WJMF 88.7

[aaronread]

I don't think too many students or alums will be celebrating the fact that GBH gets to use the new signal while the students are relegated to HD-2 and DTV.

I gotta say, I'm not too sure about that. Having run WHWS for three years now, our students barely care at all about the 105.7FM signal. They care a lot more about the webcast. Logically, it makes sense; the students' chief audiences are their friends and their families. The latter is near-100% listening on the webcast, and for a lot of stations, the former is webcast-listening, too. Many students don't even own a radio anymore. Their alarm clock is a cellphone, and their "stereo" is usually a laptop or iPod dock. If they have cars, they probably have a car radio, but due to the typical driving habits of students, this is a not a method of regular listening. (I'm talking your typical undergraduate-style college campus; obviously a commuter school would be different, but Bryant is not a commuter school.)

It's true, our students DO care about having a radio signal to reach a greater audience in terms of bettering the station as a whole. But for their individual shows? It's all webcast. That also touches on what the purpose of the station is. For WHWS, it's a "fun student activity". It's not really meant to be a competitive radio station in our market...that's not its mission. I have heard that WJMF has some reasonably serious broadcasting courses as part of the curriculum, but I haven't heard that it's a real "communications school" like an Emerson College or whatnot. And since WJMF wasn't really reaching Providence it probably wasn't garnering a serious niche audience like WMBR or WZBC does. So I have to think it trended towards "fun student activity" with something of a "practical laboratory for applying classroom knowledge" for its mission. A web-only signal will accomplish that just fine if done properly...the HD2 and DTV outlets are just gravy. Tasty gravy. Perhaps an "acquired taste" of tasty gravy. : But gravy nonetheless.

I'm the first to believe that it's always the most ideal for your students to have a big radio signal with lots of potential listeners AND a solid webcast. But whether it's really "a loss to the students" is rather debatable.

 

[Jimmy128]

This is almost like what happened in San Fran bay area:

--Rock station moves to classical station's freq
--Classical station moves to USF's college station's freq
--USF station moves to online only.

The real problem is that there very few HD radios available. And even with a power increase with 88.7, nobody will be able to listen to the college station anymore unless you have an HD2 receiver (with basically no coverage) or an on-line connection. Basically, they're screwed. It's a shame.

I don't know where you come from. HD radios are very available. I got one from Radio Shack for $100 and it works just fine.

 

[Dighton Rockhead]

I don't know where you come from. HD radios are very available. I got one from Radio Shack for $100 and it works just fine.

Availability is one thing.....motivating people to buy them is quite another!

As for myself, I don't feel particularly motivated to shell out $100 for yet another radio, when I already have several.....all of which....from my early 1960's vacuum-tube Zenith right on through to my early 2000's sangean walkman.....are still working just fine.

Let's face it. For the time being, and likely for the forseeable future.....HD radio is likely to be nothing more than a very niche product at most.

 

[aaronread]

I don't know where you come from. HD radios are very available. I got one from Radio Shack for $100 and it works just fine.

It depends. Major cities are pretty good, but more rural areas can be chancy. Radio Shack carried them in the Finger Lakes a few years ago, but over the last 18 months phased them out through clearances. Best Buy isn't much better...some have the Insignia Portable FM HD radio, but some don't. Walmart has several "HD-Ready" models but never carries the add-on HD tuner for those models. I'm drawing a blank if anyone else around these parts actually stocks HD radios for sale...quite possibly nobody does.

 

[DanStrassberg]

If WJMF--on its main analog channel--is now really simulcasting WCRB, why do I not hear WJMF mentioned in the WCRB legal IDs? I do hear WNCK mentioned and WGBH-FM HD-2 (and maybe one more station whose calls don't come to mind at the moment). Even if WJMF runs its own separate legals (as I'm told that WBUR (AM) 1240 W Yarmouth does), I would think that, with all the adverse publicity the WGBH Educational Foundation has drawn from classical music fans who live south of Boston, using the WCRB legals to promote the idea that WGBH is REALLY doing everything it can to extend WCRB's coverage to the south would be a very worthwhile move.

 

[Jimmy128]

If WJMF--on its main analog channel--is now really simulcasting WCRB, why do I not hear WJMF mentioned in the WCRB legal IDs? I do hear WNCK mentioned and WGBH-FM HD-2 (and maybe one more station whose calls don't come to mind at the moment). Even if WJMF runs its own separate legals (as I'm told that WBUR (AM) 1240 W Yarmouth does), I would think that, with all the adverse publicity the WGBH Educational Foundation has drawn from classical music fans who live south of Boston, using the WCRB legals to promote the idea that WGBH is REALLY doing everything it can to extend WCRB's coverage to the south would be a very worthwhile move.

It's supposed to start in August.