D. instead & honestly, don't like football) as well as Westerly, West Warwick, Rogers & Woonsocket. The catholic school in Woonsocket's hockey team also has a big following up there & that's what I mean: if the high school has a station, why not get their teams out there? Go with football, basketball, hockey & baseball.
An internet station is functionally the same as an old cable/leaky cable F.M. or carrier current A.M. albeit even less because in the R.F. situations you had to make sure that you don't interfere with any other stations. Plus, with web radio you have to pay performance royalties every time you hit play. That seems an unnecessary burden. At least the F.C.C. paperwork would be beneficial for anyone who wanted to pursue a career in radio.
Yes, I was one of those kids who wanted to start a radio station. We didn't because there was no space on campus nor on the dial. Plus, since this was before the web, there wasn't nearly as much information as there is now. When I read how the NAB & NPR conspired to do away with the Class D licenses in 1978 I got mad & have been mad ever since. Of course, these days, anybody can open up a pirate station on any frequency & so long as they don't interfere with the aircraft service, they get nary a peep from the F.C.C..
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