Thursday, September 16, 2010
Cream Vanderbilt Student Communications Considering Moving WRVU to 'Exclusively Online Programming' [Updated]
Posted by D. Patrick Rodgers on Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 5:34 PM
According to the statement, the change is being considered in part because "fewer Vanderbilt students are listening to over-the-air radio," and "there has been declining interest among students in recent years to volunteer as DJs." Were Vanderbilt VSC to sell its broadcast license, the revenue from that sale will reportedly be used to "create an endowment to support innovative student media experiences, facilities and operations at Vanderbilt University." Readers may recall that several programming changes have been made at WRVU over the past year, including the number of community DJs being capped at 25. If this sale transpires, the call letters WRVU will likely be kept by the students for use online, and neither the elimination of paid or volunteer positions nor the sale of on-campus broadcasting equipment itself will be necessary.
These considerations are reportedly open-ended, and thus no deadline for a sale has been made. Because "Vanderbilt students have always held the majority voting interest on the VSC Board of Directors," the students had to authorize this exploration process. The VSC Board of Directors will allegedly review feedback regarding the potential WRVU shift, and they welcome your input either via this site or in letter form to the address below. We at the Scene/Cream will continue to report any WRVU developments as they unfold.
VSC Board of Directors
ATTN: WRVU
2301 Vanderbilt Place
VU Station B 351669
Nashville, TN 37235-1669
UPDATE/CLARIFICATION, 9/18: While WRVU is the Vanderbilt radio station, housed on the Vanderbilt campus, its broadcast license is technically not owned by Vanderbilt. It is owned instead by VSC, a non-profit corporate entity separate from the university (even if Vanderbilt is its sole chartered corporate "member," and it exists to run Vanderbilt's student communications, such as WRVU and the Vanderbilt Hustler). It is VSC, not Vanderbilt, that pays the professional staff, runs the station, and has the ability to sell the license. HT: Harry Lime.
Comments (42)
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"there has been declining interest among students in recent years to volunteer as DJs."
Vanderbilt's not so much a university as it is a factory for privileged wet blankets.
I feel like the community DJ axe was just a maneuver to make the station less relative in the Nashville community, and now they're pulling this. But it's obvious that they're only concerned with broadcasting on campus and not accepting the responsibility that comes with having an FM station, i.e. being a good neighbor and providing entertaining programming that can't be found elsewhere for the FM frequency listening community.
Wasn't a big motivator for axing the community DJs to give students more broadcasting experience? Actual radio experience? If WRVU goes off the FM dial, what can they teach that some kid sitting in his dorm room with a laptop can't learn?
I wonder how much the license costs. Perhaps it's time to model after WFMU and take it over.
Hell, I support WFMU! I'd gladly support WRVU if it was actually a community station. WRVU is one of my favorite things in Nashville. Maybe that's lame or sad, but it's true.
It's not some corporate wank. It's songs that mean something to people. It's people actually being themselves because they can, not because of ratings and market share. The quality of experience is heads and shoulders above nearly any other station in town. (NPR is great, but for different reasons, etc)
I'm not a student so I guess I've got no say in the matter, but this really stinks.
Nashville needs a KEXP or WFMU type station. Maybe that should be on the agenda for the Nashville Music Council.
I listen to Sirius XM-U and BPM on XM. As such I almost forget that we still have FM stations out there.
Perhaps Vanderbilt, Belmont and/or MTSU should collaborate to jointly own a student-run channel on satellite radio, that way they'd have split costs and ability to spread DJ/programming demands across multiple student bodies.
I can think of one VSC board member who would be quite irked if the department that employs him went online-only due to "declining student interest." The people involved in this decision ought to know that there are other things a college can provide students and community members, other than "innovative media experiences" and an eye on the bottom line.
Check out the Facebook group "Save WRVU." Apparently Vanderbilt Student Communications has purchased the website "savewrvu.com" and some others and has them feeding into the party line at http://www.vandymedia.org/wrvu/. But they forgot about Facebook.
Tell me who I have to blow and how much I have to pay them to do it and I'm putting my 2 cents down on a WFMU style scenario.
" Apparently Vanderbilt Student Communications has purchased the website "savewrvu.com" and some others and has them feeding into the party line at http://www.vandymedia.org/wrvu/. "
hahahahah wow. this is absurd.
this initially made me angry, but im mostly just still resentful about the recent changes in regards to community DJs. but after some consideration, i think jesse probably has the right idea. depending on vandy to host nashville's independent radio is pretty lazy, and it isnt really their responsibility. nashville is definitely overdue for a real independent station that has more local ties and much better management. i think this would be a great focus for the nashville music council. where do i sign?
A real independent station doesn't need signatures, it needs $$, and lots of it. I was part of a group which tried to start an independent station while in college. What I learned was that the the FCC licensing process is long and expensive, never mind the equipment & studio.
Find deep pockets or forget about an independent station.
Very recently the DJs were told that there are approximately 70 people who want to be trained as DJs this semester. Presumably the vast majority of these are students. If the number of interested students had been declining, it appears to have taken a big upswing recently.
As for "savewrvu.com," it does route you to the site where you are given the form to post comments and the address to send comments to by regular mail. I have no clue who made this Web address, but it will give people an easily remembered link to the information necessary for complaining.
I know Rice University in Houston is going through the same thing right now (albeit without the 'lack of student interest' angle). There are probably a lot of other universities considering the same move. I'm really worried about the precedent this could set. College radio itself could be in for some dark days.
WAWL in Chattanooga followed the same path some time back. They sold their shit to some Evangelical ministry.
i agree with Tobin. maybe we should just let the station go. it's not always good to get exactly what you want. that's the consequence of being an outsider. who's with me?
Who cares. Radio is fucked. Student DJs suck cause they got important stuff to do like try to get laid, so they don't go to their shows. Plus they have shitty taste in music. Once there was DFunk and Curse of the Drinking Class and now there is only Modest Mouse. Who fuckin cares man?
I don't know. I suppose it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it, but what kind of self-respecting city doesn't have a viable college radio station? At the very least, even if WRVU stays around and withers into a shadow of itself, that beats the alternative. Because not having it will be like not having that copy of "The Shape of Jazz to Come" in your record collection. Even if you never listen to it, you want to at least know it's there. And you especially want other people to know it's there. I do listen to WRVU — especially when my iPod runs out of batteries or I don't know which Springsteen bootleg I wanna spin — but this is as much about local-pride as it is anything else, and I'd like to see the brass at Vandy show that they've got some of that.
I have a hard time getting behind WRFN. They're so stereotypically lefty that it's a little embarrassing. I appreciate that they exist and were a refuge for some of the WRVU community DJs who got bounced last year, but I don't want to listen to the Howard Zinn Variety Hour any more than I want to listen to a mumbly, lethargic Vandy student stumbling through playing The Shins and deadpanning the PR notes.
@Gold. You're exactly right. If left with the likes of 100.1, 105.9, 97.1 and it's equivalent 96.3, one might go all "hang the dj hang the dj hang the dj." then simply turn their dial to 92.9 for some sweet cinnamon bread. well, not that good. but my point is: it's vanderbilt's money, not ours.
I think I may have been misunderstood. I fully support the effort to retain WRVU as a functioning over-the-air station. I also support the idea of an independent station stepping in if WRVU falters.
I simply want it to be known that starting such an endeavor is incredibly difficult, time intensive and expensive.
Simulcast of RFN on RVU, combining programming efforts? It would give RFN the over the air reach that it lacks, plus it would add even more diversity in RVU's lineup.
Not even college kids want to listen to a radio station where they play bad garage rock at a whisper's volume.
And they wouldn't want to "dj" at a radio station no one is listening to.
With all the creative, interesting people in this town, I can't imagine it would be all that hard to populate an indie radio network. If we could come up with something even a quarter as cool as what KCRW is doing in Santa Monica (and we could - easily), our collective heads would probably explode.
Everyone would want to be a dj on that station. Problem is, no one would want to administer it... or throw money at it.
I kinda think we'd already have it, if that weren't the case.
Agree with karaokeblackout that internet streaming isn't radio. Radio is something you can listen to when you don't work at a desk, or have a long commute, and I have both of those. True that the mumbly DJs and endless Shins are a little annoying, but way, way less annoying than Bob and Tom, or Free Beer and Hot Wings or whatever fatuous, syndicated Zoo Crew breakfast moroncy is on offer. Like @wh, the only other music radio choice I'll have is 92.9.
I like the idea of a WFMU community run station. It would be a lot of work though and most of folks I know are lazy and apathetic. Maybe a kickstarter pledge thing would be gauge of the public's interest in owning and running a station. Just seems that since everyone went ape over the community DJs getting kicked off, then why not make the station totally community run.
Sorry if this posted twice
The WRVU call letters couldn't be reserved for exclusive online use, since online radio stations are not licensed by the FCC and thus do not have FCC-issued call letters.
A buyer could promise to change the call letters for WRVU, but this would not prevent another station elsewhere from potentially picking up those call letters.
My hope is that Vanderbilt will see the short-sightedness in such a move. Having a license in a limited spectrum such as FM radio is a valuable thing, something that could not easily be replaced. Selfishly I hope WRVU remains owned by Vanderbilt and a voice of independent music in Nashville.
WRFN speaks with Theatre Intangible on their likelihood of buying the WRVU license:
http://www.theatreintangible.com/?p=931
Saying "there has been declining interest among students in recent years to volunteer as DJs." is in direct contradiction to reasoning used for the community cap enforced last winter.
Well as a community volunteer who went unappreciated when 'Mikil" came on as the GM, this is hardly surprising. However my pupils, "DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE that it is ONLY "VSC" (come up with an acronym for THAT to use) responsible for this...the UNIVERSITY at large IS culpable, and you students should meet behind closed doors and plan a stategy based upon past stuggles for freedom and rights of the oppressed that might carry the day and save it.
If I had a son or daughter enrolled there, and part of this mess at the radio station, I would consider the "transfer method", taking my hard-earned tuition$$ elsewhere if they wanted to be on-the-air and have a chance to parlay that experience into future media.
DJ Naph
1st runner -up 2008 March Of Dimes AIR awards for best overnight radio show ( on WRVU)
P.S.
Since the "VSC" always listens to the opinions of veteran radio personlities within their midsts, with commercial "chops", just trying to help out while keeping in "radio shape" I say, "Go ahead and SELL IT!" Other colleges have - my alma mater did it with class...during summer vacation; and the kids came back to find an office where the studios used to be. LOL
Bonne Chance.
I went through all of this back in 1981 with WLYX FM89 in Memphis, which was operated by Siouthwestern College (now Rhodes). The first thing they did was restrict the number of community volunteers (S'western had very few volunteers from the beginning back in 1972/3). First they brought a hatchetman in as GM (a senior) who then made sure that the rest of us volunteer management staff know that there was a new mandate. We fought back and they simply closed us down over Memorial Day weekend.
They reopened it a year or two later, moving the station across campus but that only lasted a year or two. They sold off or let get stolen the 20,000 LP priceless record collection and sold the license to the public library system for a reading to the blind channel.
All because we were actually very popular (actually showed up in the Arbitron ratings every so often). Popularity is a double-edged sword, especially when you're playing politically sensitive music (we were obviously there at the beginning of punk, for example). The more popular and famous you get for being "progressive", the more uncomfortable the powers that be get and the more influential the rich alumni base becomes. It was even worse for Rhodes because it's a religious-based institution. Honestly, I'm surprised we had the run that we did. But would I fight again? Absolutely.
Just a thought...Louisville, last time I was there, had a public radio station that played "Americana" music--it was a true delight to the ears. Maybe VSC could offer first option to WPLN, which has serious fundraising chops, with the understanding that they will use it to highlight all the great music that gets made in Nashville but doesn't get played in Nashville? Or maybe WPLN could enter into some kind of partnership with WRFN that put WRFN largely in charge of programming? Just brainstorming here. (Disclosure: I am part of the team that does the Green Party of Tennessee's "Green Hour" Sundays at 7 on WRFN.)
"Who cares. Radio is fucked. Student DJs suck cause they got important stuff to do like try to get laid, so they don't go to their shows. Plus they have shitty taste in music. Once there was DFunk and Curse of the Drinking Class and now there is only Modest Mouse. Who fuckin cares man?"
That's exactly what they want you to feel. The plan to sell WRVU was set into motion at least a year ago. First cap the community DJ's, get people to lose interest, then sell it right up from under us! You're falling right into their plan, man. We gotta fight now and build it back up from the bottom.
Congrats. They realize what should be perfectly obvious: terrestrial radio will be dead in 5 years.
Yeah right, ypxx, and I'll bet you would have sold all your vinyl and replaced it with 8-track tapes back in when that was the next best thing. Then replaced the all broken 8-track tapes with cassettes.
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