WRVU Now Part of Nashville Public Radio.

Vanderbilt Station Sold for $3.35 Million

In a move that will satisfy classical music fans and the NPR news audience, Nashville Public Radio cemented the deal to buy WRVU. The deal was three years in the making. Approval came in March from the FCC, but was delayed until Vanderbilt Student Communications received the $3.35 million purchase price.

Not Everybody is Happy

College radio advocates have been trying to play defense, though not with much success. Fans of WRVU hired attorneys and petitioned the FCC.

Jennifer Waits, who founded the website “Radio Survivor,” says it’s really a matter of convincing schools they shouldn’t sell.

“It’s still good to stand up for what you believe in,” she says. “People can change their mind.”
Waits and others are now focusing attention on Atlanta, where just this month, Georgia Public Broadcasting announced a deal to partially take over a powerful signal owned by Georgia State.

The Cost Can Be too High

There was also resistance when the station owned by Rice University was sold to Houston Public Media for $9 million. There was a bold prediction, at the time, that the purchase of KRTU would result in a doubling of listener sensitive in for Houston Public Media. In 2013, Houston Public Media ended up laying off its classical music staff at the end of 2013 instead.

Change Can Be Contentuious

A change to the schedule at Wisconsin Public Broadcasting 

Coverage in the Isthmus reminded of some of press and comments we always got after making changes at the stations I worked for. A thick skin is required, and it is best not to take the comments that result from press coverage personally despite the fact that listeners take the changes to their station very personally.  Most notable were comments likening us to the Philistines. One caller wanted to know who made the birdbrained decision to change the programming. Another asked  who the weisenheimer was, and another combined the two calling me a  birdbrained weizenheimer. My personal favorite described the changes as having torn the fabric of public broadcasting (very descriptive).

http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=42715

The Isthmus focused their article on the abruptness of the change and the fiscal reasons. WPR published FAQ's about the change on their website. Fiscal concerns played a big part in the decision, but aren't the only reasons for the change.  I noticed no comments to the article in the Isthmus. That doesn't mean nobody is upset. In fact, if there are no complaints, problems with audience loyalty run much deeper than the hour or two that are affected. 

Hang in there.

VPT May Face Sanctions

The Daily Journal of Vermont and the Associated Press are reporting that Vermont Public Television (VPT) may be facing sanctions.
(Corporation for Public Broadcasting review recommends sanctions for Vermont Public Television)The sanctions may be imposed because VPT did not follow open meeting rules required by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

A complaint was filed in December. An internal investigation found that "VPT's board of directors properly closed the meetings but violated federal requirements by failing to notify the public that private meetings had been held."

The recommendation of sanctions comes from the office of the inspector general for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. VPT has asked the office to reconsider the sanctions. a final decision should come within 180 days.