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Northern Vermont University sells campus radio station to VPR

The good news is they didn't sell to EMF. The bad news is that a student-run station that played a wide variety of music will now become a classical jukebox. The student station will go online. What's happening to the next generation of radio? It's being stifled by colleges looking to cut costs.
 
TheBigA said:
What's happening to the next generation of radio? It's being stifled by colleges looking to cut costs.
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The story says the station was being run as a club, rather than by an academic department. That would very likely make it the single most expensive club at the university.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
The story says the station was being run as a club, rather than by an academic department. That would very likely make it the single most expensive club at the university.
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I get that, but it's not uncommon. I know of several college stations that are clubs, and receive some student funding. Some of them hold on-air fundraisers and do program sponsorships. The implication is that college radio has less student involvement today than 40 years ago. That's not exactly true. College radio stations, almost by necessity, have always had limited student involvement. The primary outlet for students are daily shows, and there are only so any hours in a day. So yes, broadcast radio stations are expensive, and based on per-student usage, not very efficient. But there are ways to handle that without completely giving up. I'll add that the money they're saving in FCC obligations and tower maintenance will in turn be spent on music royalties that only exist in digital radio. So there is still some expense.
 
TheBigA said:
The good news is they didn't sell to EMF. The bad news is that a student-run station that played a wide variety of music will now become a classical jukebox.
Click to expand...
Vermont Public Classical has three live and local Monday-Friday hosts, and a couple of others who do weekend specialty shows. It is only a "classical jukebox" when it turns on Classical 24 overnight and when sickness, vacations or Vermont weather keeps talent from doing a show. I'm out of range of WWLR. Anyone know what percentage of its programming was live and hosted, and what its hours of operation were?

Also, while NVU has a communications department with degree programs, radio broadcasting is a very minor player. It exists only as a concentration (not a major) for students in the university's meteorology/atmospheric sciences program to include in their studies on the road to becoming a professional radio or TV forecaster. A weekly three-hour air shift playing your favorite avant-garde jazz-funk-fusion tracks on WWLR would not be indicated on the syllabus. WWLR will contribute just as much to the future of radio as a webcaster as it has been as an FM broadcaster.

By the way, here's a description of the meteorology/broadcasting concentration. It is very impressive, and students even get to learn from Jim Cantore! But the emphasis is on digital and TV, not radio.
 
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