WKCR Is In Trouble!!

[7/4]

this is different because its...WKCR - a superior station in every way, which should be supported - Melbourne is ok, but let's face it, it's Melbourne -

Fine. But what do you know about Melbourne or its music? Mike's points re WKCR apply equally and fully to my own station.

Do you broadcast on the net? What's the url?

The WKCR archives are amazing. They've been on the air since 1941. The earliest John Zorn recordings are from live broadcasts on WKCR.

I wonder why the archives can't be sold through the station as CDRs. Or to a library with the privilage to access them as needed.

[kenny weir]

Do you broadcast on the net? What's the url?

http://www.pbsfm.org.au/

[Brad]

Everybody's station is important but I think WCKR, as noted above, is a special station and an important one in jazz history. They were, according to the station, playing Monk way back in 1941. And their non-jazz broadcasting is good too. Their annual Bach festival at the end of each year is a delight. I think this station needs our extra support because there's few out there like it.

Loss of this station will diminish us all.

[7/4]

Do you broadcast on the net? What's the url?

http://www.pbsfm.org.au/

Looks like a busy schedule, I'll have to check it out.

[kenny weir]

Loss of this station will diminish us all.

Agree. I hope they make it.

[AllenLowe]

Kenny- I was just goofing - I'm sure Melbourne is fine, as is your station. WKCR just has a particular history -

[Randy Twizzle]

Here's an opinion piece opinion from the Columbia Spectator about the future of WKCR The kid sounds a tad pissed off about Schaap and company.

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/dis...52?in_archive=1

Edited January 27, 2005 by Randy Twizzle

[Randy Twizzle]

Your link does not work....here it is:

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/dis...52?in_archive=1

I corrected the bad link

[7/4]

Sounds like Mr. Wallace is a fool.

[Christiern]

When seen from his perspective (which, I believe, is essential when judging his complaint), I think he has a valid point.

[7/4]

Fuck culture, we want to listen to the game? Why not go to the game?

[Christiern]

Not a very good argument, IMO. Whose station is it?

[Brad]

When seen from his perspective (which, I believe, is essential when judging his complaint), I think he has a valid point.

I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean. When you look at anybody's opinion from their perch, of course it's understandable. However, does that make it right? This is a station that serves the community not just at Columbia and with more than just jazz (although jazz is predominant). To have another college station when WKCR is more than that hardly makes sense. You can get those anywhere. Plus, most of these kids will be moving on in a few years. This station has been around a long time and hopefully will be long after I'm gone from this earth.

[montg]

I work with college students everyday and, I know this sounds paternalistic, but what they 'want' and what they need are two different things. If one student in a hundred has his/her ears opened, soul edified and enriched, by jazz--music that would not have been heard by the student otherwise--then WKCR as we know it is worth saving.

edited for spelling

Edited January 27, 2005 by montg

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Folks, the University does not fully fund the station - it's paid for mostly by non-student contributors - i.e., you and me (providing that "you" are not a Columbia student.........).

Next, weigh the benefits of having ANOTHER amateur college station (there are plenty on the dial coming from colleges in NY and NJ) or - having a world-renowned station that is doing what NO other station - college, public, commercial - is doing.

There are plenty of students who are working on the station. And plenty of them love jazz, new music, classical, whatever - all the wide variety that WKCR is known for. But not all of the students not have the level of commitment needed to keep a 24-hour station going at the level we have come to expect. The "veterans" have that professionalism. My God - they're complaining about Ted Panken? This guy is probably the BEST interviewer I have ever heard.

The WKCR staff put on the Henry Grimes Festival in May 2003 (over 100 hours straight) - they welcomed him to the station and made him feel special, loved, and respected at a time when just about NO ONE was doing anything for him. Would WBGO? Oh please. WNYC? Nope - they're mostly talk now anyway. Anyone else in NYC? No chance. They serve a vital purpose to the New York musical community, not just to the Columbia University community. And as I pointed out earlier, their influence is not limited to just their broadcast range.

WKCR has made history. Let them continue to do this. In the time before 1970 they were nothing. Just another college station. That's what they want to go back to?

Side note: Amazingly some of the best pop music is on another "college" station - WFUV, Fordham University. They have all the great FM rock & roll DJs of the past who won't work in commercial radio because that's been all playlisted to death.

Mike

(I'm not saying they're perfect - but they're doing stuff that NO ONE else is.)

[7/4]

plus...the fact that they're even broadcasting sports at all shows that they're serving the community.

[Lazaro Vega]

Still don't know how WKCR is getting around the restrictions on web casting as imposed by congress...If you do more than three cuts by the same artist in a three hour period you're outside of the statutory web casting license and are liable for royaly payments based on your audience size. The majors are not granting blanket waivers to this rule so anything on Blue Note, Verve, OJC, Columbia, are all -- most likely as I don't know how they're getting around it -- liable to these fees. That $700,000 might seem like peanuts if RIAA ever catches up to them.

In the mean time, yes, it is cool to have their plea for cash here as they have a truely international audience. It's not merely that they're available, they're listened to.

And the talk radio version of jazz sounds really dull. Would rather hear the music. Maybe if Phil wrote out what he wanted to say in advance, boiled it down to the point, and kept his talk sets as long as the music he plays (around three minutes, so, three minutes of talk, three minutes of music, etc.) he'd have more listeners and still get his point (points) across.

Of course he won't.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Schaap is a separate issue. This is a guy who will give the time 3 times in five minutes. But leaving him aside, there are so many benefits to the station.

Driving to work this morning I heard in sequence: Wes Montgomery: Missile Blues; Charles Mingus: The Shoes Of The Fisherman's Wife; Ralph Burns: Introspection. All played (by Schaap, in fact) prior to Bird Flight.

You will NOT hear that stuff elsewhere on the dial.

At 8:20, I listened to the opening 8 bars of Ko-Ko and switched to CD. Been there, done that.

Mike

[Big Wheel]

There are two issues here: an audience issue and a management issue. There's no reason, in theory, that a compromise couldn't be reached on the audience issue so that students could get their sports some of the time and the jazz and classical departments also get their time. If a couple of hours of jazz or classical are cut out to make way for sports, some people will bitch but overall I wouldn't consider it the end of the world. If students were allowed to really make management decisions, my guess is that they would not go beyond minor scheduling tweaks. I highly doubt that they would throw away their considerable audience by drastically changing to a "college" format.

The real problem is the management issue. I don't know what WKCR's history or charter is like but my station, Harvard's WHRB, has always been a student-run affair. WHRB is a registered student organization at Harvard, uses Harvard facilities, and, as such, is subject to the rules governing student organizations. These rules stipulate that alumni trustees are to play only an advisory role--NOT to be decision-makers. At WHRB, however, the longtime chairman of the board of trustees exerts a de facto veto power over all station management decisions--and has been known to meddle with station affairs on numerous occasions, even to the level of what airs when. This is a guy who was the classical music director back in 1966 or so and pretty much considers jazz and rock (which take up 2/3 of the station's programming) to be degenerate forms of music. The result: programming has pretty much ossified, and classical always seems to get the lion's share of prime airtime. Got a jazz or rock orgy you want to run? Have fun running it from 1 to 7 in the morning!

Edited January 27, 2005 by Big Wheel

[7/4]

There are two issues here: an audience issue and a management issue. There's no reason, in theory, that a compromise couldn't be reached on the audience issue so that students could get their sports some of the time and the jazz and classical departments also get their time. If a couple of hours of jazz or classical are cut out to make way for sports, some people will bitch but overall I wouldn't consider it the end of the world.

That's the deal. They broadcast sports on the weekend sometimes. There's been a couple of times I tuned in to find who's on Jazz Profiles on Sun. afternoon and found them broadcasting a game. All I can do is turn off the radio and turn on the CD player. That's life...

[Big Wheel]

Right. You can argue on the margins all you want about who should get an extra hour here or there. Personally, this particular decision seemed pretty clear-cut to me--the game was a big one and the precedent was to air the game, but overall, that's pretty small potatoes. The management question that LED to such an issue, however, is not.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

The compromise is happening. Sports gets their time. Now, sometimes things get pre-empted by special programming. That's apparently what happened with the Bach festival. It was planned, scheduled, approved, etc. Lots of things got pre-empted by it (it was what, a week long?).

The article referenced here was going much farther than "let us have our occasional sports broadcasts".

Mike

[Big Wheel]

I don't agree at all with what he would do with the station if he were in charge. But I do think that his overall grievance with station governance sounds like a valid one. If Columbia's institutional relationship to WKCR is like Harvard's to WHRB (and unlike BU's to WBUR), then the situation he's describing isn't very fair.

[7/4]

I don't agree at all with what he would do with the station if he were in charge. But I do think that his overall grievance with station governance sounds like a valid one. If Columbia's institutional relationship to WKCR is like Harvard's to WHRB (and unlike BU's to WBUR), then the situation he's describing isn't very fair.

But MFitz wrote:

Folks, the University does not fully fund the station - it's paid for mostly by non-student contributors - i.e., you and me (providing that "you" are not a Columbia student.........).

[Big Wheel]

Funding does not equal governance. WHRB gets most of its money from local advertising. By that logic, we should let the Boston Ballet, Gillette, and the bar down the street have a spot on the station's administrative board.

If anything, the station's financial independence from Columbia is an argument against allowing Columbia to dictate who runs the place, not an argument for it. WERS in Boston is very dependent on Emerson College for funding--if I had to guess, Emerson probably owns the station. (Harvard Radio Broadcasting Co., on the other hand, is independent from the university.) This entails a tradeoff--a lot more money for the station (their studios are gorgeous), but a lot less student say in how the place is run.

edit: in case it's not clear, I'm against having Columbia actually run the place. But I think it does play an important role in safeguarding the rights of students, if the established arrangement is for them to manage the radio station without interference. If Phil Schaap and his buddies are taking an active role in station management, that's not kosher.

Edited January 27, 2005 by Big Wheel