WPRO on 99.7 FM. I like it!

[riradio02842]

Gotta agree with Dighton....could we see WXIN 920, or perhaps a move by 1110, 1220, or 1540 to Class B status from Class D?

Ha ha ha... every once and a while WXIN getting a leftover AM comes up. Can anyone come up with why anyone would want to listen to WXIN on AM? Think about what Jeff Ryan has been saying about music on AM... and now look at the target audience of WXIN... what 18-24 year old is actually listening to music on AM?

The time for WXIN to have a full power AM or FM frequency has passed. For a while, it was a huge deal, but with Internet broadcasting technology, WXIN has a much larger audience now, and a real licensed station isn't so much of a priority anymore. The audience for WXIN online has grown enough where not only have they started a second stream on Live365, (called NIXM), but they also have a very popular web stream on ustream.tv. Yes, radio isn't going away, but at the same time, those that weren't allowed in are now finding ways around it to gather and capture audiences.

I think the next big challenge for radio will be smartphones and other small mobile devices that will have access to wireless data networks. The release of the iPhone has accelerated this. People are already plugging in their iPods and other music players in their cars and listening to them rather than radio. What happens when you can stream your favorite Internet station on your iPhone (or other device) as well? At that point, am I ever using the tuner in my car? The technology isn't quite there yet, but, its getting there real fast. I can easily see the presets going from the tuner to bookmarks on the device.

Besides... with the state budget defecit and RIC's money problems, do you honestly think WXIN/RIC could maintain an AM station? The tower would be falling down and sounding like WALE in less than a year!

Ouch.....as an alumnus of the great pin radio station there, I have to take exception to you. I think John Depetro, Dave Morris, Chris Tyler, Tony Mascaro, Tnoy (TJ Knapp) Banks, Mike Gonslaves (RIP), Bill George, Mike Montecalvo and all of the rest of the RIC radio alumnus would have to say to you that it actually would be a great thing for RIC to have even an LP FM station, never mind an full fledged AM station to broadcast to the state. Every and ANY exposure to the signal beyond the small extent around the campus would help those who are interested in a career in broadcasting (God help them). Everybody needs to get out of the narrow mindedness that inhabits this site and let those who love the craft relish it and have a platform to express it beyond the narrow broadband signal an internet station would allow (seeing as there is little to no publication of an internet signal, no one knows about NXIM except for the 15 people who have read this thread).

I am proud to say that I am an alumnus of WXIN. While I was there I was Production Director, Program Director, and General Manager. I am aware of the long list of radio and tv personalities that have come out of WXIN. It's a proud tradition. Yet none of it relates to the task at hand. All of those personalities came out of WXIN when it was either either carrier current on 580AM traveling through the steam tunnels of RIC, or, on 88.1/90.7 FM at the current part 15 status. Those people were able to develop their skills and get into the business because of the students who run the station made it an environment for them to succeed in. It had/has nothing to do with the amount of wattage the station has. While the station was under my watch, we started broadcasting on the Internet, to try and reach the core audience... RIC students! The network connection to the dorms was better than the over the air signal.

You seem to think that WXIN/RIC needs this large over the air coverage to succeed. They don't. And, if they did, they would probably have to bend over to the administration of the college, along with the communications department, who would want to try to exert control over any licensed station at the college. Then you wouldn't end up with WXIN... you would end up with some other radio station that may not end up turning out the next John Depetro or Doctor Metal. I haven't been able to work at the station for a few years now, but I think they are doing quite well on their own, and despite their lack of signal, I believe they are the best organized and equipped college radio station in the state. They don't need some crappy AM station to fulfill their mission statement.

Besides, the original discussion is about throwing WXIN on AM, not on FM or LPFM. Seriously... it would be just a bunch of headaches. Why worry about all the paperwork, rules, and regulations, along with questionable content being judged by a rather wishy-washy FCC, when you can broadcast on the Internet in peace with a yearly royalty payment and a subscription to a streaming provider? If a LPFM or FM came up, sure it would be stupid for them not to jump at it. I've seen the engineering studies... those chances are not coming any time soon. There is no FM space left in Providence, and there are no less than six stations that have applied for 96.5 LPFM in Providence.

I love radio, but the radio of today is not the radio of the past. I woke up and smelled the coffee after a two year gig part time at Citadel. There are no careers left in "radio" to prepare for. Just look at the boards over the last few weeks with all the commentary regarding cuts in radio... does WXIN really need a full power station to prepare them for this? What you see now are "multimedia" personalities, live not only on the radio, but on TV, and the web. Maybe if we were having this conversation back in 1984, when WXIN was ready to be broadcasting at around 20kw from the Channel 6 stick in Tiverton, my opinion would be different. Again, you don't need wattage to develop radio skills... just time, advise, and the equipment needed to to a "radio" show.

So I feel that you sir (or mam), are the one being narrow-minded by feeling that the current state of affairs does not benefit WXIN and its student members and management. New technologies are coming down the pike, and WXIN is there to take advantage of them. Radio, as a medium, is old news, and it's a mess. What used to be good radio has moved on to bigger and better things on a different medium. Ask anyone working there right now, and they will tell you that they are pleased with what they are doing, and excited about the future... I know, because I talked to them last week... did you?

 

[tim_stask]

Re: WXIN

...and all of the rest of the RIC radio alumnus would have to say to you that it actually would be a great thing for RIC to have even an LP FM station, never mind an full fledged AM station to broadcast to the state. Every and ANY exposure to the signal beyond the small extent around the campus would help those who are interested in a career in broadcasting (God help them). Everybody needs to get out of the narrow mindedness that inhabits this site and let those who love the craft relish it and have a platform to express it beyond the narrow broadband signal an internet station would allow...

Let me preface this by saying I am an alumnus of WXIN, I'm one of those alumnus that went into commercial broadcasting right out of college, and I also happen to be fairly active in advising the current student leaders of WXIN whenever I am called upon...

That being said, I used to think that a signal - any signal (AM, FM, or hell, even shortwave) - would be in the best interests of RIC students... I was that guy who asked every semester in my freshman and sophomore years when and if we'd be getting a more powerful signal.. As production director and PD my junior and senior years I happened to be the guy who had to explain to incoming students why we couldn't get a more powerful signal (no money, no space on the FM band, here take a look at the studies we had conducted in the early 90s, etc.) and so it went...

Today, looking back, the absence of a real non-comm signal has helped this station thrive - starting the broadcast careers of myself and countless others that have been named previously.. Why? Well if it were a real non-comm, we couldn't have gotten away with half the stuff we did... If it was a powerful signal, the college administration would have wanted a say in what we did...

Look at this board... how often do complaints about corporate oversight come out? There are arguments that radio would be fine, if those in the boardrooms left well enough alone and let programmers do the programming... Think of the college as the corporation and the students as the programmers... It's been done here... The lack of oversight commercial programmers would only dream of today... exists here at WXIN...

The radio station at RIC is run by students, overseen by students, and ignored by most of the faculty and staff and because of that, an interesting phenomenon has happened... you've got radio in a laboratory... You've got college kids running a small operation as if it were a real commercial radio station through trial and error… by themselves... and throughout the years, that establishment has allowed those interested in a career in broadcasting to go out and chase it...

I don't mean to shoot your argument full of holes, but look at WJMF 88.7 (Bryant) or WDOM 91.3 (PC)... Full FM non-comm signals... You don't see those stations churning out much broadcasting talent... I challenge you to come up with a college station in Rhode Island that has given start to more broadcasting careers than the tiny, little, rinky-dink station on Mount Pleasant Avenue..

50% of what I needed to know in this industry was taught to me by my peers and myself at WXIN... I could get into the whole internet thing, but I'll save it for another time... (Besides, this thread has gone way off track - and far be it for me to bend the rules too much on my first post..)

(Oh, and in the list of XIN alumni posted further back in this thread, you forgot Matt Allen… apparently he used to do some pretty crazy stuff at XIN before his days as a successful talk show host… )

- Tim Staskiewicz