Tuesday, May 6, 2014

The **** hits the fan at WRAS

According to the Atlanta Journal/Constitution Radio & TV Talk Blog and Creative Loafing, Georgia State University is entering into a two-year agreement with Georgia Public Broadcasting where GPB will take over daytime programming on WRAS-FM, Georgia State's longtime student radio station.   The WRAS student staff was not consulted prior to the deal.

The Creative Loafing article includes the text of the contracts between GSU and GPB.  According to the contracts, GPB will use WRAS to broadcast PBS and other public radio news broadcasts during the day.  In return, GSU gets access to a GPB TV subchannel at night and will be paid up to $150,000 for station operating expenses over the two year period.

UPDATE:There is a change.org petition where you can state your opposition to the merger. 

LATER UPDATE: Georgia State has posted the a FAQ file explaining the WRAS/GPB deal.  Short excerpt: "While students are entrusted to run the station, WRAS is ultimately a university asset."




2 comments:

Unknown said...

On one hand I'm really sad for the WRAS students/alumni and Atlanta radio in general. On the other hand I am very glad we were able to avoid the same fate. Thank you John and all the other alumni and friends who helped save WREK.

Jeremy Varner
WREK op 2001-2009

John Nestor said...

Thanks, Jeremy. Could you email me sometime?