Re: WXXI going HD (WRUR and ...)
I will preface this response that I am a now a WXXI employee, but I want it to be pretty clear that these are personal and general observations based on my experience and comments on some of the posters here, and do not reflect any official position or knowledge of WXXI policies or projects, other than what is public or what I have heard from my contacts in the industry:
First, much of volunteer radio suffers from a narcissistic attituide. It is not about the station, but about them and their show. In many ways, this is the plague of much of college and community radio. There may be moments of brilliance, but much of it lacks an overall focus. At it's best, there can be some bright spots. However, even with WRUR, at one time they used to sign off the air in afternoon drive for "transmitter and studio maintenance!" This does not seem to be in the best interest of their audience. It should be about the listeners, not the hosts, and for that matter, not even the station, to a major degree, other than the bills have to get paid to keep them on the air. Thus, WGMC, with its focus on Jazz, is doing well in gaining audience. WXXI and WBER also have a focus and do well. WRUR is doing better. WITR is, well, doing the same as it always has, and has seen little or no growth. The other issue that comes up is that what happens to a popular show when the volunteer leaves or graduates, and now that show is replaced by a different genre? Worse, can someone step in to continue the success? In many cases, this does not happen at the volunteer level, and even at the "professional" level. In some areas, this is not a problem, but in many ways, a free form radio station with block programming that changes every hour does very poorly in terms of serving its audience and attracting long term listeners, except for certin genres. A lot of the lamenting of the death of "underground radio" goes back to the early 70's, when FM was in its infancy, and no one knew what to do. I think this is a lot like remembering that first car or girlfriend you had, and the glasses ane memory are not only foggy, but when we take an objective and clear look, we truly remember our ride was a rust bucket and that first love was not as pretty as we remembered. Yet, it still gives that warm, nostalgic feeling, when in reality, it was not that great, and in many ways, pretty unlistenable. For example, I loved WSAY just for not knowing what was going to be played next. However, overall, it was pretty bad. Radio has matured and become niched, which some say is bad. However, it has given us more formats and choices. Perhaps if we want the "progressive" customized experience, perhaps that is best left to IPods.
One thing to look at for stations is to ask "what is the mission of the station is and how it meets that." The Rochester metro did not really have a full time Jazz station that reached the entire market until recently ( yes, I know they still have some specialty shows and I really don't consider WJZR a jazz station). So, with this change, one should ask the question, should WRUR, WITR, WXXI, and WJZR be doing Jazz at all? Is there a better way of serving the listeners than to duplicate programming? Jake lamented the longtime classical program on WRUR going away. With its low audience and duplication, it just did not make sense, even though there is some difference due to the now year round opera slot on FM91.5. At the same time, if there are 3 gospel music shows on Sunday morning, would you as a program director add one at the same time, just because you had a student or volunteer that wanted to do a show at that time? What would be the point? At the same time, there are probably some great national programs not on the airwaves, as well as some local ones to consider, that would benefit from a cooperative arrangement with stations sharing programming and resources. Would NPR's Jazzset and Piano Jazz be better on WGMC and open up time on WRUR or WXXI-AM for more offerings? What about HD channels? Taking WRUR HD would indeed give even more offerings to the community, and this could include local programs and programming. The same is true if WGMC did this. Perhaps they could do Spanish all the time. This could be a great win for all the stations in adding programming to the benefit of their listeners.
As for the notion of WXXI pouring a ton of money to refurbish the WRUR studios, have you actually set foot in that building? With the exception of Enco for playback and recording of WRUR music, ids, and other elements, there has not been much done by WXXI in terms of money into that facility. WXXI will be spending some bucks to move the transmitter to Pinacle Hill, which should get rid of some of the problems with WRUR being on the Hyatt, and yes, it should improve the quality of the audio of programming originating from the studio and the network programming, as well. The audio equipment and such were all WRUR purchases, and pretty limited. Most of their stuff is not very up to date, in terms of studio gear.
FYI, I have never heard of the rumor of WXXI wanting or offering to buy WGMC. I think this is rumor or a misinterpretation of some market studies that were done some time ago, that looked at all formats in the market. I never heard that from any of my contacts, both in and outside the industry. I also disagree that "the university took the easy way out" in going with the partnership. If they truly took the easy way out, they could have sold the station to the highest bidder, and we would likely have had another Family Life, K-LOVE, or Family Radio station covering downtown. Yes, the University could have pumped resources and kept it all its own. However, what is the mission of the University? There is no "radio or journalism" program, as some nearby schools (Brockport, FLCC, Geneseo to same a few), and it would likely have caused a lot of discussion if not outcry from the faculty, which is really the focus of the main mission of the university: College Education. This is true of many university licensees, which does not see broadcasting as its mission.
I think the discussion is a good one, and if we all could run a radio station, we would all have different ideas. And we all would be pointing out how the other person is wrong for what they are doing. There are a lot of choices out there now, and things will likely increase in terms of additions. Even with HD there are more choices (check out the HD3 service of WXXI for some decent programs that aren't on at the moment in the market, including The World, As it happens, and even Bob Edwards, or some of the musical offerings on some of the HD2s of the commercial stations), and you can always go with XM or Sirius. People can choose to listen and support a public radio or commercial radio station, and this is the beauty of it. If you don't like what you hear, turn the dial, don't write that check, or in the case of commercial stations, don't buy the products they sell.
