the good people of everywhere

WMUC v. WYPR round-up or "I read so that you don't have to..."

Media:

• Baltimore Sun's continuing coverage of the "threat" to WMUC I commend them for getting a quote from ZR on this one.
• DCRTV covers the coverage --this source in hampered by a severe lack of permalinks.
• WFMU's blog has the juice --nice diction
• The Baltimore Chronicle --doesn't say much
• News 4 in Baltimore covers the story --I'm sorry, I thought I said "covers".

DCRTV hearts WMUC

WMUC is the only true "college" station in the Washington DC area that can regularly be heard beyond the campus it is broadcasting from. It is staffed by students and students do all the programs which cover a wide range of progressive and experimental music no commercial station would dare touch.

Blogosphere:

• The League's blog posting on this issue
• Lily's plea to the "NPR Junkies" group on Livejournal
• another ex-MUCer
• ex-MUC dj echoes concern

Noise:
mailbag at DCRTV

Channel 4 just ran a story on it. Jim Vance called them WMCU, but other then that it was predictable response from UofMD folks, who said things like - WYPR is within their rights...

William Tucker Jr. says in the same mailbag,

...About 3 years ago, I presented a proposal for a cable FM station financed by my company and distributed through Comcast and Starpower systems in the D.C. area to WMUC's student management and Steve Gnadt. The general idea was to re-create the former AM commercial carrier-current station on cable as a flagship operation of sorts, broadcasting to students, faculty and staff off-campus. The cable station would also increase professional training opportunities for stude nts as well as add revenue streams to ensure WMUC's financially self-sufficiency (and subsidize 88.1 FM, which would remain otherwise unchanged). My proposal came with one stipulation; that the station's format would have to adopt some measure of programming continuity. The station manager at the time -- Zack Richardson -- and Gnadt were extremely insular and uncooperative throughout discussions, which I found totally shocking given I'm an alumni...

Check out this google cached letter/response re frequency here
It says,

...I hear that WYPR wants WMUC to move. Wouldn't WMUC would lose any
grandfather primacy they now have, and probably be soon forced off the air?
Realistically, there are probably no frequencies they could move to. Long
ago they tried for 87.9 but were turned down. Is it likely that 87.9 is now
possible? The nearest chan 6 stations are Richmond (102 miles), Johnstown
(145 miles) and Philly (117 miles)...

That's all for tonight, but stay tuned for this developing story. Oh, and I'd like to solicit personal stories from MUC djs, ex-djs, and listeners. Tell them why you care! What did WMUC do for you? email your story to ilikebirds at gmail dot com.