Score 1 win for UMass Lowell's WUML

[Bakers_Bookstore]

Students at WUML were able to prevent a privately owned professional baseball team's games from being broadcast on their radio station.

http://www.lowellsun.com/sports/ci_2796281

They did lose the battle to prevent the university from brokering time to the same lowell sun to provided a local "news" show from 5a to 10a mon - fri. The paper was eventually kicked off the air but the "news" show remains.

Now they have hired Christopher Lydon, yes of The Connection fame, to develop a show and named him a senior fellow at the school...he's the only fellow of his dept! The show is produced at WGBH Boston and is rebroadcast the next morning on WUML at 9a since the university's "news" show was just rebroadcasting an earlier hour anyway.

 

[hykos1045]

Win? Huh? I need to read into the story a little more deeply to understand the debate, but what could be wrong with a college station brokering out a little time that they're not using for their own purposes. Baseball is summer, when listenership is down. A chance to get the school some revenue, with some kickbacks involved for the station itself. And maybe the college kids get to broadcast/produce the games? With all these pluses, I'm skeptic of the skeptics. I mean, technically its not "brokered programming" if it is also "sports programming" which is in the interests of the listener base and may even augment your listener base, God forbid we get a little risky and change formats for 3 hours a day during the summers.

But like I said, the proposed contractual obligations may have been problematic, and where does one draw the line for free radio.



> Students at WUML were able to prevent a privately owned
> professional baseball team's games from being broadcast on
> their radio station.
>
> http://www.lowellsun.com/sports/ci_2796281
>
> They did lose the battle to prevent the university from
> brokering time to the same lowell sun to provided a local
> "news" show from 5a to 10a mon - fri. The paper was
> eventually kicked off the air but the "news" show remains.
>
> Now they have hired Christopher Lydon, yes of The Connection
> fame, to develop a show and named him a senior fellow at the
> school...he's the only fellow of his dept! The show is
> produced at WGBH Boston and is rebroadcast the next morning
> on WUML at 9a since the university's "news" show was just
> rebroadcasting an earlier hour anyway.
>

 

[Bakers_Bookstore]

> Win? Huh? I need to read into the story a little more deeply
> to understand the debate, but what could be wrong with a
> college station brokering out a little time that they're not
> using for their own purposes. Baseball is summer, when
> listenership is down. A chance to get the school some
> revenue, with some kickbacks involved for the station
> itself. And maybe the college kids get to broadcast/produce
> the games? With all these pluses, I'm skeptic of the
> skeptics. I mean, technically its not "brokered programming"
> if it is also "sports programming" which is in the interests
> of the listener base and may even augment your listener
> base, God forbid we get a little risky and change formats
> for 3 hours a day during the summers.
>
> But like I said, the proposed contractual obligations may
> have been problematic, and where does one draw the line for
> free radio.

There are actually a couple of problems with your understanding.

First, I doubt that is it legal for a non-commercial educational radio station to broadcast a for-profit baseball game. If it is technically okay it would be next to impossible to adhere to the FCC rules regarding underwriting/branding issues and not tell the listeners to "take action" during the broadcast.

Second, they hired professionals to do the broadcast. No student involvement at all.

Third, The university had already brokered time to the local newspaper to allow them to put on a "news" show 5 hours a day 5 days. That program failed after 15 months but the students were not given the hours back. The students were able to get the administration to sign a contract with them stating they would not take any more air time away from student programming.

So when the university announced a multiple year deal to broadcast a privately owned, for profit baseball team in a time period they promised not to take with no student involvement...well you can imagine how warmly that was received!

 

[radiomike]

> First, I doubt that is it legal for a non-commercial
> educational radio station to broadcast a for-profit baseball
> game.

Nothing in the Rules Prohibit this. It is sports programming. Period.

>>If it is technically okay it would be next to
> impossible to adhere to the FCC rules regarding
> underwriting/branding issues and not tell the listeners to
> "take action" during the broadcast.

Not a problem. Underwriting and conforming any language to meet FCC rules should cover it. There are and have been quite a few non-commercial stations, including student stations, covering pro-sports. For awhile, about 30 years ago, the Oakland A's were on a 10 watt FM student station as the flagship!

> Second, they hired professionals to do the broadcast. No
> student involvement at all.

I agree this is a problem. Students should have been invovled to make a really nice partnership. Professional experience would be of great benefit.

>The students were
> able to get the administration to sign a contract with them
> stating they would not take any more air time away from
> student programming.

One thing to keep in mind it is likely this contract is not legally binding. The Univeristy holds the license and ultimately, can do whatever they want, including locking out the students, brokering it, or selling it. Thus, a good relationship with the licensee is key.