WXXY

[TheBigA]

This "deal" reminds me of someone leasing a car rather than buying one outright. You end up spending money each month on car payments but when the lease is over with the car isn't yours. This is the same case with WXXI and WRUR.

Well not exactly. It looks to me to be more of an LMA, which is the model radio is going to have to use now that money is not as easy to come by.

The reality is that universities are hurting for money, and they're not going to spend a few million dollars so their students have an activity. I know of several schools that are deducting a budgeted fee for the campus station from the student activity fee, and the students are furious about that. In this day where a college education costs $100K or more, you will see less and less of colleges looking to own and control their radio station outright. Unless it pays for itself, there will be a deal like this.

Radio tried buying and owning everything, and that led to a lot of debt, and a lot of negative press about concentration of media. There are ways to do things in such a way where everyone retains their independence and still presents quality service for their community.

 

[Radknowski]

...There are ways to do things in such a way where everyone retains their independence and still presents quality service for their community.

As you would this would apply this to Buffalo and Rochester, would you define, please? Thanks.

 

[aaronread]

What happens, for instance, if UofR officials someday decides they want full control of WRUR; meaning they no longer want to be affiliated with WXXI and instead want the station to be controlled by students?

It's a valid concern, but the likelihood of that happening is quite remote. There has to be some form of LMA in place, and no doubt it's a multi-year contract. Even if that contract comes due within another 1 or 2 years from now, that's more than enough time for WRUR to cement itself in the local Rochester mindset as a successful public radio outlet under the WXXI management and branding.

Now imagine what happens if U of R decides "too bad, we're taking WRUR back and doing it ourselves." They're going to find themselves trapped between two VERY unattractive options. Either end WRUR's run as a pubradio outlet, and endure incredible wrath from the local community...a community U of R depends on for charitable giving, I might add. Or, they try and keep running it as a pubradio outlet on their own, and discover that they have to hire five fulltime staff for the station (NPR membership rules) and deal with the slight problem that WXXI has locked up a lot of the affiliate rights to NPR, APM and PRI programming in the Rochester market. Even if U of R can get around that (and admittedly they probably could) they'd still run into the unpleasant costs of that programming, which would easily be in the high six figures, possibly into seven figures.

And WXXI might get nasty and boot them off the Pinnacle Hill tower. That means finding new tower space and that's expensive. All the moreso since they can't move back on-campus; WRUR was already booted OFF campus once before because of signal blanketing problems on the campus.

Either way, U of R would be incurring substantial monetary outlay for something that brings them no more benefit than the existing arrangement does now. Even in good financial times, I don't see the administration doing that. Especially not considering the shape WRUR was in before WXXI saved it.

"But what about the students," you might ask? Fair enough. First of all, there ARE students on WRUR. Maybe not doing/saying EXACTLY what they want to do/say, but that's not big-bad-WXXI, that's just good management of a student activity....running a successful radio station does not mean letting the inmates run the asylum, after all. Second, I believe WXXI is helping U of R set up a webcast "radio station" to be "on the air" whenever WXXI is programming WRUR. Considering how few of my students even own an AM/FM radio these days, yet ALL of them own a laptop or iPhone, I think a webradio station makes a lot of sense.

 

[TheBigA]

...There are ways to do things in such a way where everyone retains their independence and still presents quality service for their community.

As you would this would apply this to Buffalo and Rochester, would you define, please? Thanks.

Probably more appropriate for someone connected with the stations to define, no? I'm speaking in generalities.

 

[Radknowski]

...There are ways to do things in such a way where everyone retains their independence and still presents quality service for their community.

As you would this would apply this to Buffalo and Rochester, would you define, please? Thanks.

Probably more appropriate for someone connected with the stations to define, no? I'm speaking in generalities.

From reading your posts, you seem to know a lot about the business. You've been posting more frequently here and it seems you offer opinions that are contrary to some of the long time posters here. I was wondering if you could address the issues of a radio station's obligation to community service in general, given your background in public radio, ownership and your present position.

 

[TheBigA]

You've been posting more frequently here and it seems you offer opinions that are contrary to some of the long time posters here. I was wondering if you could address the issues of a radio station's obligation to community service in general, given your background in public radio, ownership and your present position.

Public radio was created in 1967 in order to offer a service that wasn't motivated by ratings or profit. That was 42 years ago! Unfortunately, 15 years later, the government renegged on its side of the deal, and left public radio out in the cold to mostly fend for itself financially.

In my view, the way a station provides community service is to maintain a close connection with major community leaders. A community is built around its leaders, the elected officials, public servants, and people who are responsible for providing the regular services. It's their job to serve the taxpayers, who pay their salaries. Our station had the Mayor on the Board of Trustees. So were other community and business leaders. We saw our job to respond, when requested, to the Mayor and his team. He was elected, not us. But we were not an extension of his PR department. That led to a complicated relationship. Every station is different, and I don't know the specifics of the stations in Rochester, but that's how we did it.