tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2600560384355436278.post3894841538227066301..comments2024-02-24T15:19:02.095-08:00Comments on SPARK NEWS: NPR GREW UP WHILE DOUG BENNET WAS PRESIDENT • WAMU CONTINUES TO SLIDE IN DCKen Mills Agency, LLChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792966356989583664noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2600560384355436278.post-65645759384698915762018-06-14T07:35:21.424-07:002018-06-14T07:35:21.424-07:00Another great story about Doug Bennet comes from h...Another great story about Doug Bennet comes from his days as President of Wesleyan University in Connecticut. During that tenure, the college radio station, WESU, went into crisis. It was legally owned by an independent entity, not the college. But nobody had remembered to file the paperwork and processing fees with the State of CT to keep that entity legally alive. It went defunct with nobody realizing it for years until suddenly it was time to renew the FCC license and everyone realized the FCC license was legally invalid. It was held by an entity that didn't exist. <br /><br />Bennet stepped in with his contacts at the FCC and got them to transfer the license to be legally held by the college, and cut a deal with NPR affiliate WSHU at Fairfield University to lease about half of every broadcast day. It paid enough to cover the costs of a full-time station manager for WESU and provided enough desirable content to make WESU relevant to the local community. A lot of the non-NPR stuff is still "out there" pretty far but it's appealing enough that, when combined with more normal public radio fare, provides a more steady income from fundraising.<br /><br />There was some bloody murder screamed by the students and community volunteers at the time, but since then things have calmed down nicely. There's still plenty of airtime for students & community DJ's and now there's a steady hand at the top (his name is Ben Michael and besides being a nice guy he's been perfect for the gig - he's done a great job engendering trust from all the disparate stakeholders) and the future of the association of WESU to the college community is assured.<br /><br />It went so well that in 2007 when the last big FCC filing window for new non-commercial radio stations was about to happen, I worked with Ben & WESU to expand their 88.1 signal substantially into Hartford. Both to get better signal but also to block any new stations on 88.1 north of Hartford that would ruin their existing coverage. It worked great, and the college even paid to have the new directional antenna & bigger transmitter installed. <br /><br />Win-wins all around! :)Aaron Readhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07971835990882097517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2600560384355436278.post-14981609357578484672018-06-14T07:20:29.185-07:002018-06-14T07:20:29.185-07:00The real news in Boston is that WBUR is up from 5....The real news in Boston is that WBUR is up from 5.9 to 5.6 to 6.2, and is 3rd in the market. Meanwhile WGBH is strong but dropping from 4.5 to 4.7 to 4.1. For a while there it looked like WGBH was neck-and-neck with WBUR but something's changed in the last few months and they are crushing WGBH now.Aaron Readhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07971835990882097517noreply@blogger.com