Nashville Public Radio adds second channel; Vanderbilt dumps radio

As in Houston, a student station in Nashville will move from broadcast to the Web, and the local pubradio station has doubled its over-the-air capacity, moving to separate news and classical channels. Vanderbilt University’s campus media group, majority-controlled by students, opted to receive $3.35 million, selling its 91.1 MHz channel to Nashville Public Radio, the Tennessean reported. The buyer will be able to go all-news with WPLN and play music on the acquired frequency, resolving a conflict that has pained the mixed-format station, General Manager Rob Gordon told the Tennesseean: “We’d have people call in and say, ‘It’s Saturday afternoon, I was wondering if Mubarak had resigned, and I turn on WPLN and you’re playing opera.’” The student station, WRVU, will be heard online. At Vanderbilt, as elsewhere, some decision-makers assume that young people wanting music will go to the Internet, not to radio. The sale of WRVU, expected by observers, is part of a gradual sell-off of stations long operated by universities.