Proposed: a minute's quiet for the campus stations silenced

A campus broadcaster group has called for its constituency to observe a national "Minute of Silence" Thursday at noon, Central time, on Thursday (April 27) to raise awareness of college station closings.

"College broadcasters need to do a better job of explaining their value and purpose to the schools and communities they serve,” said Candace Walton, board president of College Broadcasters Inc. In many cases, she said, local programming is replaced by shows piped in from out of town.

Houston: Thursday is the day that Rice University student station KTRU-FM in Houston is to be transferred to pubradio station KUHF at the University of Houston. The students’ programs will continue to go out through the website KTRU.org and on KPFT’s HD Radio channel 2.

Nashville: At Vanderbilt University, it’s not the administration but Vanderbilt Student Communications that owns and proposes to sell student-run WRVU-FM, 10,000 watts at 90.1 MHz, hoping to get $3.5 million to $5 million to invest in an endowment to pay for student media. WRVU would continue to operate online. The nonprofit owner of WRVU, the student newspaper and other campus media, is run by a nine-member board with students holding six of the seats. The group’s FAQ notes that shrinking numbers of students listen to broadcast radio and anticipates that the student paper will lose ad revenue.

Also in Nashville: On Feb. 18, Trevecca Nazarene University’s contemporary Christian music station WNAZ, 89.1 MHz, gave way to WECV, a Christian talk station operated by the buyer, Community Radio Inc., the nonprofit branch of Bott Radio Network of Kansas City. WNRZ-FM, 91.5 MHz in Dickson, Tenn., and two translators were also parts of the $2 million sale.

Mobile, Ala.: On March 21, the University of Alabama approved purchase of WHIL-FM in Mobile, expanding the reach of the university’s Alabama Public Radio network based in Tuscaloosa. Spring Hill College sold the station for $1.1 million after operating it for 30 years. Alabama Public Radio will provide a classical-music/news schedule similar to WHIL’s.

San Francisco: Student station KUSF-FM went online-only in January when the University of San Francisco sold its frequency, 90.3 MHz, to the city’s classical radio station KDFC in a complex multistation deal. Los Angeles pubradio powerhouse KUSC bought two Bay Area frequencies when it acquired KDFC from Entercom Communications. Entercom exited the classical format, making off with KDFC’s former channel.