WUNC Adding Greensboro presence

[XTalker]

The papers this morning have reported WUNC radio will open a news bureau and studio n Greensboro later this year. Will be located at Triad Stage building. How might that impact WFDD and the general NT market in the Triad?

 

[allnews]

I imagine the people at WFDD aren't too thrilled about it.

WUNC already has documented audience here. There are quite a few Public Radio fans who can't take the classical music on WFDD and the "we're going to give 'em culture whether the like it or not" attitude. They were tuning to WUNC when they couldn't get "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" and "Car Talk" locally, and liked what they heard.

I think beefing up WUNC's Triad news coverage may cause some more sampling and could cost WFDD more listeners.

I guess that depends on how much audience Public and Commerical radio share in that arena.

 

[MaskMan]

WFDD has known for some time that WUNC planned a presence in Greensboro. In fact, WFDD's change to more talk was a flanking maneuver. WFDD continues to promote itself as the Triad's public radio station, while WUNC is North Carolina's radio station. A lot of the public radio listeners listen to both stations, changing back and forth depending on the programming. They carry a lot of the same shows, but at different times. The WS Journal article indicated there might be some collaboration between the two, but I can't imagine how. WUNC is very aggressive in wanting to cover the entire state. Many of their employees are ex commercial radio folks, so they will continue to pursue the GSO plans. Some die-hard public radio fans are angry about WUNC's aggressiveness and don't understand why they want to encroach on an area that is already being served. Their underwriting rates are higher because of their Raleigh base, but if they provide unique programming, they might have some success both in listeners donations and sponsor underwriting. I predict that WUNC will eventually disband their Greensboro operations as too costly to justify...that's if WFDD can hold their ground in the meantime.

 

[XTalker]

I disagree that the move to more talk was a flanking move for WFDD. I think they just couldn't make the numbers from the supporters of classical music programming.

It does appear from at least one article, that WFDD may work with WUNC on some programming in the future. WFDD already has a Greensboro bureau. Maybe it might merge! Who knows what the public crowd will do or why!

 

[MaskMan]

You are correct that the classical music supporters had dwindled and they were not able to contribute enought to keep the classical music on the station. HOWEVER, WUNC's aggressive move toward the Triad made it imperative to change formats for their survival. WUNC positioned themselves as coming to the area because there was a need to serve the Triad with public radio news/talk programming. With WFDD's change, that is no longer necessary. They're covering it just fine, thank you. As to their merging, I doubt it, but perhaps there might be sharing of a facility? Although that seems far-fetched, as well. WFDD says that they have about outgrown their current GSO offices.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I won't go into why. If you want to know go here

http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,59626.html .

But with WGMS gone, WETA had to go back to classical music. Where I live WDAV has a premium signal, but not everyone is so lucky. So I wish this move by WUNC would push WFDD back toward music.

 

[triadradioguy]

WUNC is really no threat to WFDD. They will never merge. Yes WUNC would like to take over the state like they did with TV, but things have changed. WFAE in Charlotte would never sell and WFDD (Wake Forest University) would not sell to UNC. You are right that WFDD switched to talk due to the numbers. When WFDD goes digital next fall they will have a classical station to make those people happy too.

 

[vchimpanzee]

And how many people can listen to digital radio?

 

[XTalker]

The answer remains to be seen, but I suspect the classical music lover would purchase the necessary radio to pick it up. It would be realitively easy for FDD to provide a classical channel at little extra expense and could easily promote it on the main channel.