Re: college radio gone dark for summer?

[SteveOrdinetz <steveord@bit-net.com>]

Sid Whitaker wrote:

> > While I agree that there is no excuse for a station to not be on the air
> > 24/7 these days...which includes over the summer...I have found that it's
> > not as easy as one might imagine.
>
>A casual sampling of college stations in southern Maine, not
>surprisingly, reveals that some are still on, some are not. On a drive
>up to Brunswick the other day, Bowdoin College's WBOR 91.1 was silent,
>but Bates's 91.5 WRBC was on. U. Southern Maine's 90.9 WMPG is always
>on--but then again, they've got 200+ volunteers (many from outside the
>university) and a waiting list for shows.

Curiously, what percentage of college stations allow non-students on the 
air?  It seems that doing so would kill 2 birds with one stone...allowing a 
lot of aspiring djs a shot at an airshift, and fill in those gaps in the 
schedule.  I've heard that many college stations are having trouble filling 
shifts these days.  Maybe require some token payment to cover expenses?



>To raise another issue...does anyone see the FCC re-opening the window
>for LPFM?


Not likely.  I'm still not convinced that it was a good idea in the first 
place, and once applicants found out just how much it would cost to get on 
the air, it seemed to weed out the field so that only the religious outfits 
remained.  My question is how many LPFMs do you think will last 5 
years?  My guess is that once the novelty wears off most of the 
pseudo-community groups formed solely for the purpose of applying for an 
LPFM will have lost interest and the station taken dark.