WHPK Radio Station In Trouble After Funding Slashed
Posted by Mike Ruffone on July 19, 2023, 10:07 am
WHPK, University Of Chicago Radio Station With Deep Ties To The South Side, In Trouble After Funding Slashed
WHPK 88.5 FM is run by students and was one of the first stations in Chicago to play rap music. Drastic budget cuts could end its legacy, the station's manager said.
Sadly, you will see a LOT of educational low power stations going dark. Students overall are no longer interested in radio (why should they when the music is so commercial and narrow and literally the whole industry is shrinking to nationalized and Hard Drive status?)
# WRRG Triton is dead air most of the day (dont even bother to track or HD the station).
# The 99.1 in Cicero (Morton College I believe) is dead air and been like that for years.
# 88.1 in Wheaton has handed it over to EMF clearing one of their less popular formats. Was Classic KLove, I think it is KLove 2000 now.
The younger gen is majority off of radio and obtaining via IP. - Not a secret looking at all the younger aged format ratings.
Z
Re: WHPK Radio Station In Trouble After Funding Slashed
It still surprises me that a few schools, especially a high school like Homewood-Flossmoor with 88.5 WHFH, are going strong with the radio aspect of their mass-media curriculum.
If a school is sitting on a non-comm allocation that already has decent coverage (e.g. WHFH Flossmoor, WPCD Champaign), or can be paved over with an upgrade and/or COL change, it makes sense that the school board typically won’t put up much fight when an EMF, Calgary or BBN inevitably comes along to take advantage.
Once in a rare while, the school institution puts up resistance. It seems like these situations often end up with the school losing out; maybe it’s because school districts probably won’t lawyer up to save this shrinking segment of their educational repertoire. Is there a rule barring any quid-pro-quo between non-comm entities? Like, can a struggling school district (isn’t that like 88% of them) get some financial benefit for giving up their license?
Re: WHPK Radio Station In Trouble After Funding Slashed
It still surprises me that a few schools, especially a high school like Homewood-Flossmoor with 88.5 WHFH, are going strong with the radio aspect of their mass-media curriculum.
You have some powerful people that support this, while you also have tenured faculty that keep drumming this up as being important (why lose their career), when, it no longer is. I believe in mass-media curriculum, I do not believe the FM signal is as important. Promoting IP, podcasting is more beneficial and in alignment with the younger generation.
If a school is sitting on a non-comm allocation that already has decent coverage (e.g. WHFH Flossmoor, WPCD Champaign), or can be paved over with an upgrade and/or COL change, it makes sense that the school board typically won’t put up much fight when an EMF, Calgary or BBN inevitably comes along to take advantage.
Most HS and EDU signals are under 90FM and more so piled on under 89FM. EMF will usually come in and will allow the school to own the license not to lose it, or they will pay to move in on the frequency. EMF found value in the 88.1 Wheaton frequency event if it does not have a huge footprint. But does this really matter when EMF is gobbling up Class C signals in major markets, with ease and no stress on the pocketbook?
Z
Re: WHPK Radio Station In Trouble After Funding Slashed
> Promoting IP, podcasting is more beneficial and in alignment with the younger generation.
That’s what surprises me most about continuing to maintain the FM signal. I’ll bet less than 3% of the H-F students who have ever listened to WHFH ever heard it via any FM tuner. More and more households today have no terrestrial radio devices at home, and if they do they are completely unaware of it… Like the big multi-function 7.1 A/V system which has 8 device inputs, and happens to have a tuner buried in there. With no antennas connected.
> … EMF is gobbling up Class C signals in major markets …
Absolutely. I am thinking by 2026 or so, when EMF and/or their non-comm competitors continue to expand. EMF now has 3 feeds as far as I am aware: K-Love, Air1 and Boost. If they’re okay with one of those (like Boost) landing on Class D translators such as W248BB, adding a 4th or 5th feed on more Class A’s, D’s and LPFMs seems viable — especially in markets where competitors (e.g. BBN, Pensacola, SonLife, Calvary, Family Radio, shine.fm) have already gobbled up top-notch signals.
Can owners like EMF work around ownership caps with LMA’s?
Re: WHPK Radio Station In Trouble After Funding Slashed
BOOST is not an EMF offering. They are leasing the signal from EMF and are owned by Gateway Creative Broadcasting.
EMF is offering KLove, Air1. They used to have K-Love Classics which split to K-Love 90s & K-Love 2000's. They also have internet only feeds from the 1970s, 1980s, and 2010s plus K-Love Birthday Blend which spans 40 years of them playing CCM.
It seems their goal is to get off of Class A signals and end up on Class C signals. Then they take the Class A and replace it with Air1 or another stream. Then you have Class A's which fill in areas with signal issues or their alternate streams. That includes translators. Sidenote: Have you heard the MaxxCasting boosters that 94.3 utilizes? Seamless and transparent.
The LMA scenario is interesting. You have them on 97.9, 92.5, 94.3, 103.9 among others, add in 97.5 that they are doing an LMA on. I think the cap does apply to the smaller Class A that do not cover the whole market too.
How can you LMA a non-comm, not for profit? Not sure? But good point.
on July 19, 2023, 10:07 am