The Death of College Radio

[Rockadelic]

SoulOnIce said:Rockadelic said:





Not sure what the "tone deaf" reference is about but UNT station doesn't reach Dallas......at least not where I am......Denton is about 60 miles north......my kid went to the school and it's one of the best music schools in the Southwest.....they have a completely different and separate music scene from Dallas.





KNON is a great station......Big Al & The Snake had a legendary Hip-Hop show..




I was called "tone deaf" in the NFL thread for not appreciating sarcasm, so I was saying I didn't know if you were being sarcastic or not. KUNT showed up on a couple of online lists of "local Dallas radio stations" but obviously you will know better whether it reaches D or not. KNON does seem like a great station, very similar to mine, which despite being a "college" station run out of MIT, is technically a "community" station, which is why I am even able to be a DJ there.




I've heard your show.....and I would consider any station that would put your show on as a "great station".

 

[Horseleech]

There's a radio station called KUNT?

 

[SoulOnIce]

LaserWolf said:





That does not sound right.





I don't think NPR owns stations.


I am probably wrong, but I thought they provided content to independent stations.


It also seems to me that they have dropped, and most local affiliates have dropped, the classical format.





Please correct me if I am wrong.




Admittedly, being in the middle of this business, I hear all kinds of info, some conflicting, some with an air of paranoia, so I don't have all the facts. I know that looking it up myself it appears that the CPRN has actually shrunk considerably in the past couple of years, but a DJ from my area that now works out in Cali claims that the CPRN has tried to take over an endless list of community/college stations and that only because so many stations have held out have they been unable to completely monopolize the lower end of the airwaves.

 

[Horseleech]

SoulOnIce said:LaserWolf said:





That does not sound right.





I don't think NPR owns stations.


I am probably wrong, but I thought they provided content to independent stations.


It also seems to me that they have dropped, and most local affiliates have dropped, the classical format.





Please correct me if I am wrong.




Admittedly, being in the middle of this business, I hear all kinds of info, some conflicting, some with an air of paranoia, so I don't have all the facts. I know that looking it up myself it appears that the CPRN has actually shrunk considerably in the past couple of years, but a DJ from my area that now works out in Cali claims that the CPRN has tried to take over an endless list of community/college stations and that only because so many stations have held out have they been unable to completely monopolize the lower end of the airwaves.




CPRN and NPR are not the same thing, and CPRN got out of broadcast radio in 2008.





http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cacheOaYy0bd01MJ:www.classicalradio.org/+cprn&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

 

[dollar_bin]

LaserWolf said:SoulOnIce said:mannybolone said:Notably, 90.3 FM has been sold to a non-commercial classical public radio station. Not the greatest of options but at least it's not a commercial station.




Yeah, but NPR has been buying up community radio stations around the country and replacing local, eclectic and sometimes radical radio programming with lifeless national formatted classical stations. The loss of local community radio is tragic, especially if you are involved in the music scene that thrives on touring and local underground bands being played and promoted through this media.




That does not sound right.





I don't think NPR owns stations.


I am probably wrong, but I thought they provided content to independent stations.


It also seems to me that they have dropped, and most local affiliates have dropped, the classical format.





Please correct me if I am wrong.




KUSF's frequency had to be sold to a non-commercial station, the FCC reserves the bottom of the FM spectrum, anything from 88.1 to 91.9, for educational non-commercial stations. This is the rule in the US, although border cities can have commercial stations in this frequency from foreign licensed stations like 91X in San Diego. KUSF is not being bought by NPR, but by a conglomeration of public classical music stations ultimately owned by USC.

 

[mannybolone]

USC ownership = salt in wounds.

 

[SoulOnIce]

Horseleech said:





CPRN and NPR are not the same thing, and CPRN got out of broadcast radio in 2008.





http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cacheOaYy0bd01MJ:www.classicalradio.org/+cprn&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a




yeah, I read that, too ... but:

In an online press release, USF details its move. "The university has reached an agreement to assign the FCC license for radio frequency 90.3 FM to Classical Public Radio Network, which is launching a non-commercial classical music station in the Bay Area," said the statement, noting CPRN is owned by University of Southern California.

http://www.baycitizen.org/blogs/pulse-of-the-bay/kusf-radio-air/





that article also recounts the heartwarming story of how they cut the transmitter in the middle of the day, without warning, with the uninformed music director of the station trying to figure out what had broken ... and then saw the guys changing the locks on all the doors.





as for your second claim, that CPRN and NPR are "not the same thing," NPR would beg to differ:





http://www.npr.org/about/press/030505.cprn.html





again, that article is from over 7 years ago, so who knows the status of CPRN now, with the misleading info out there that they are no longer operating ... yet they apparently took over KUSF this very afternoon.





I freely admitted that my info on this matter is sketchy, because there are conflicting reports out there and I hear different things firsthand from different people. But you seemed to just want to discredit my statement without any real idea of what you are talking about, either. Go Patriots.

 

[spelunk]

Neither NPR nor CPB really own much of anything nor would they have the cash to do this. And anything under 91.9 is commercial free and must serve public interest, and is bound by stricter regulations.





What I simply do not comprehend is the motivation behind the continued expansion of USC's classical radio non-profit. 9 million dollars is a big investment and I cram to understand how they are pitching this to potential donors. It's a VERY unique situation for a non-profit, because while technically the sale of an FCC license is simply the sale of a large asset, in practice it is the sale of a small arm of the university, shielded only via the common practice of declaring campus radio a separate and autonomous organization.





I'm scared for my old station and everyone else in the UCRN network. Campuses will take note of this and jump on an easy way out of budget deficits.

 

[LaserWolf]

I don't know anything about cprn.





On the whole, classical music is almost none existent on most public radio stations.


NPR, has dropped almost all their classical programing in favor of news, Garrison Keillor, and Car Talk. Shows like American Routes provide folk and roots music.


Most public radio stations seem to have followed suit best I can tell.





I think the loss of free form college and community radio stations is a bad thing.


They provide an outlet and format that is missing on most public radio stations.

 

[spelunk]

http://www.kusc.org/Channels/PressReleases/Story.aspx?id=1345866





here's what actually happened. I thought something was fishy. The company who owned the major classical station in the Bay wanted to turn it into a more profitable corporate classic rock station, but didn't want to look bad in getting rid of a popular classical station, so they struck a joint deal with KUSC that moves it into the public airwaves.





The funding is still really hazy, but this makes more sense, even though the result still blows. It's still crazy to me how valuable an FCC license is, even in public airwaves.

 

[spelunk]

http://www.kusc.org/Channels/PressReleases/Story.aspx?id=1345866





here's what actually happened. I thought something was fishy. The company who owned the major classical station in the Bay wanted to turn it into a more profitable corporate classic rock station, but didn't want to look bad in getting rid of a popular classical station, so they struck a joint deal with KUSC that moves it into the public airwaves.





The funding is still really hazy, but this makes more sense, even though the result still blows. It's still crazy to me how valuable an FCC license is, even in public airwaves.

 

[dollar_bin]

spelunk said:I'm scared for my old station and everyone else in the UCRN network. Campuses will take note of this and jump on an easy way out of budget deficits.




Plus as terrestrial radio dies its long slow agonizing death, it will be harder and harder to convince university boards that radio stations are a relevant aspect of their school's mission to serve and educate their students and the community. My guess is that few college radio stations are entirely funded by listeners and underwriting, so many stations draw at least some funding from university sources, making the decision to sell the license that much easier. Thirdly, now that there's the option of internet broadcasting, the university can claim that they're not destroying the station but moving it to "online-only", as we see in the KUSF case.

 

[SoulOnIce]

LaserWolf said:





I think the loss of free form college and community radio stations is a bad thing.


They provide an outlet and format that is missing on most public radio stations.




and missing on satellite radio, yet syndicated non-local rigid format classical music is easily found there.





this is my main beef. it's just another needless nail in the coffin of local culture, community arts, etc.





most areas have one station like this, at best. and if they are being taken away, it's a damn shame.