KUSF 90.3 in San Francisco,CA went off the air on Tuesday, and will be flipping to Classical, as KDFC 102.1 goes non-comm. KUSF will come back soon as an online only station at KUSF.org
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KUSF going online-only
- Thread starter travisl5678
- Start date
FWIW, I don't exactly "blame" the University of San Francisco on how they did it...in their place, I'd do the same***. But apparently a DJ was in the midst of doing his regular show and the transmitter mysteriously switched off. DJ walks out of the booth to find several suits changing all the locks and kicking everyone out. That's cold, man. Real cold.
I have heard that KUSP raised some of its budget on its own but received "some" financial support from USF. Anyone know roughly what that support was? There's a loose strategy group I'm contributing to that is putting together semi-formal plans for college-owned stations to follow to help make themselves less likely to be sold off by their parent institutions. One theory I hold is that if a station is fiscally self-sufficient...and I mean entirely so, save perhaps free rent from the studio building on campus...then that should help protect from a sale. So I'd be real curious to know if KUSP was already largely fiscally self-sufficient and got sold anyways.
*** A largely community DJ'ed station in San Francisco? Home of the original Picayune Protest? If I were in the administration I'd keep a tight lid on things and then make the change lightning fast without giving anyone a chance to organize resistance, either. I mean, resistance is inevitable, but there's no business sense in NOT doing everything to minimize it.
I have heard that KUSP raised some of its budget on its own but received "some" financial support from USF. Anyone know roughly what that support was? There's a loose strategy group I'm contributing to that is putting together semi-formal plans for college-owned stations to follow to help make themselves less likely to be sold off by their parent institutions. One theory I hold is that if a station is fiscally self-sufficient...and I mean entirely so, save perhaps free rent from the studio building on campus...then that should help protect from a sale. So I'd be real curious to know if KUSP was already largely fiscally self-sufficient and got sold anyways.
*** A largely community DJ'ed station in San Francisco? Home of the original Picayune Protest? If I were in the administration I'd keep a tight lid on things and then make the change lightning fast without giving anyone a chance to organize resistance, either. I mean, resistance is inevitable, but there's no business sense in NOT doing everything to minimize it.
Here is coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle:
KUSF: Hundreds protest plans to shut radio station
On a related note: I would love to see this particular Radio-Info board become more active on all college-radio-related topics. Much discussion occurs on the CBI listserv — but, personally, I would find this discussion-board format much more convenient. (Who has time anymore for e-mail?
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KUSF: Hundreds protest plans to shut radio station
On a related note: I would love to see this particular Radio-Info board become more active on all college-radio-related topics. Much discussion occurs on the CBI listserv — but, personally, I would find this discussion-board format much more convenient. (Who has time anymore for e-mail?
)This is another station in a trend that is being repeated throughout the country:
Rice University's KTRU
Vanderbilt University's WRVU
and now KUSF.
These are just the ones that made the news due to the backlash, there is probably more cases like this being repeated.
NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/business/media/06stations.html
But even if the station was self-sufficient for funding purposes, the station doesn't own its own license, the board of trustees owns it. Especially with budget cuts, getting a few million profit off a station that can be heard online is very enticing compared to keep around a cost neutral operation. I think a potentially more secure strategy that should be explored is moving the license under the student government if you want to put up some barriers to a sale off.
Rice University's KTRU
Vanderbilt University's WRVU
and now KUSF.
These are just the ones that made the news due to the backlash, there is probably more cases like this being repeated.
NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/business/media/06stations.html
But even if the station was self-sufficient for funding purposes, the station doesn't own its own license, the board of trustees owns it. Especially with budget cuts, getting a few million profit off a station that can be heard online is very enticing compared to keep around a cost neutral operation. I think a potentially more secure strategy that should be explored is moving the license under the student government if you want to put up some barriers to a sale off.
The FCC explicitly does not allow students to be the majority of the governing board of whatever entity holds a broadcast license. The inherent turnover is considered too great for their be to continued responsibility over the course of a seven year (eight year?) license period.
There is SOME better "protection" from a sale when the license is held by a third party like WVBR's Cornell Radio Guild or WMBR's Technology Broadcasting Systems (MIT). The parent college would not recognize the profits from a sale, and inherently has less direct influence over the decision in the first place. But it's a double-edged sword; a lot of those stations have tremendous governance problems and have far less financial security without the backing of a college behind them. WESU at Wesleyan was a poster child for that; they let their non-profit registration with the state of Connecticut lapse and, legally, the FCC license was to an entity that didn't exist. Oops. They were lucky; at the time the president was Doug Bennett...former head of NPR...and rather than just letting the station die, he had an active interest in trying to set up something that could survive for the long term. And he did, even preserving a significant amount of access to the airwaves for the community volunteers along with the students.
I've been opining on the CBI listserv that these days the only real protection a college-owned student radio station has is to become fiscally self-sufficient. For most places, that means earning about $50k/yr in revenue (not including any staff/payroll costs) which should be theoretically possible. Given how rare it is that any department within a college has the ability to earn its own funds, being fiscally self-sufficient carries significant political weight within most administrations.
Although I admit even that might not be enough: colleges are still facing ugly budgets and many are realizing that station values are declining, so if they're ever gonna sell, they ought to sell now to reap the windfall.
There is SOME better "protection" from a sale when the license is held by a third party like WVBR's Cornell Radio Guild or WMBR's Technology Broadcasting Systems (MIT). The parent college would not recognize the profits from a sale, and inherently has less direct influence over the decision in the first place. But it's a double-edged sword; a lot of those stations have tremendous governance problems and have far less financial security without the backing of a college behind them. WESU at Wesleyan was a poster child for that; they let their non-profit registration with the state of Connecticut lapse and, legally, the FCC license was to an entity that didn't exist. Oops. They were lucky; at the time the president was Doug Bennett...former head of NPR...and rather than just letting the station die, he had an active interest in trying to set up something that could survive for the long term. And he did, even preserving a significant amount of access to the airwaves for the community volunteers along with the students.
I've been opining on the CBI listserv that these days the only real protection a college-owned student radio station has is to become fiscally self-sufficient. For most places, that means earning about $50k/yr in revenue (not including any staff/payroll costs) which should be theoretically possible. Given how rare it is that any department within a college has the ability to earn its own funds, being fiscally self-sufficient carries significant political weight within most administrations.
Although I admit even that might not be enough: colleges are still facing ugly budgets and many are realizing that station values are declining, so if they're ever gonna sell, they ought to sell now to reap the windfall.
aaronread said:
That's a big part of it, but I also suggest that the students need to play the political game with the University. That was something also lacking at several of these stations. They didn't represent the University well to the public. In fact, some became a public relations problems. And all this is great preparation for the real world, because no station owner is going to allow anarchy in its operations.
The third factor is the amount of non-student involvement. If there are more non-students than students on the air, you're in trouble. Some stations involve alumni, and that's helpful to a degree. But they can't take the place of students if they're going to expect to receive student fee funding.
The rub, of course, is that these three factors are mutually-exclusive.
Excepting for colleges with strong radio curriculum, the concept that a student activity must be accountable and serve entities beyond the student body is virtually anathema. Similarly, relying on students inevitably narrows your scope to the campus because by definition very few students is going to be really knowledgeable/involved in their specific college's community because they're not from that community, and only live there for four or five years, max. (and only then for about 7-8 months of the year)
And any station that serves the community at large is inevitably going to come to a political loggerhead with the parent college because no college in America doesn't have SOME town-gown issues.
Plus very, very few stations that rely on students for all facets of operation is going to have underwriting worth a damn because wooing an underwriter is all about establishing a personal relationship with a business. Something that's nigh-impossible to do with the massive churn rate for students. Oh sure, if you've got a massive (and valuable) signal in a major market, that'll make up for any shortfalls in student charisma. And sometimes you'll get a student that's wowie-zowie on salesmanship. But either of those are pretty rare.
It's not impossible to balance the three goals of fiscal self-sufficiency, strong student involvement, and mastering internal collegiate politics...but it's pretty damn hard. And it inevitably means shifting levels of sacrifices will constantly be made on some or all fronts.
aaronread said:
I think that's why the only successful college stations, and the ones that will survive this current purge, are the ones that are completely professionally run, with paid student interns and board ops, that are CPB qualified, run NPR programming most of the day, pay rent to the university, and make them proud to be associated with the station. No use of student fees, and no use of university funds. Everyone is happy except the students, who lose their sandbox. But hey! They can broadcast on the internet! Hoo-ray!
This is really depressing. I had heard about the outrageousness of KUSF being suddenly yanked off the air, and about KTRU. But I didn't know about WRVU. The WRVU situation is especially depressing because it means that a college station being owned by an organization other than the college administration itself does not make it safe.
So what prominent college station will be up on the block next? The ones with the most wattage are probably in the most danger since they're more valuable. As with KUSF, it may depend on what area lacks a big classical station, since the NPR/classical vultures are often looking for new frequencies for 24-hour classical music operations. In Vermont, for instance, VPR dumped all the classical music off of its main frequencies and eventually set up a separate VPR Classical network which has been buying up stations throughout the state left and right. They tried to purchase St. Michael's College's WWPV but were defeated by a community outcry.
I also heard a rumor that New Hampshire's WUNH (which has pretty good wattage for a college station) had been in danger -- perhaps from classical vultures, since there's no state-wide 24-hour classical station there, although you can get Boston and Maine and VPR classical stations in many parts of NH. But I haven't been able to find any info on that on the web. Anyone know?
So what prominent college station will be up on the block next? The ones with the most wattage are probably in the most danger since they're more valuable. As with KUSF, it may depend on what area lacks a big classical station, since the NPR/classical vultures are often looking for new frequencies for 24-hour classical music operations. In Vermont, for instance, VPR dumped all the classical music off of its main frequencies and eventually set up a separate VPR Classical network which has been buying up stations throughout the state left and right. They tried to purchase St. Michael's College's WWPV but were defeated by a community outcry.
I also heard a rumor that New Hampshire's WUNH (which has pretty good wattage for a college station) had been in danger -- perhaps from classical vultures, since there's no state-wide 24-hour classical station there, although you can get Boston and Maine and VPR classical stations in many parts of NH. But I haven't been able to find any info on that on the web. Anyone know?
Honestly, I'm confused. I've been told, more than once and by broadcast attorneys, that the FCC doesn't allow students to be owners. Students can be on the board that comprises the owners...which makes sense as many colleges/universities will have a handful of "student Trustees" on the overal Board of Trustees, and usually those Trustees are the owners. But students couldn't hold the majority.
Maybe it's because WRVU is technically owned by Vanderbilt Student Communications, and not by the college itself? This page even says it's specifically controlled by a student majority. Which is something that, admittedly, I didn't know. And it really does perplex me that a student-controlled entity would voluntarily sell its license. Usually the reverse is the case. It certainly puts the last Transfer of Control application to the FCC in an interesting light...it was granted right before the announcements that VSC was exploring a sale of WRVU. Kinda makes one wonder why the people who left decided to leave?
I'm one of the five student directors that hold the license to WRVU, so I'd be happy to clear up some questions:
Because we're separate from the university, think of us as just any other non-profit with a board of directors: every director is an adult over the age of 18 and a U.S. citizen. The only difference is that we just happen to hold an FM license.
Vanderbilt Student Communications is like WHRB at Harvard and WVBR at Cornell in that we run a radio station that is held separately of the university. The difference is, at Vanderbilt, is that in addition to WRVU, VSC also operates the student newspaper, the campus TV station, the campus online news/blog portal, a satire publication, a liberal publication, a conservative publication, among other operations.
While a large amount of our budget is student activity fees, another large portion is advertising revenue from the student newspaper. In addition to helping out with annual operation costs, the money from ad revenues has funded a new transmitter/antenna for WRVU, improved studio equipment, and other capital expenses for the station. With print ad sales declining, we're led to look at the possible sale of the WRVU license - our only major asset - and using the proceeds from a sale to create an endowment to fund student media into the future.
Do students on the board get pleasure out of the fact that we could be selling the license that other students love using? Of course not. At the same time, it's the board's responsibility to ensure that there will be a VSC in the future to keep radio going at Vanderbilt.
Each year, there's a different group of individuals on the board, as students and faculty members finish out their terms. Three of the five student voting members on the 2009-2010 board are not on the 2010-2011 board, and that's because they are now graduates.
Non-students are not on the VSC board. The board consists of five voting Vanderbilt undergraduate students, one undergraduate student who acts as a proxy member, and three Vanderbilt faculty members, one of whom is the chair and another who is the vice chair.
aaronread said:
Because we're separate from the university, think of us as just any other non-profit with a board of directors: every director is an adult over the age of 18 and a U.S. citizen. The only difference is that we just happen to hold an FM license.
Vanderbilt Student Communications is like WHRB at Harvard and WVBR at Cornell in that we run a radio station that is held separately of the university. The difference is, at Vanderbilt, is that in addition to WRVU, VSC also operates the student newspaper, the campus TV station, the campus online news/blog portal, a satire publication, a liberal publication, a conservative publication, among other operations.
While a large amount of our budget is student activity fees, another large portion is advertising revenue from the student newspaper. In addition to helping out with annual operation costs, the money from ad revenues has funded a new transmitter/antenna for WRVU, improved studio equipment, and other capital expenses for the station. With print ad sales declining, we're led to look at the possible sale of the WRVU license - our only major asset - and using the proceeds from a sale to create an endowment to fund student media into the future.
Do students on the board get pleasure out of the fact that we could be selling the license that other students love using? Of course not. At the same time, it's the board's responsibility to ensure that there will be a VSC in the future to keep radio going at Vanderbilt.
Each year, there's a different group of individuals on the board, as students and faculty members finish out their terms. Three of the five student voting members on the 2009-2010 board are not on the 2010-2011 board, and that's because they are now graduates.
TheBigA said:
Non-students are not on the VSC board. The board consists of five voting Vanderbilt undergraduate students, one undergraduate student who acts as a proxy member, and three Vanderbilt faculty members, one of whom is the chair and another who is the vice chair.
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