Non-pubcaster likely to snap up Kentucky college station
Kentucky's Georgetown College is negotiating the sale of public radio station WRVG to a prospective buyer outside of public broadcasting.
An agreement of intent barred Michael Dawahare, v.p. for institutional advancement
at the Baptist-affiliated college near Lexington, from disclosing the buyer's
identity. But he said the buyer will not "continue public broadcasting
in its true sense." He expects to close the deal in a few weeks.
The college wanted to focus on its core mission of education, Dawahare said.
It spent about $45,000 annually on WRVG.
College officials had talked with WRVG members who wanted to purchase the station, which Dawahare says the school would have preferred. "We pulled every stop trying to make sure the listeners had a real shot at this, and we just couldn't make numbers work," he said. Debt service was one obstacle, he said.
He blamed WRVG's loss on systemic problems in public radio. "I would like for the sale of WRVG to be recognized as just one more lost public station, because public broadcasters live in a business model that doesn't make sense," he said.
[In more confident days in 1998, the station had launched an ambitious, if ultimately unsuccessful attempt to compete with NPR by offering a low-cost network service to other stations.]
Dawahare urged pubcasters to act as "stewards of the left-hand end of the dial." He said NPR must reduce programming fees and CPB should make Community Service Grants more widely available to fledgling stations. He also advised public radio to follow the example of stations in Philadelphia and Louisville, Ky., that have divvied up programming formats to provide diverse public service and avoid competing head to head. His station competes with Lexington's WUKY, a public station that, like WRVG, airs Adult Album Alternative music.
Earlier story
Radio network springing up at ‘the other Georgetown’
A small, liberal arts Baptist-run college in Kentucky has announced plans to launch a public radio network in four months.
"World Radio," which plans to provide a programming stream of information and music — with drivetime shows in a format its creator calls "news and blues" — is being seeded by $1 million from donors to Georgetown College.
The institution heretofore had little activity in public radio save for its 140-watt campus station, WRVG. But a confluence of factors, beginning with Georgetown's learning last year that it could increase WRVG's power to 50,000 watts, gave rise to an ambitious plan to provide stations, particularly "second and third" major-market outlets, a low-cost alternative to NPR and PRI.
Observers are naturally skeptical, pointing to the financial drain of producing competitive programming, particularly news/talk. Others question whether the station marketplace can sustain an additional program service. And everyone is aware of World Radio's lack of capital in terms of credentials and locale. As one executive producer put it: "It's the wrong Georgetown."
But Georgetown says it's an up-and-coming institution. World Radio staff purposefully note that, thanks to a recent deal, the campus' new $15 million sports complex houses summer training camp for NFL's Cincinnati Bengals. And a local observer says Georgetown President William Crouch is "a fundraising animal."
How did WRVG jump conceptually from operating in an 8x10- foot booth in the student center to launching a national network? Once the FCC gave word that WRVG could power up to 50,000 watts, General Manager William Gillespie began planning a new program schedule. Taking Morning Edition or All Things Considered was out of the question because competitors WUKY, Lexington, and WEKU, Richmond, already air them. Gillespie and Crouch began conceiving of a heavily local schedule, with plans to put some of it on the bird to enhance underwriting appeal.
Eventually they discovered that putting a full schedule on the Public Radio Satellite System wouldn't cost much more than renting channel space part-time. According to Tom Martin, host and creator of WRVG's The World's First Rhythm and News Show, NPR's satellite office would charge him about $86,000 a year to secure a channel for 15 hours a week, and $136,000 to secure one full-time. They plan to have their own uplink.
The service will be heavily underwritten, thus a cheap buy, says Gillespie. He expects the fee for all programming on the schedule would be $375 a year.
A quirky thing
But there are a lot of "ifs" leading to viability. Roger Chesser, g.m. of neighboring WUKY, says World Radio's chances depend fundamentally on its having a sustained source of the necessary income. It will help, too, if the network has in its pocket an outstanding show — as American Public Radio (now PRI) had Prairie Home Companion had when it launched, he says.
The planned schedule would include one midday and two drivetime shows that blend info and music. Martin, a veteran broadcaster, will host Rhythm and News from noon to 3 p.m. It will feature conversations with writers from leading newsmagazines ranging from U.S. News to Utne Reader, and Martin crafting musical selections around the discussion, he says. (He is a keyboardist as well as journalist.)
Though reluctant to label the music, Operations Director Mike Dawahare did refer to it as Triple A/Americana. But it's not music you'll hear on commercial stations, he says. "We're talking about going deep into the releases of traditional American blues artists, American folk artists, [and] contemporary music."
World Radio's two drivetime programs are Early World, with Sam Lipsinger, formerly with Mutual/NBC, and Down the Road with Betty Leigh, who created the flagship station of the Americana format, according to WRVG. (She is also a television personality on the Television Food Network, and "appears regularly on CBS as David Letterman's girlfriend.")
Other programs will be wholly music or information, one or the other. Duke's Duet, for example, has guitarist Duke Robillard performing in studio with guests. Access will have academics discussing topics such as: how rapid changes in communications affected public life in the previous and coming millennia.
Stations will probably be wary of the shows that blend music and info; Chesser says he declined last year to take Rhythm and News into syndication for that very reason. His station, WUKY, aired the show from spring to late summer 1997. Though some listeners complained that it featured too much talk, others liked it, he says. Gillespie for his part says the program is "really quite compelling."
Chesser is generous in his praise of Martin, who is not only air talent but World Radio's director of network programming. "He's one of the best radio people I've ever met," says Chesser.
In addition to anchoring at AP and RKO, Martin worked at ABC radio, where he substituted for commentator Paul Harvey. He has also won a Peabody. Dawahare covered for NBC-TV and RKO conflicts in Latin America, other wars, presidential tours and papal visits. Both men are from Kentucky originally, recently returned.
Though Martin argues that with today's technology, being located in a major city isn't necessary for a program service, he does acknowledge that the Kentucky venture is "a very quirky thing."
"We all know that," he says. "And we have an uphill climb when it comes to credibility. We're a small, unheard-of college. But are we blessed by coincidence? Providence? I don't know. It just happens I came back when I came back, and Dawahare happens to be back here, too."
Credentials and coincidence aside, at least two managers question whether World Radio has adequately studied the public radio system and its needs. Eric Hammer, p.d. of WGUC in Cincinnati, applauds the notion of aggregating resources into a network, but says that if World Radio is marketing to the entire system, "they'll have to listen to customers. They may start out thinking they know what they want to do, but I would encourage them to go out to stations and listen to them. They could still come up with a viable service."
Posted Nov. 5, 2003
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