Monday, December 6, 2010
Arts and Entertainment Possible Sale of WRVU Broadcast License Makes The New York Times
Posted by Steve Haruch on Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 11:31 AM
[A]s colleges across the country look for ways to tighten budgets amid recession-induced shortfalls, some administrators — most recently in the South — have focused on college radio, leading even well-endowed universities to sell off their FM stations. That trend was felt this summer at Rice and Vanderbilt, among the most prominent of Southern universities, stirring debate about the viability of broadcast radio, the reach of online broadcasting and the value of student broadcast programming.“We play music that you won’t find on any other Houston radio station” said Joey Yang, a junior at Rice and station manager for KTRU. “KTRU’s mission is to broadcast exactly what you can’t find elsewhere on the dial.”
Scott Cardone, a sophomore disk jockey at WRVU with a two-hour electric blues show, pointed to the potential void in Nashville if Vanderbilt’s FM signal were to be sold. “The community will lose what probably is the last radio station playing anything other than country, Christian or Top 40 in the whole city,” he said. “You can’t hear the music that we play anywhere else.”
Cardone's the DJ who was on WSMV earlier this year. If you've been following this story on Nashville Cream or in the pages of the Scene (and I hope you have been), there are a couple of surprises in the Gray Lady's report, including the fact that VSC director of student media Chris Carroll apparently will talk to New York media:
At Vanderbilt, [Carroll] said, “what’s happening, really, is a big public discussion about is this a good idea or not, and there’s no conclusion to that yet.” Rice, he said, made the decision to sell KTRU behind closed doors — without student input.Mr. Carroll, who does not vote on the organization’s board, contends that students just don’t listen to terrestrial radio anymore.
“We will pull a random sample of Vanderbilt undergrads — of 500 or so at a time. And what we’ve found is that these students aren’t listening to radio at all. It’s not just WRVU,” he said. Instead, students are listening on mobile devices like smartphones and laptops, both of which are more readily serviced by the Internet, he said.
Wait a second — I thought this wasn't about that. I thought it was about Securing the Future of All Vanderbilt Student Media in Perpetuity. Here's what VSC chair Mark Wollaeger told me in September:
"As the board sees it, we have a valuable asset of declining value, at a time when ad revenues for print ... which is the main source of revenue for WRVU ... are declining," Wollaeger says, "and ... the possibility of selling the license came up because, by selling it, there's a chance for endowing VSC, and thereby being independent of ad revenues."
In that same conversation, Wollaeger also said that student listening habits were "not the main motivation" for exploring this sale. Carroll's statements may be excerpted from a broader conversation, but he sure seems to be emphasizing the student listening habits side of things.
Now, there's another subplot here that smells ... I don't know ... fishy. Tucked into the NYT story is this brief little mention of WRVU's listenership:
According to Arbitron, a media and marketing research firm that measures local radio audiences, the station reaches just over 30,000 people each week in greater Nashville.
This will sound mighty curious to people who've been hearing VSC's version of those numbers. Here is what Wollaeger told a meeting of concerned WRVU DJs, trainees and other interested parties at a meeting in September, shortly after the announcement of the proposed sale: "Arbitron ... the listenership is so small it doesn't even register. ... It's way down in Nashville. ... The estimates are, like, 300 regular listeners in the community." (Emphasis mine.)
Comments (9)
Showing 1-9 of 9
Doesn't the president of Vanderbilt get a compensation package of $2mm per year according The Chronicle of Higher Education? This is like a junkie selling off the family furniture to pay for the next fix.
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Man, WRVU is legend. i remember when they upped their wattage, and we could listen to them clearly in Murfreesboro. There were WRVU listening parties. I don't listen to commercial radio. WRVU is on my pre-sets in the car. Shutting down WRVU by Vanderbilt would become the kind of decision that they'd want to take back, but can't, and the regret would just escalate.
SAVE WRVU!!!
"have focused on college radio, leading even well-endowed universities to sell off their FM stations. "
Surely this doesn't apply to Vandy, although I don't know where you look to be sure. Turn the University upside down?
The idea of WRVU having only 300 regular listeners in the community is preposterous, and reeks of B.S. Also, stop polling undergrads, and start polling the greater Nashville area community. WRVU is my #1 preset in my car, and I can't imagine traveling around town without it. Nearly every Nashville native that I know listens primarily to WRVU or one other independently owned station, and next to nothing else, when it comes to music on the radio. The rest of the stations available on the airwaves are the musical equivalent to pop-tarts and McDonalds - junkfood, completely lacking in substance and nutritional value.
PLEASE help save WRVU!!!!
I wish someone could somehow bring to the fore the essential aspect Nock mentioned: They don't care about the community. That would be a PR nightmare for Vanderbilt, and may be the only thing that can save the station.
Even worse, Vanderbilt Administration doesn't seem to care about its own students! Chancellor Zeppos is totally ignoring their cry for help. PR nightmare, indeed.
Here's a little summary of what the hell is going on with 91.1 WRVU FM right now:
91.1 FM WRVU is the oldest, continuously running non-profit FM station in Nashville, and is Nashville's ONLY non-profit and totally independent voice for music and other totally unique programming. WRVU is the voice of Vanderbilt University and Nashville's "voice of the community". We are all busy in our daily lives, of course, but we need to remain diligent and make time to help save WRVU. We all need help and encouragement to keep the battle alive. It is too easy to let the the rest of life take over and lose focus on what is important. Saving WRVU is important.
WRVU has been a part of Vanderbilt University and a part of the Nashville community for almost 60 years. Losing WRVU would not only be a tragedy for Vanderbilt University and its history, it would also be a tragedy for Nashville, Music City, itself. Now it is time to become active and do all we can to help save WRVU, not only a historical beacon but a current vital part of Vanderbilt and its surrounding community. 91.1 FM WRVU and Nashville are symbiotic.
The station is currently up for sale by Vanderbilt Student Communications (VSC), the non-profit company that Vanderbilt spun off in 1967 to give all media at Vanderbilt FREEDOM to print/say whatever they wanted (during the Vietnam War era) and very importantly, to shield Vanderbilt University from responsibility and liability. Unfortunately, the VSC has become something of a bad parent and wants to sell their most financially valuable child, WRVU, to use the money to fund their ballooning budget and fund the OTHER media at Vanderbilt. Their reasons given for selling ring false once researched, except for the financial reason. It is all about the money. WRVU itself costs a small fraction of the VSC's yearly budget (approximately 6% at most, which varies slightly from year-to-year. While the VSC's salaries take up a whopping 44+% of their current $900,000 budget. Yes, at most, WRVU only costs $75,000 per year to run, and that is probably an over estimate. The VSC itself has given the figures of a $15,000 to $75,000 per year cost to run WRVU.
WRVU existed for almost 20 years before the VSC existed. The VSC started in 1967 with one paid staff member and 20 students running everything. The advisor was a professional journalist. This continued until fairly recently, but now the VSC has 7 salaried staff members who receive a total salary of more than $400,000 of the $900,000 budget.
There has been a lot of talk and statements that VSC and WRVU are not officially a part of Vanderbilt University. This is not true. The "word Vanderbilt" in the name "Vanderbilt Student Communications" is not a coincidence. In fact, the call letters WRVU stand for "We aRe Vanderbilt University"! Never forget that.
Visit these sites for further info on the Save WRVU effort:
www.savewrvu.com (redirects to the next website)
www.savewrvuradio.wordpress.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-WRVU/155963281089773#!/pages/Save-WRVU/155963281089773?v=wall
http://groups.google.com/group/save-wrvu?hl=en_US
