One of the few things that Ibquity was good for. If TBU is well run now, with an advisor why not on WBUR-HD2
I haven't talked to Anne Donohue in a few years (she was one of my professors and I've stayed loosely in touch with her) but last I did, she was still a Faculty Advisor and, accordingly, intentionally disengaged from the management of the station. She is, or at least was, there to advise them when they come to her...not to help them run the place. We can debate the relative merits of that approach for days, but it's not conducive to dealing with such a massive change as being rebroadcast on a licensed station (HD2 or not) would be.
Also, I won't comment on the current crop of student managers...but certainly looking back to when I was a student manager (Technical Director for three years, and Promotions Director as well for one) I'm amazed we didn't accidentally burn the building down. Sure I learned a lot, but that came heavily at the expense of smooth operations and competent leadership. Christ, we had no means of even purchasing anything...the College of Communication required that we buy everything out of pocket and get reimbursed (which took a minimum of four weeks to get a check). We weren't even allowed to do purchase orders, despite several attempts to get authorization for it. It was a mess. I can only pray that things are better these days....but I wouldn't bet on it; the system is not set up for station success, it's a "learn by doing" proving ground where you have the freedom to do everything "wrong" with no real risk of consequences. Broadcasting on an HD2...or any licensed outlet...changes that dynamic by introducing consequences. And with HD2, it introduces a lot of consequences and not much in the way of benefits.
FWIW, I always thought WBUR *was* missing an opportunity with its HD2 to create a student journalism outlet by cherry-picking the journalism students in BU's College of Communication (when I was at BU (late 90's) their journalism program/curriculum was VERY good, and AFAIK it still is) and having them create alternative news in a semi-structured environment. The idea being something of a blend of the recent-graduates that used to run WBOS-HD2 and WBEZ's Vocalo project...something with the high standards of public radio but that sounds very different and focuses on different priorities/topics/stories. I'm not sure if this idea would ultimately work, in terms of garnishing an audience, but it'd be damn interesting to try. And theoretically it could be done pretty cheaply; you'd only need one or two, maybe three, professionals to provide training and oversight...the whole idea is that the students would be creating all the day-to-day content and making the decisions on that front. Admittedly, the HD2 is an afterthought; you'd really want to get it on the web and possibly on an analog outlet as well. Maybe buy/lease a second-tier AM station...?
Given the number of student newscasters at WTBU (historically it's usually 20 to 40, a pretty hefty percentage of the total number of students) I don't see any reason why it couldn't be physically based in WTBU's studios, especially considering how "packed in tight" WBUR's office space has usually been. Although it'd probably work just as well being based at WBUR's studios. (shrugs)
