Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Hot Goss Breaking: WRVU Purchased by WPLN, Will Become Classical Station
Posted by Jim Ridley on Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 2:35 PM
The Scene has received word that after months of speculation, the Vanderbilt college radio station WRVU 91.1 FM has apparently been purchased by WPLN 90.3 FM, the city's National Public Radio affiliate. The new 91 Rock will be WFCL — Classical 91 One. It will offer classical music 24 hours a day, seven days a week, freeing WPLN to pursue all-NPR news programming.
A press release is expected later today. More details as they arrive.
UPDATE, 3:09 p.m.: Official press release below.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Vanderbilt Student Communications and Nashville Public Radio Announce Launch of Classical 91.1
Nashville, Tenn.- June 7, 2011 - The Board of Directors of Vanderbilt Student Communications and the Board of Directors of Nashville Public Radio agreed today to the transfer of the license of WRVU 91.1FM to Nashville Public Radio. The new station’s call letters will be WFCL and its mission will be to showcase classical music and the arts and promote local performances and events. The change in format is effective June 8.
WRVU’s eclectic programming format continues without interruption as an online service and will resume over-the-air broadcast service on WPLN’s HD3 channel beginning in the fall of 2011.
The agreement calls for a payment of $3,350,000 from Nashville Public Radio to Vanderbilt Student Communications, gives WRVU the use of WPLN-HD3 and guarantees internship opportunities for Vanderbilt students in Nashville Public Radio’s award-winning news department.
Vanderbilt Student Communications is an independent, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization chartered in 1967 to manage Vanderbilt’s student media. After careful deliberation, which included inviting extensive feedback from the community over the last nine months, its Board concluded the creation of an endowment was critical to ensuring VSC’s ability to service the information and cultural needs of the Vanderbilt student population.
“The media industry is changing dramatically, a fact nowhere more obvious than on a college campus where younger consumers and content producers are gravitating to innovative technologies,” said Mark Wollaeger, Vanderbilt University English professor and chair of the VSC Board of Directors. “This agreement will help ensure for our students the opportunity to shape the future of media for years to come.
“Students and faculty members representing VSC researched various options privately and publicly for two years and ultimately concluded the sale to Nashville Public Radio best addresses the greatest number of needs,” Wollaeger said. “This arrangement will allow 91.1FM to preserve students’ radio experience online and on-air via HD, remain a community asset, develop an internship program at Nashville Public Radio and create financial security through an endowment for VSC.”
Nashville Public Radio is an independent, community-licensed public radio station, originally licensed by the FCC in 1962 as a unit of the Nashville Public Library. Nashville Public Radio, a charter member of National Public Radio, separated from Metro Government in 1996 and has since been governed by a board of private citizens.
Nashville Public Radio operates 90.3FM, WPLN 1430AM, WTML 91.5FM in Tullahoma, WHRS 91.7FM in Cookeville, WPLN-HD2 and WPLN-HD3. All of WPLN’s program services are available as an Internet stream.
Michael Koban, the Chair of the Board of Directors of Nashville Public Radio, said, “The board was excited about the potential for the acquisition of 91.1FM to strengthen our entire organization. We saw clearly how our signature public radio formats, music and news, could reach their full potential for audience service as standalone stations.”
Nashville Public Radio President Rob Gordon said, “This move strengthens our ability to deliver both news and music because it gives us room to enhance and build each service.
“Over the years our listeners and supporters have asked us to establish separate news and music services, which we’ve not been able to do because of the limited number of frequencies available on the FM band. Multiple public radio stations have proven successful in many other cities; now we’re proud to say Nashville can support both an NPR news and a full-time classical music station.”
As part of its mission the new station will partner closely with area arts organizations and present local performances and interviews with artists and musicians.
“This belongs to the community,” Gordon said. “We want Classical 91.1 to reflect our region’s vibrant, energetic arts scene. Over the coming weeks and months we’ll ask area arts organizations for feedback and input on how to make the station a vital resource for the arts in our region.
“We are grateful for the confidence the Vanderbilt Student Communications board has placed in us and applaud the current and earlier VSC boards and staff for their many years of careful custodianship and management of WRVU,” Gordon said. “We are also delighted to offer opportunities for Vanderbilt student interns to experience what it is like to work in a professional newsroom.”
###
Contact:
Rob Gordon
President, Nashville Public Radio
(615) 760-2002
Mark Wollaeger
Chair, Vanderbilt Student Communications Board
(615) 915-4686
Comments (95)
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It was clearly going to be sold, and WPLN is far and away the least objectionable buyer. That's what you get for participating in pledge drives!
I wonder if WPLN has considered having their new acquisition be a free-form station? I can only imagine that would bring in larger amounts of pledges than all classical, but I'm biased because I'll be losing my show.
Of course DJ's have not been informed of the change. Hell, WRVU management has been in the dark this entire time. You expect anything less from the VSC?
"I wonder if WPLN has considered having their new acquisition be a free-form station? I can only imagine that would bring in larger amounts of pledges than all classical, but I'm biased because I'll be losing my show."
YEAH, RIGHT! Dream on.
It's not over yet, there's a whole FCC process to step through.
Now I'm confused and questioning my support of public radio. Part of me is pissed but then I have to wonder... if not WPLN, it might've been another, more commercial crappy station.
Either way, the radio alternative is gone and my contributions to NPR went towards the final solution. That is a kick in the nads.
Yeah the VSC is a bunch of back stabbing bastards. WRVU is part of nashville.. Thanks for killing it guys. I grew up with this radio station and can't believe that it's gone. screw you VSC and screw you WPLN.
msspppp,
It couldn't have gone to a commercial station because the frequency is assigned/set aside to be non-commerical.
Great. I hosted the last show on WRVU as we know it, an impromptu session of Rock and Roll Rent Control, and kept saying that pretty soon we would be able to tell more about why the call letters had changed from WRVU to WFCL. I was shooed out of the station by VSC employee Jim Hayes (whom I do believe had nothing to do with the decision to sell and is embarrassed by all this) so that the engineer, Carl Pedersen, could do maintenance. I didn't realize at the time that there would be no more broadcasting that day, or that "WFCL" would be moving to its new classical format at midnight. I'm happy with the music I played, though--got in "Left of the Dial" by the Replacements, "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio" by the Ramones, and some other cuts that the situation gave new meaning. I closed with "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory" by Johnny Thunders.
I'm totally disgusted, but I admit I'm curious about this new HD channel we'll supposedly get. I know nothing about HD radio but will do some research. It's a double kick in the head to find out that we won't even be able to do live shows ONLINE this summer--it's all automation until fall. I don't think I would have wanted to continue Nashville Jumps online-only, but I won't have to make that decision now.
Good thing VSC didn't do this in secret, over the summer while everyone was away, just like they promised they wouldn't.
Thanks to Pete Wilson for all the years of Nashville Jumps and for closing it out strong this afternoon. And to Laura Powers for putting her heart into Needles and Pins (aka my record collection ca. 1983) for the past year or so.
WPLN ... could be worse.
So now where will we turn for independent eclectic programing? Radio Free Nashville's signal is too week. Can Lightnin' become KCRW or even KGSR? They'll have to drop the Train and Goo Goo Dolls, and Adam Duritz, and.... they may be hopeless. Power to the people. PLN needs to annex one more for us. KCRW (Santa Monica) is public radio. They really should consider who isn't being served with what's currently on the air. Rise up.
Is anyone else hearing the irony being aired on 90.3 right now? Domino Radio story:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2011/06…
man I love irony...so bummed
The more I think about this, the more it seems to be the best possible outcome given that VSC was clearly hellbent on selling the broadcast license. Like Pete, I'm pretty in the dark when it comes to HD radio, but based on the info given on WPLN's website about it-( http://wpln.org/?p=352 ) it doesn't seem like a total loss. The HD signal has close to the same reach as the analog FM one did.
What is absolutely deplorable is the way VSC handled this. Keeping the WRVU staff in the dark about it, and especially doing it so suddenly and over the summer, like they said they wouldn't do.
Thank's Pete. I heard the Johnny Thunders song. Didn't realize I was listening to the LAST song. Perfect selection.
so do you think WPLN, which actually is a community-supported station, will listen to us WRVU types who also support WPLN? can we demand some time on the 91.1 signal for free-form radio to continue the on-air legacy of WRVU?
Of course, "endowment" here just means "VSC paychecks." Because that's where all the funding goes.
Oh, and fuck classical music.
Is there a governmental deadline for radio to go all digital (like TV)? I haven't heard of such. As it is, the student DJ's may as well set up a PA in the Sarratt student center to spin their tunes. "This one's goin' out to all ya'll over at that table, over there. No, not ya'll....yeah".
Unbelievable ......... well can promise you two stations I WILL NEVER EVER listen to again!!!!! You listening NPR??? PROMISE! !!
REMEMBER THIS DURING PLEDGE TIME!!!!
VSC Board members ..... shame,shame,shame on you!!!!!
Particularly the STUDENT members!
ALL the DJ's..... can't thank you enough for the YEARS of great tunes on the radio!!!!
You guys are the BEST!!!!!!!!
Crappy ending to a solid radio program. HOWEVER, I'm really pumped about the all-NPR news programming!
A piece of Nashville history is gone. Pretty ashamed of Vandy right now.
Got no beef with public radio or classical music, but this event is a huge cultural loss that is not offset by the new format.
I'm willing to bet your average classical listener rocks XM in the Lexus or Naxos CDs in the Oldsmobile. Meanwhile thousands of honest music fans' FM dials are heading for a new layer of dust.
Pete, you rode it into the sunset with class and style.
We can all make some extra space on our dashboards now by ripping out our radios, as there's no longer a need for them, at least in Nashville. WPLN 90.3 was many of WRVU listener's #1 or #2 choice on the radio in Nashville. We'll never listen to WPLN again. Even if it is "public radio", it's still another corporate media beast take-over, even in the "non-profit" (yeah, right) world.
Music city will no longer have an outlet for independent music on the radio.
Thanks, short-sighted assholes.
Thank you thank you to Marc from New Wave Smackdown, whose Friday Morning Drive was my first favorite radio show on WRVU, and who told me the station accepted community DJs.
Thank you to the many, many trainees that were stuck hanging out with me every week, and who taught me as much as I taught them (particularly Laura from Needles + Pins, who went on to DJ one of my LAST favorite radio shows on WRVU).
Thank you to everyone who called, not to make a request, but to tell me I was doing a rad job.
Thank you to everyone who put up with me playing the wrong song or accidentally ejecting the CD while it was playing.
Thank you to everyone who came in to guest DJ and share their favorite tunes with me and all the listeners for the past few years since I started the Summer of Guest DJs.
Thank you to my favorite fan who I met last year at Bonnaroo and who recognized my voice, who told me my show helped him get through a really tough time in his life behind bars (for real. he's a good guy).
Thank you to Needles + Pins, Nashville Jumps, Penguin Parade, The Mixdown, Antennas to Heaven, Karaoke Blackout, Sounds of the Bayou, Liberadio, D-Funk, Assorted Fruits & Cheeses, the Curse of the Drinking Class, Hipbilly Jamboree, We Own This Town, Nashville Mixtapes, Holly House, The Inconsiderate Mixtape, The Best of Bread, Pocket Ninjas, The Stretch, Dinosaurs in the Dojo, Connect the Dots, Alphabet, Get Up Stand Up, and all the other amazing shows I'm forgetting for soundtracking practically every day of my life since I moved to Nashville eight years ago.
Thanks for helping me find my voice in Nashville for the past six years.
Classical music stereotypically = wealthy, highly educated listener that will shill out funds. This is pretty ironic though considering I'm guessing a lot of WRVU community listeners are also listeners of WPLN. Those fund drives to WPLN/NPR ended up doing-in our only free-form music station in town. Onion or Stuff White People Like should run some satirical material on this... Having said all that, it does blow that one of the only radio stations I listen to in Nashville (the other being WPLN) is no longer.
Thanks to all those who listened, commented, and corrected me on the air for the last four years, and goodbye to the rad library of long forgotten records and gems of American music that you will find no where else.
From the Save WRVU website:
http://savewrvuradio.wordpress.com/2011/06…
Here's the first official announcement from the VSC to the WRVU Staff, from VSC Chair Mark LOLlaeger, sent nearly 1 hour after WRVU was taken off the air:
In typical mealy-mouthed and now trademark cowardly fashion that we have come to expect, Mark Wollaeger, chair of the VSC, the organization ostensibly charged with protecting WRVU, has issued the following steaming pile:
==================================================================
Hello WRVU staff — this was held up by an attachment which I will paste into a separate message.
I ‘m writing to let you know that the board of Vanderbilt Student Communications has agreed to sell the license of WRVU 91.1FM to Nashville Public Radio for $3,350,000.
WRVU’s programming format will continue online and, as part of the agreement, will resume broadcasting on WPLN’s HD3 channel beginning this fall. The agreement also guarantees Vanderbilt students will have internship opportunities at Nashville Public Radio.
The new station, WFCL 91.1FM, will have a format focused on classical music and the arts. It will promote local performances and events. WRVU’s terrestrial signal will stop today at 2:30, switching to online automation only. At midnight tonight, the 91.1 format change will go into effect. (I apologize for the call letter confusion last night and this morning; some signals got crossed along the way.)
If you’re a DJ with a show on WRVU’s summer schedule, please note that automation will continue online through the summer. The station facilities in Sarratt will be closed effective immediately. We plan to use the time from now until the fall semester begins to upgrade equipment, replace carpet and paint. We also believe that it makes sense to pause and plan for what will be a highly promoted relaunch of WRVU as an HD and streaming station on September 1. The VSC board understands this change is disruptive to your summer plans, but it was necessary in order to prepare for a successful fall semester of online and HD broadcast programming.
To provide additional information about the sale, I’ve attached the full press release to this email.
The VSC board has been evaluating the possibility of selling the 91.1 license since the fall of 2009. Board members have spent two academic years engaging in meticulous research, soliciting outside ideas and feedback, and talking with students, alumni, other Vanderbilt community members and radio industry experts to consider numerous options.
Student and faculty board members who served on the board during this most recent academic year approved the sale of the license to Nashville Public Radio. The previous year’s VSC board approved the exploration of a sale.
It was critical to all board members that Vanderbilt students continue to have the opportunity to gain radio experience, enjoy the extracurricular benefits of their participation with WRVU, and offer the WRVU listening audience valuable programming. The VSC board believes these goals will be achieved through the continued online WRVU stream, in-studio experiences using the latest technology, and broadcasting on the new HD channel.
For those concerned that the terrestrial reach of WRVU programming will be diminished, it’s worth noting that this fall our new HD channel (which is being upgraded over the summer) will cover 4,400 sq. miles, while 91.1 FM covers 2,700 sq. miles. We also have plans to promote the new HD service, including a giveaway of HD radios to the community.
The board has closely examined the changing financial framework of the media industry and VSC, specifically. With new technology and media industry changes making headlines almost daily, it’s clear to the board the future of funding for collegiate student media is uncertain.
The $3.35 million VSC will receive as a result of the agreement will fund an endowment we expect to grow over the years and provide a reliable source of revenue for student media at Vanderbilt – indefinitely. Our action has essentially guaranteed the viability of all student media activities now and will make it possible to explore new media opportunities in the future. I believe this accomplishment is significant and tremendously beneficial to students and the Vanderbilt community.
For WRVU, this new assurance provides VSC increased opportunities to continue its investments in audio technology, studio upgrades, marketing, special events, WRVU staff training and more. The VSC board is looking forward to the various possibilities for WRVU in the near- and long-term.
We’re working in partnership with Nashville Public Radio to disseminate the news of the sale to the community. I met with WRVU Station Manger Robert Ackley today to discuss the agreement. The attached press release will go out to the media today. Alumni will be updated on the agreement in the upcoming student media alumni newsletter Tunnel Vision.
Thank you for your participation in WRVU. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions or comments.
Best,
Mark Wollaeger
Chair, Vanderbilt Student Communications Board of Directors
==================================================================
Hold on to your asses, other Vanderbilt physical media, you voted to sell WRVU for a pile of cash to finance your overseers overburdening salaries, but guess what, you're next!
Who oversees the overseers? Not Vanderbilt. Apparently NOBODY.
Stay classy, VSC.
I'm a classical musician and I work in the industry (I'm also not a person who can shell out money, for what it's worth). I love classical music. But WRVU doesn't need to change at all from what it is. I can't believe this is happening after everyone's work.
I like classical music but god public radio is all Schumann, Schumann, Dvorjac... Bleh.
Anyway if ppl bent on withholding donations from Vandy and even WPLN would consider donating to WRFN, maybe they could get a little signal boost? There's some interesting programing over there. Why not Creamers throw a little support their way? It's maybe Nashy's last chance for quality local FM... "Low Power to the People!" www.radiofreenashville.org
It could have been worse - another channel of conservative xtian talk radio and crappy jeezus music, anyone?
In fact, maybe it's time for some cautious optimism. I want to know more about this bit: "WRVU’s eclectic programming format...will resume over-the-air broadcast service on WPLN’s HD3 channel beginning in the fall of 2011." I want to know the details, to see the actual contract; presumably there will have to be some transparency on WPLN's end, as they receive federal funds, correct? If so, any contract/media lawyers care to do some charity work & tell us the details? Stuff like: Can WPLN change their mind later? What if they decide ~5yrs down the road there's something more profitable they can do with the channel than allow WRVU to use it?
I'd also like to know how much power and what bandwidth WPLN will dedicate to this HD3 channel. I want to know how the radio footprint will change. Will community djs return? How much influence over programming and dj selection (if any) will WPLN have vs Vanderbilt? If WPLN does right by WRVU, maybe savewrvu.org and related groups could send donors their way during membership drives...
~~jonnyX, 91NOISE, 1993-2001
PS - In the "...as long as I'm dreaming" Dept: Now that VSC has sold WRVU's license (and essentially "won"), will they allow WRVU more autonomy and student management a la the pre-Chris Carroll days? It would be wonderful if WRVU could split off from VSC (who under Carroll seemed intent on slowly killing the station) & form their own non-profit, overseen by people who actually care about radio (a board composed of WPLN members and local WRVU alumni?) and run/managed by students. With dedicated community volunteers to help pick up the slack, help train djs, assist with benefits, keep the station on the air during breaks, etc., of course.
PPS - What is WRVU going to be called now?
ok Chrissy, can someone from WRFN post some details on what it would take to get that signal boost? Is it even possible?
I enjoy Radio Free Nashville when I can pick it up on the way west side and those are certainly some fine folks but a station that can't even reach the vast majority of the metropolitan area can never fill the musical abyss now created by the loss of WRVU.
I have read the news of WRVU's sale with mixed emotions. To date myself, I was involved with WRVU in the mid-sixties, when we broadcast into dorms and nowhere else. I served primarily as news director, and I must say we did a decent job of covering campus events and of asking questions of VU administrators that they did not always want to hear. For the most part, we probably aspired to sound more like sophisticated commercial radio stations than anything that hinted of independence, but we did have a lot of news (thanks in part to an arrangement with CBS), and, in an ironic twist, we were very proud of our late-night classical programming.
I don't live in Nashville, but I have kept up with WRVU's growth and changing philosophy. I think all of you who have been involved in recent decades should be very proud to have created a community-sensitive station that provides programming that cannot be found elsewhere.
Given that the sale of the broadcast license was probably a foregone conclusion, I have to say it could have been worse. Classical programming is proving difficult to sustain in many communities, and it does serve a legitimate need. It is encouraging that WFCL's management promises to support local artists. It also is encouraging that the sale apparently will provide opportunities for professionally-oriented internships in news programming. Some campus stations have been sold to religious broadcasters that specialize in insipid programming, and that won't be the case here. Meanwhile, the "new" WRVU will not be the disembodied entity without a sense of place that would have resulted from an exclusive reliance on streaming on the web. HD radio has not yet realized its potential, but it could happen. Perhaps the talented staff and volunteers of WRVU can help it happen in Tennessee.
I am not celebrating, but I am, in all honesty, relieved and guardedly optimistic that something good will come of this. I think all of you who have been working and exerting pressure in the Nashville area can take credit for preventing a far-worse outcome. The managers of Vanderbilt student media do not deserve any democracy awards, but I think the pressure they have felt has prevented them from engaging in a total sell-out.
The story says all the shows will continue. The format will stay intact.
I assume you're all internet users. That seems self-evident.
But you all sound like clueless old people who don't understand they can read news on the internet and must read it on newsprint.
I can say that as I'm as old as the people you'd be saying that about.
But you people seem to be the geezers here.
Do you not know there's a WRVU app for iPhone and iPad and iPod Touch and at least a half-dozen Android apps that can let you listen to WRVU.
And please don't try to convince me there are any fans of indie music in the year 2011 who don't have at least three or eight ways to squeeze music out of the pipes of the internet.
The format and shows are going to continue so if you have a computer or iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Apple TV or Roku or Boxee or any of the dozens of devices that hook into TVs and audio systems that can turn your internet access and wifi into magic radio playing devices, you've still got WRVU.
One of the worlds largest makers of gizmos that allow you to tie your smartphone (and WRVU apps) into your car's audio system is right here in Nashville, Griffin Technology. And those gizmos start at about $15.
What is it about the delivery of content over terrestrial radio airwaves that make you so nostalgic for when terrestrial radio was actually relevant?
There are so many ways this could have turned out that would have been the end of your favorite programming.
WRVU is the programming and the people -- not the pipes that deliver it to you.
hey rex: fuck you. i've got about 3,350,000 reasons to believe that terrestrial radio is still relevant.
to wolleager, chris carroll, and the rest of the children (read: students) who make up the VSC board...i have a brief message:
Fuck You. And yours. There is a special place in hell waiting for all of you.
With utmost and hearfelt sincerity,
Luke J. Schneider
lukeschneider@msn.com
If HD Radio and web streaming are such viable ways to reach your audience, why would WPLN pay $3.35 million for WRVU's FM frequency when they were already streaming the classical music on their existing HD side channel and website? Let me guess...nobody was listening.
@rekhammock
One of the problems with streaming via the net is that it's a hell of a lot more expensive than broadcasting due to some really bad licensing fees, and thus your audience is severely limited compared to traditional broadcast radio. Plus the "broadcaster" has to pay bandwidth fees in addition to the licensing fees. I'll double check with Vandy's networking guys, but I believe that WRVU can only support ~200 simultaneous streams. Most radio stations like to reach more than 200 people at a time.
The increased expense for streaming vs broadcast is intentional. The NAB (National Association of (Commercial) Broadcasters) fears streaming even more than LPFM, since if you have dozens of local LPFM options and thousands of streaming options you're probably not going to listen to their insipid corporate crap, and that kills their bottom line, makes investors & shareholders cranky, allows all those little people to dispute the official party line, etc. Do some research & learn about the NAB's lobbying/lying to Congress back when the FCC first proposed offering LPFM licenses and shoutcast stations began popping up all over the net. Then you won't sound like a clueless twit who doesn't understand that some pipes are preferable to others.
~~jX
What is it you little morons who've never worked an honest day's living ever hate about our free enterprise system and love so much about Communism?
And why is punk rock, gangster rap and other weirdo music played by improperly-trained Communist homosexual weirdo deviates who hate America more important than THE MUSIC OF THE MASTERS played by properly-trained musicians--the music that has stood the test of time? And why are you little morons proud that you haven't been properly trained in culture and like being part of the dumbing down of America? And when you college students realize that you are NOT ADULTS and that you are to OBEY YOUR ELDERS, FACULTY AND ALL SUPERIOR AUTHORITY AT ALL TIMES? I hope the president of Vanderbilt has you all arrested and placed in the football stadium where we can watch the brave NASHVILLE POLICE beat the hell out of you until you learn to START OBEYING SUPERIOR AUTHORITY!
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