I'll now callously skip over the massacre of the TV stations and focus on radio as I am known to do and go straight for the radio. WNJT 88.1 Trenton NJ, WNJY 89.3 Netcong NJ, WNJP 88.5 Sussex NJ and WNJO 90.3 Toms River NJ, and even the repeater W285EE have become "New Jersey Public Radio," owned by New York's WNYC. Only a year ago New Your Public Radio (WNYC) owned just WNYC-FM on 93.9 and WNYC-AM on 820 kHz. Then they picked up 105.9 WQXR for a classical service Even W228BI, their 93.5 repeater in Smithtown, NY. It is being replaced by another on 105.7 but I don't' think it's on air yet. This purchase effectively doubles their number of transmitters,
WHYY was the much smaller entity, consisting of just the one FM and the one TV station. (Maybe WRTI was giving them an inferiority complex.) But now they're audible clear to the shoreline. They have assimilated WNJB 89.3 Bridgeton NJ, WNJM 89.9 Manahawkin NJ, WNJN 89.7 Atlantic City NJ, WNJS 88.1 Berlin NJ and last but not least, WNJZ 90.3 Cape May Court House NJ. I broke it out on a map roughly estimating coverage area. Blue is WHYY, red is WNYC . Here's what that looks like:
But now it's gone. Ultimately that means a lot of "NJ" call signs will be changing in the immediate future. It also means both of these networks will be working hard to round up new donor/members to pay for both the acquisition and the operating costs.WNJB - $469,000WNJM - $144,000WNJN - $563,000WNJO - $496,000WNJP - $403,000 (includes W285EE)WNJS - $142,000WNJT - $1,572,000WNJY - $581,000WNJZ - $219,000
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The problem with NJN Radio was that they started 20 years too late. If they'd started building radio at the same time they put the TV network on the air (1971-ish), there were frequencies available for a truly statewide network. But NJN didn't get going with radio until the early 1990s, and by then the only frequencies available were low-wattage signals away from the densest parts of the state's population.
ReplyDeleteSo what resulted was something rather less than a "statewide" network. Take WNYC and WHYY off your map and look at what's left - a few signals in fairly rural NW Jersey, a string of 100-watters down the coast and one decent class A in Trenton. But it never reached Newark, or Camden, or Cherry Hill, or Paterson, or most of the more populous parts of the state, which made it hard to justify much state expenditure programming the thing.
There was almost no outcry about NJN Radio shutting down because almost nobody was paying it any attention...because NJN itself paid the radio network almost no attention. It did exactly what you so often (and so correctly) criticize - it plugged into the satellite and delivered the NPR newsmagazines, with local content that consisted only of simulcasts of NJN's TV newscast.
Probably the most valuable thing NJN Radio did was to provide an overnight relay of the jazz from WBGO. For now, at least, that's continuing on the northern (WNYC) half of the network.
As for the valuation, it might have been a tad on the low side, but not by much. The standard these days for noncomms is population count, and even in a dense state like NJ, none of these signals cover that many people, nor did they come with any studios or even any kind of record of underwriting or membership income. They're as close to "stick value" as it comes.
No doubt at all, NJN was a neglected network, but they're not alone. I'm sure both of us could name 2 or 3 other small regional networks in similar shoddy shape. Personally I thought a couple key acquisitions could have made them into a state-wide network. Jersey does not have the kind of topography that makes serving a market difficult. (ex. upstate NY) but instead of investment they chose divestment, and now it's gone.
ReplyDeleteI was however miffed that not a single stick went to a local broadcaster. No colleges, no community groups. Bupkis.
ReplyDeleteYou covered their sign off nicely last week. http://www.fybush.com/NERW/2011/110704/nerw.html#nj