WRVU...er WFCL "Another 0nes About to Bite the Dust?"

[Tibbs4]

FCC Query says it's true and approved...nothing like showing up for your shift and not knowing what your station T0HID should be...thanks brilliant minds at VU. Pathetic. Comments always welcome on this board, unlike their campus.


http://www.cmj.com/the-feed/news/2011/06/wrvu-in-jeopardy-as-license-quietly-changes/

 

[DToTheJ]

Were they originally intending to register the WFCK call letters and were instead assigned WFCL?

 

[Theater of My Mind]

From the Nashville Scene:

Update: We have learned that the new station will be WFCL, Classical 91 One, a new Nashville Public Radio station dedicated to classical music and the arts.

 

[techguy1975]

From the Nashville Scene:

Update: We have learned that the new station will be WFCL, Classical 91 One, a new Nashville Public Radio station dedicated to classical music and the arts.

I'm seeing the same thing on WSMV.com. The WRVU website is gone, and it looks like they are currently off the air. The article on WSMV said the new station begins at midnight tonight (Weds morning)

 

[LouPickney]

91.1 WFCL abruptly cut off at 3 p.m. CT today. The final two songs played: "Secret Kiss" by The Coral and "Waiting For The Siren's Call" by New Order. The New Order song faded out, went to silence for about a minute, and then went to static.

In the past 30-45 minutes I've heard bits and pieces of classical music, as if the switchover reported to happen tonight at midnight is being prepped for now.

WRVU is still streaming online, albeit without their 91.1 FM counterpart.

 

[jason99]

Ahhh another Classical Radio station thought we had enough of them?

 

[TheBigA]

It's official:

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110607/BUSINESS06/110607047/Nashville-Public-Radio-buys-Vanderbilt-radio-station?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

 

[uncamark]

Ahhh another Classical Radio station thought we had enough of them?

You're calling WPLN part-time "enough" classical music? You must be one of those Vanderbilt students who thinks that punk rock is art.

 

[w9wi]

Ahhh another Classical Radio station thought we had enough of them?

You're calling WPLN part-time "enough" classical music? You must be one of those Vanderbilt students who thinks that punk rock is art.

There is some on WMOT now. (I wonder if that will continue?) But between WMOT's part-time classical and WPLN-FM's overnight classical it still didn't amount to one fulltime station.

If I recall properly, last night on channel 4 Rob Gordon said WRVU would be using WPLN-HD3. (probably only until the students lose interest )

WPLN-AM had been on the HD3, and the HD2 had been all classical. I wonder how those two services are going to shake out? The obvious answer might be to move WPLN-AM from HD3 to HD2, but there is no HD on 91.1 and that's not likely to happen in the near future. HD may be a near-complete failure with the commercial stations but it's not as much of a non-entity at public stations.

 

[Jon J]

The FCC database shows that Vandy applied for the callsign WFCL in 1982 and it was granted for a year.

http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/app_det.pl?Application_id=1500

 

[NoMoreMornings]

The FCC database shows that Vandy applied for the callsign WFCL in 1982 and it was granted for a year.

http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/app_det.pl?Application_id=1500

That's not quite correct. When a call sign is changed, the FCC's CDBS automatically updates the call sign for all of the previous filings. Irregardless of what the call letters were at the time of the original filing. Or, in this case, the station's call sign in 1982 was indeed WRVU. But the CDBS will list it as WFCL. Also, the hyperlink points to a major modification grant. Call sign changes are not major mods.

 

[anotherguyTN]

Although I'd guess WRVU listeners would rather still have their station on the main frequency rather than online and HD3, at least they'll still have that option. When Trevecca sold WNAZ to Bott, staying online was shot down by Trevecca and putting it on an HD subchannel wsan't even considered. But then I got the impression that neither Trevecca nor Bott cared if WNAZ was allowed to stay on somehow. BOtt wanted the stations and Trevecca wanted the money, and nothing else mattered.

I said it with WNAZ, and the same applies for WRVU listeners. Anyone who was a donor to WRVU should demand a refund.

 

[Mike Stroud]

Ahhh another Classical Radio station thought we had enough of them?

You're calling WPLN part-time "enough" classical music? You must be one of those Vanderbilt students who thinks that punk rock is art.

There is some on WMOT now. (I wonder if that will continue?) But between WMOT's part-time classical and WPLN-FM's overnight classical it still didn't amount to one fulltime station.

If I recall properly, last night on channel 4 Rob Gordon said WRVU would be using WPLN-HD3. (probably only until the students lose interest )

WPLN-AM had been on the HD3, and the HD2 had been all classical. I wonder how those two services are going to shake out? The obvious answer might be to move WPLN-AM from HD3 to HD2, but there is no HD on 91.1 and that's not likely to happen in the near future. HD may be a near-complete failure with the commercial stations but it's not as much of a non-entity at public stations.

Friends, this has the potential to amount to a total apple-cart turnover of the reserved part of the FM band in the Nashville market. It appears now that with WPLN going all news-talk, Nashville Public Radio will not need a separate AM frequency. I am sure that, shortly, it will be mothballed and probably sold to an ethnic entity (e.g., Hispanic). Meanwhile, on the FM, this will have ripple effects. A few months ago, WMOT dropped daytime jazz in favor of classical, which was intended to gain the old WPLN daytime audience alienated by the fall 2009 format flip. With WPLN back in the classical game with the new WFCL, WMOT basically has nowhere to go, having spent the past two years blinking at WPLN's every move. Everyone knows that, even with classical audiences aging, jazz audiences are dying off every day. WMOT is probably not going to be able to justify continued existence in this new environment; Nashville Public Radio will in effect have put them out of business, with WFCL the final nail in the coffin. I would not be surprised to see MTSU officials any day now announce that they are throwing in the towel at 89.5, something they seriously considered two years ago. This will in all likelihood witness a big-time religious caster snapping up that frequency in the future.

VSC would not have even thought about putting WRVU on the block had it not been for the hard fact that kids do not listen to radio--and especially not youngsters at an elite educational institution, who have more than enough disposable income to afford all sorts of techie ways to get access to alternative rock and other specialty genres. WRVU's main backers, it seems to me, were the (non-country) musician community and alumni DJs, two groups without a lot of money to back up their valiant efforts. The main part of the student body appeared to not give a damn one way or the other (in fact, conservative students are probably overjoyed at having one less frill to involuntarily pay for in the student activity fee, paying for programming they likely thought was too far-out or subversive). Put all of this together with a likewise hard fact that demographic research has shown that NPR listeners, especially those under 60 or so, overwhelmingly prefer news and talk to classical music (which prompted the original WPLN format change in 2009), and pressure simply built up for Nashville Public Radio to move the FM to full-time news-and-talk; the AM and format change were really just stopgap measures. Despite a personal sympathy I feel for this David-and-Goliath scenario, David's slingshot just didn't Goliath's head in this instance.

This has already happened in Houston and San Francisco, and it is going to happen elsewhere. For the most part, college radio is dead, and it may be best to give it as dignified a funeral as can be given. Same goes one-time specialty stations like WMOT. Enjoy them as long as you can, but be ready for them to be taken away at any time. Governments and institutions of higher education, whatever their ideological composition, are getting out of the non-commercial radio business. In other words, there is no use in pouting or crying about it; we have to learn to adjust--life has to go on.

 

[NashvilleNative]

Not to completely digress, but personally, I would like to see WAY-FM take 89.5, and have thought that for years. 88.7's signal is nearly unlistenable in Northeastern Davidson county. I lose it completely every morning in front of The Hermitage.

 

[TheBigA]

VSC would not have even thought about putting WRVU on the block had it not been for the hard fact that kids do not listen to radio--and especially not youngsters at an elite educational institution, who have more than enough disposable income to afford all sorts of techie ways to get access to alternative rock and other specialty genres.

I think they'll find they had a lot more listeners on air than they'll have online. The real problem wasn't that RVU was on air, but that it was inconsistant in terms of programming. There are way more choices online, so the station will get lost among the clutter.

 

[Mike Stroud]

VSC would not have even thought about putting WRVU on the block had it not been for the hard fact that kids do not listen to radio--and especially not youngsters at an elite educational institution, who have more than enough disposable income to afford all sorts of techie ways to get access to alternative rock and other specialty genres.

I think they'll find they had a lot more listeners on air than they'll have online. The real problem wasn't that RVU was on air, but that it was inconsistant in terms of programming. There are way more choices online, so the station will get lost among the clutter.

The "inconsistency" you are referring to is indicative that most listeners like yourself are acclimated to format radio. WRVU was intended to be, from the outset, a stark alternative to the commercial mentality. Most college stations throughout are/were like WRVU; they often are/were the only alternatives to the narrow nature of commercial broadcasting--and NPR, too. The student DJs and the VSC never intended for WRVU to be a mass-appeal station in the first place. The issue is, as I have stated, that trends were against the very things that the station stood for, and it did put up a splendid fight.

What you and I agree on is, that in the end, money talks and b------t walks. That's what all of this boils down to. The kids who were the intended audience did not come through because they don't care about it like their older brothers and sisters did in the 80s and 90s, when the alt- and college-rock movements were in their prime.

 

[uncamark]

VSC would not have even thought about putting WRVU on the block had it not been for the hard fact that kids do not listen to radio--and especially not youngsters at an elite educational institution, who have more than enough disposable income to afford all sorts of techie ways to get access to alternative rock and other specialty genres.

I think they'll find they had a lot more listeners on air than they'll have online. The real problem wasn't that RVU was on air, but that it was inconsistant in terms of programming. There are way more choices online, so the station will get lost among the clutter.

The "inconsistency" you are referring to is indicative that most listeners like yourself are acclimated to format radio. WRVU was intended to be, from the outset, a stark alternative to the commercial mentality. Most college stations throughout are/were like WRVU; they often are/were the only alternatives to the narrow nature of commercial broadcasting--and NPR, too. The student DJs and the VSC never intended for WRVU to be a mass-appeal station in the first place. The issue is, as I have stated, that trends were against the very things that the station stood for, and it did put up a splendid fight.

And it could be said that this was the NPR stations of the 70s and 80s, back when the network schedule was "All Things Considered" in the late afternoon, "BBC Radio Newsreel" via scratchy shortwave in the morning or at noon until "Morning Edition" started up, something called "Options" and music programming that was still bicycled on disc or tape. No PRI, no APM, no satellite, no 24/7 services. Most of the programming on the stations was local by necessity and even if classical music took up most of the day and early evening, folk, jazz and even "free form progressive rock" DJs took up a lot of the late evening, weekend and overnight slots (if the station stayed on all night). Basically, it was a lot like college radio, but aimed mostly at older audiences and just like college radio, a lot of it was volunteer DJs, serving micro-audiences and being a new radio station every two-to-six hours. This is the kind of radio that the Keeping Public Radio Public folks remember and want, but went away thanks to the bailout of NPR News, satellite network transmission, the start of what became PRI, the deterioration and politicization of AM radio news-talk programming and David Giovannini and George Bailey's preaching of the "serving your core audience" gospel that made NPR stations all or predominately news-talk (and made the music formats more researched and rotated and less DJs playing their own selections). Some stations may have some of the longer-standing DJs playing their own choice of music late at night or on weekends, but sooner or later when they retire or get fired they'll be replaced by "World Cafe," Bob Parlocha or the BBC World Service tied into an AudioVault.

 

[Jon J]

Via the internet and HD OTA, WRVU will have access to a far wider audience than it did when it first began broadcasting as WVU. It wasn't FM or even over the air but was an AM signal inserted into the university's electrical grid and was only available in university buildings and not very well at that.

 

[Mike Stroud]

Via the internet and HD OTA, WRVU will have access to a far wider audience than it did when it first began broadcasting as WVU. It wasn't FM or even over the air but was an AM signal inserted into the university's electrical grid and was only available in university buildings and not very well at that.

That's all good, well, and fine, but the fact remains is that the target audience of 14-to-25-year-olds have so many other choices these days. Part of all the furor over WRVU's demise on FM is the very fact that kids aren't listening to the radio--of any kind, online, traditional transmission, or HD (the latter is for all intents and purposes a commercial flop--not many folks other than audiophiles have fallen for it, especially with our economy right now).

And that brings up the hollow promise of Nashville Public Radio to fit the continuing WRVU on one of its HD streams. Both NPR and VSC know very well HD is not taking hold, and all of this, in my view, is a fig leaf to placate the protesting DJs, to stop them from pursuing court actions or agitating for the repeal of VU student activities fee. They are figuring that students will, one way or another, lose interest in the online/HD WRVU, as will the other cast of characters in this story, the musicians. NPR/WPLN will get the HD stream back by default when this happens, and VSC will have the music business off its hands entirely, which is what it has wanted from the get-go. It is hard for me to believe that people could not see that. Neither Vanderbilt nor VSC feel any obligation to the local music scene, something that is hard for these distraught DJs to swallow. The problem was, neither did many of their fellow students.

As for the other promise of giving VU students first priority for internships, that also is a crock of you-know-what. They forgot to mention that Vanderbilt does not have, and never has had, a broadcasting curriculum, so there are no students to train on the broadcast side of things. They mean business students training to become NGO workers and heads, not broadcasters. So that doesn't amount to squat, either, as far as radio is concerned.

Mark my words: WRVU will probably cease operations entirely within two years. And this time, no one will raise hell about it, because no one will notice.

 

[TheBigA]

The "inconsistency" you are referring to is indicative that most listeners like yourself are acclimated to format radio.

First of all, you're assuming I like format radio. Regular readers of my posts know that I don't. But the fact is that the Vanderbilt students, who paid for the operations of WRVU, apparently didn't like the programming on their college radio. A simple look at the ratings of other Nashville stations would show that the commercial stations, such as Lightning 100 and others, enjoyed a large student audience. My post was in response to the opinion that students don't listen to OTA radio. The facts say that assumption is wrong. But they specifically didn't listen to WRVU because of the programming, which was mainly done by non-students. In my view, the station was poorly run, and ignored the people who paid the bills. That's why it was sold. Not because students don't like OTA radio. And as I said, I have no reason to believe they'll listen in any larger numbers to the new online station as long as it continues the style of programming done on air. The advantage is it won't cost as much. And having access to a "wider audience" doesn't matter if those outside of Nashville don't know the station exists. As one who's programmed online stations, I can tell you it's easier to attract an audience for an OTA station than one that's online, regardless of the tartget demo.