Re: WJUL being taken oven by Lowell Sun ??

["Mark Watson" <markwats@comcast.net>]

  John Bolduc wrote:


> Wednesday morning, heading home from work around 6:45AM I tuned into WCAP
> 980 Lowell. The two parties hosting the local show were in a tizzy over
> "the Lowell Sun taking over operations of the UMass Lowell Radio".
> Station.

   It was announced today that the Lowell Sun and U Mass Lowell have signed
a 5 year agreement that will allow the Lowell Sun to air a
news/sports/weather/traffic format from 5-9 AM weekdays, followed by an
interview type show from 9-10 AM. The tentative title of the 5-9 AM block is
" Lowell Sunrise".

   The Lowell Sun reports that a "non profit" organization, Lowell Community
Broadcasting will be formed to oversee program production and fundraising to
cover the costs of the programming. The Sun will provide production and
broadcast expertise, as well as news and programming content and promotion
for the programming in the paper. What does a newspaper staff know about
broadcasting?

   Current and former WJUL staffers are not exactly happy with this venture.
Some fear that the students will eventually be squeezed out of their time
slots on the station if this news programming expands down the road outside
of morning drive.

   And not only were the WCAP morning hosts voicing their opposition to this
news. "Afternoon Live" on WCAP tackled the topic in the first hour this
afternoon, myself stopping by the "Gary Francis Sidewalk Studio" , and
former WJUL PD and former WCAP staffer Bill O'Neill joining in via phone
from Vermont to discuss this issue. As I stated on the show this afternoon,
I don't like what's happening here. I sense that the students will
eventually be squeezed out as I can see WJUL going all news/talk/info a la
WBUR, where the students have no say in the college station. Gary isn't
exactly thrilled by this either, I'm sure he'll drop his .02 to the list,
along with Mr.O'Neill.

   Sounds to me like a back door LMA, as the Sun couldn't buy WCAP or WLLH,
this is the next best thing. Is it illegal to LMA on a non-comm or college
station?

Mark Watson