Wednesday, June 08, 2011

WRVU Is Dead

You've probably heard by now but if you hadn't... WRVU is dead. Vanderbilt Student Communications (VSC) has ripped the station out from under the actual students. Whether they approached WPLN for the sale or they approached VSC we may never know but the students only became suspicious when the call letters changed Monday.the way he handled it is a disgrace to the University. VSC sold a student property built and run with students tuition money,  then sold it for one time cash, like a junky trying to scrape up the money for an 8-ball. The sale price was 3.6 million. I'm sure somebody got a nice fat bonus check. More here.

The disgrace is that VSC told the students nothing. They knew it would be unwelcome, that it was wrong and that there would be resistance. So they acted clandestinely. In the Fall of last year there were rumors that VSC was open to selling the 60-year-old 91.1 WRVU. There was no more news until Monday June 6th. The call sign change to WFCL popped up unexpectedly Monday morning in the FCC database. The DJs on air used the wrong station ID for most of the day because they were not informed.

Then Tuesday afternoon the DJ on air was told that there was "urgent equipment maintenance" and hurried out the door... which they then locked behind him. This is pure sleaze. Those kids pay $38,952 a year [source] to be treated like this? What gall.  Below is a clip of the last WRVU-FM disc jockey on the program Rock N' Roll Control making his last announcement on the way out the door forever.

WRVU:  June 7th 2011 - 2:56 PM

7 comments:

  1. wow - i was calling in a request just as that final song by Johnny Thunders was ending... guess i'll be waiting awhile.
    stay classy, Vanderbi***!

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  2. Anonymous11:31 AM

    Masybe you can explain why punk rock, gangster rap and other weirdo music is "art" and the MUSIC OF THE MASTERS played by properly-trained musicians isn't, Communist homosexual? Proud to be contributing to the dumbing down of America?

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  3. I don't often get comments from angry classical music fans. It's probably because they're all over 80 and can't use computers. But, hello, and welcome my octogenarian visitor.

    Short answer: "the music of the masters" is art as much as any other musical form. It's not to my taste, but whatever. The crime here is not in programming classical music, it's in the thieving of a heritage college radio station in a seedy and underhanded way.

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  4. Hi, Jose. I'm Pete Wilson, and I was the DJ signing off for the last time. The show was an impromptu fill-in (otherwise we would have had automation from 1 PM until the end), and was not archived on the station website. Do you have any more of the broadcast from 1 to ~2:55 PM? I would love to have it. Thank you.

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  5. Denis the Genius: I think I did hear the phone ringing then, and I didn't answer it because I was afraid it might be someone in authority telling me TURN EVERYTHING OFF NOW. I really did not know that my show was going to be the last, but I did know that they were pretty fired up to do the "maintenance" (which appears to have meant shutting down the equipment and securing the studio). Sorry I didn't get to take your call!

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  6. An absolute disgrace and utterly cowardly. Is this the example of leadership and adult behavior the University wants to give the students? It's one thing to sell the radio station, right or wrong, it is their prerogative, but to rush somebody out of the studio for "emergency maintenance?" What a crock. The only bright spot in this otherwise dim adventure is the "Communist homosexual" comment by the angery classical music fan. Dude, you need to update your choice of insults.

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  7. Nice Plug!
    http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashvillecream/archives/2011/06/13/wrvu-in-the-new-york-times-again-this-time-for-freddie-oconnells-eulogy

    ReplyDelete