RE: WJUL being taken oven by Lowell Sun ??

[Aaron Read <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 05:31 PM 7/31/2003, Bill O'Neill wrote:

>Mark Watson:
>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.
>
>Okay, I'll bite.  The university told me the "problem" was not really the 
>radio
>station.  It was the fact that the university has a image problem with the
>community as a whole.  Not sure what, who, why.  So, they get this idea to 
>move
>the message to the masses with their licensed stations.

You mean just UMass Lowell...or all the UMass outlets?


>Step one, IMHO, would
>be to roundtable the students and the very accessible and willing alumni, to
>study the problem, seek solutions, create a structure at the station such that
>lots of synergy happens.

In theory yes...although to play devil's advocate, this approach has been 
tried by many colleges in many situations and frequently what ends up 
happening is a lot of unreasonable protest from the student end and 
embarassing PR for the college.

Without tooting my own horn here, I think a better idea would be to hire a 
professional consultant who knows non-commercial COLLEGE radio (not a 
commercial radio pro) and have that person run the above ideas for synergy 
(God I hate that word...)


>So, forget the line about trying to make WJUL more professional sounding, more
>linked to the community.  It's an opportunity for the Sun to spawn "Lowell
>Community Broadcasters" under the shield of a 501C3, LMA a non-comm. and 
>in 2006
>take a run at the license, thereby installing itself in a market that, FCC 
>rules
>changes notwithstanding, would receive the Sun's editiorial position from two
>sources instead of one.

While I myself have also opined that several flagging non-comm's may be 
vulnerable to hostile LMA's come license renewal in 2006, I also will point 
out that the FCC takes a VERY dim view of forced LMA's.  Unless the Sun 
ends up paying mucho dinero to UMass Lowell...don't expect to see 
*official* control being ceded anytime soon.  Real-world control might - 
MIGHT - be another story.

BTW, people have asked how the Sun can make money on this deal.  I don't 
see how it CAN'T make money on it...have you seen how much dough WBUR rakes 
in?   The only reason they're having layoffs is that they overbuilt in the 
1990's and their underwriting dropped up from underneath them....and lately 
they've continued to overextend themselves IMHO (Dick Gordon doing the 
Connection live from Baghdad, for example).   WERS also picks up a tidy sum 
from their fundraisers, too...something like a quarter-million, isn't 
it?  WMBR made over $75000 on their last one.   The money is there for the 
taking.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aaron "Bishop" Read             aread@speakeasy.net
FriedBagels Consulting          AOL-IM: readaaron
http://www.friedbagels.com      Boston, MA