Re: WNHC

[mwaters@wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

>Mike Thomas wrote:
>I see two problems with putting community/college programming on AM.  First
>off, many college kids do not consider AM to be "real radio" to them since
>most people in their age bracket are almost exclusively FM users.  Secondly,
>the highest listened to dayparts for college radio are nights and overnights,
>since most students are not in classes.  If the AM signal isn't very close to
>campus, few students would listen, and interest in student-run radio could
>drop off.

        Good points. Lack of stereo (which, for practical purposes,
cannot/will not be remedied at the receiver end except in some cars) is
another problem. In the Yale case, however, and putting aside my sarcasm,
WNHC (which is not a stereo station now) puts plenty of signal day and
night over the downtown area that includes Yale and its vicinity. Its
antenna is very close by. One of the unusual features of a college student
community is that the demographic is highly concentrated rather than living
throughout a metro area. I think word of mouth (almost everyone knows
someone who works at the college radio station, etc.) and promotion on
campus will help, if  they do it right. Also, it may be the first AM
station the students have ever listened to, but they'll find it if they
want to listen to it. After all, they got into Yale. It will be interesting
to see if in five years this AM signal is pretty much the same as college F
m stations on other campuses as far as the Yale community goes. Or not.

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