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Non-profit station cancels nighttime hip hop/reggae because it doesn't make enough money
By adamg on Mon, 08/19/2013 - 10:11pm
Eric Esteves reports Emerson's student radio station, WERS, is canceling programs that don't involve music aimed at 9-year-olds:
Rockers and 88.9 at night cancelled based on a directive from Emerson to make the station "a more sustainable source of revenue," and that meant cutting those programs, extending daytime programming, and only leaving the Secret Spot as the one urban program.
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Comments
FNxZ
Uh,trying to be FNX? So when do the commercials come in?
Underwriting spots are commercials
The only difference between a "non-profit's" underwriting spots and commercials is no price can be given.
what a joke
That station is a total joke. Don't even waste your time with their garbage programming and stick to real college radio like MBR/MFO/ZBC etc. ERS has been a shell of its former self for almost ten years now. Even WHRB has a punk show!
Late night WHRB is the best
I'm so lucky I got other things out of Emerson and found non-musical ways to get involved in ERS when I was there, because I mainly wanted to go there FOR RADIO. I even got called out for criticizing their terrible AM carrier current station's playlist while hosting on it (WECB).. at least I learned to run a board that way.
There's still great college radio in Boston, like all the examples you've given. People just have to learn to manually tune their radios instead of seek/scanning over them.
For online listening, try soundtap, it's a website/app that collects "human powered" college and community stations from around the world with live streams and you can sort by category/show..
I hope WERS keeps going. . .
I hope WERS keeps going. . . it's the only non-web based station left playing new rock music in Boston.
rock?
I can't remember the last time I heard rock on WERS.
Try the other college stations
You'll get a good mix of stuff every weekday from 8-noon on WMBR (archived for 2 weeks on their website so you can listen any time). The Friday DJ for Breakfast of Champions (8-10am) generally plays nothing but new music for the second hour of the show.
WERS was my introduction to college radio decades ago, and I thank them for that, but they became so formatted that I really didn't enjoy listening to them any more. I tried giving them another chance and would dig a show but then I would listen to it again and hear the same tracks being repeated.
honey
You're not listening very hard if you think ERS was the only place for new rock music. Try WMBR weekday mornings from 8AM-noon and other random times during the week, WZBC all day until 5 or 6PM, WHRB from 10PM to 5AM, WMFO at random times, and some others I've probably forgotten. ERS was great at one point but this is the station that tossed all their old punk rock, got rid of one of the best metal shows in town then eventually the wonderful local show which hosted live bands. They suck and have sucked for ages.
F*** WERS
Those shows were the only reason to listen to that otherwise creepy pseudo-college station. Normal college radio showcases white dude rock bands better than anything else, so this is a real loss.
Guess I can safely unprogram WERS from the car radio. Are there local college hip-hop or reggae shows I'm missing? It seems silly that I can't do better than listening to a rap show from Kansas over the Internet.
Musenomix, 10 p.m. Wednesdays on WMBR
Mix of old- and new-school music and interviews; gets everyone from guys on their first tour to Schoolly D. (And no, I don't work for the show, just a fan)
Just missed it!
That would have been my recommendation too, but unfortunately the host moved away to California - about a month ago - and Musenomix is no longer on WMBR.
Choice is yours on WMBR
Saturday 10-midnight is all hip hop with the last Saturday of the month being the old school show.
There are two weeks of shows archived, why don't you give it a try?
http://wmbr.org/www/sched-sat#letterz
Sad To See Them Go
I knew something was up tonight when Rockers didn't start at 7pm. They didn't even have the decency to change wers.org to show their new lineup. As a member, I'm disappointed that this is their new direction for the station.
Listened to Rockers pretty frequently. 88.9 at night a little less so, if only because I'd be heading to bed about the time it started. I will miss my nightly reggae fix.
That's too bad. I'm a wmbr
That's too bad. I'm a wmbr guy but those programs were both pretty good and I liked listening to them. It's too bad college stations are charged with turning a profit. Wers weekend programming is horrible, I can't believe they put that stuff on the radio for so long. Seriously they can't be listened to all weekend. It's a joke.
No more WERS for me
No more Rockers? I guess that means more 88.1 or just recorded music.
Went to Emerson
I couldn't wait to get involved with WERS when I got to Emerson. I had been listening to college radio in the NY/NJ market since middle school.
It was a big disappointment, as there was no room for anything outside the little blocks of neatly formatted programming already okay'd by whomever in the administration. At least I got into news and public affairs programming, as a means of being on the station without having to play from pre-selected tunes in a format I had no interest in what-so-ever. I did kind of intern on Coffee House, though. The host was actually aspiring to work in the Adult Contemporary market and only pretending to like folk, so I got to interview Tom Paxton.
Anyway, I'd have fit in at WZBC (Boston College) or WMBR (MIT). Eventually, I found outlets elsewhere..
Also, WERS has almost always lacked something called "Stationality." It's dry and academic - like some Berklee bands, technically good but it lacks something..
/rant
Same here. I graduated in 98.
Same here. I graduated in 98. Was horrified to learn a communications school didn't really let their students have any involvement in the college radio station, unless you were in engineering. The AM station was beyond a bloody joke, as well. I was told at one point by whomever was running the station at the time, it had to be a "reflection of the student body." I, nor anyone else I knew at Emerson, felt that way, at all. The station has, for at least the past 15 or so years, been far more concerned with being a pseudo-NPR meets "waiting room background music" hybrid.
Too bad...
They were programs I enjoyed when they weren't hosted by some nervous freshman who couldn't pronounce half the names of the musicians.
In recent years it seems the
In recent years it seems the station has gone from being a valuable student resource to a revenue stream for the college. Yes, the students frequently mispronounced the artist names, and many who weren't from the area butchered town names like Billerica and Gloucester.
Although I missed the folk mornings and jazz middays, the Triple A "daytime" format is generally well done, although as a non-commercial station they really should make more of an effort to support and break local artists.
The weekend programming, however, is awful. Unfortunately it's beloved by people with deep pockets who are more than happy to shell out big bucks to keep the showtunes, a cappella and children's shows on the air. The donations for Playground just roll in from Wellesley, Newton, Brookline, etc. 88.9 at Night used to do huge numbers ratings-wise. Word is they would beat 94.5 in those hours pretty regularly, even if the fundraising money didn't reflect the listenership.
Sunday nights used to be excellent - the metal show, the punk-leaning local rock show, the late night indie show, the british show. Bring it all back.
I wondered about the show tunes
Show tunes, and a Capella displaced some shows I really liked. I thought it would be a brief experiment, because, really, how many people like show tunes? Well, besides a few Emerson theater majors.
I listened to rockers for many years, but, the genre was getting stale. The occasional ska helped, but dub would have made my day.
I had hopes for 101.7, but most of the time is sounds like an iPod with 15 songs on shuffle play, month after month. Hope is restored by some of the night time DJ sets, but I hate the prime time format so much.
displaced?
Show tunes and acapella displaced programs? Displaced what? They've been locked in those slots for years.
Adding the show tunes on Sunday was the most recent change, but that's been at least a couple of years.
Standing Room, A Cappella and
Standing Room, A Cappella and Playground used to be on Saturdays only. Used to be that station management thought 3 hours of a cappella music was more than enough, but apparently not. Sure, it's an interesting niche, but devote 6 hours every week on a major radio station to it? Plenty of niche genres are much more beloved and far less represented on the radio dial.
Until about 10 years ago, Sundays was where the great rock programming was. Nasty Habits (metal), Boston Unseen (local rock), British Accents (self explanatory), The Left End (indie rock... still there in the graveyard shift)... at one point there was a ska show, and a deep cuts classic rock show too.
I think it was jazz that got displaced
Yes, it was years ago.
I'm Still Pissed Off
That WGBH got rid of Steve Schwartz and cut Eric Jackson way back. And 'BCN gone. And 'FNX. And...
What people haven't said, is
What people haven't said, is that WERS's reggae and hip hop programming at night go back YEARS! I had a friend who DJ'ed in the late 90's when he was going to college. I taped many WERS shows from when I was growing up as a little kid as well. This is sad...and is as big as when WBCN and WFNX went away. FM Radio in Boston is completely dead... save for WZBC, WMBR, etc. There's absolutely NOTHING else of value. Cya later, WERS.
Yup
When I first moved to Boston and discovered 88.9 I was in love. Reggae and Hip-Hop shows! Best thing ever after growing up in the sticks.
They also had great in studio interviews with artists that came through town and kept you updated on upcoming live shows.
No reason to listen to 88.9 again if these shows are gone.
yup
According to the WERS website Rockers was the "longest running college radio show." And last night it was unceremoniously dumped from the airwaves. Truly a sad day for Boston radio.
"Rockers" dropped from WERS night time schedule
According to the CultureDesk article on Boston.com, "Rockers" was founded at WERS back in 1978 by Doug Herzog (who is now the president of MTV Networks). Well - I know of at least one least one longer-running college radio show: "The Late Risers Club", on WMBR since 1977, a weekday block (10-noon)show of punk/indie-rock.
If WERS cancelled "Rockers" because it didn't raise enough money, how is it any different now than local Public Radio powerhouses WGBH and WBUR? I thought that Emerson was a COMMUNICATIONS school; I think that they can subsidize their own radio station so that their students can have a learning experience playing music that they actually, um, like...
Late Risers Club
Late Risers Club is a longer-standing show, but WMBR is a community radio station, not a college station. It's affiliated with MIT, but a substantial number of its shows are hosted by people who are not MIT students or even MIT graduates.
WERS is strictly a college station - you have to be an Emerson student to work at the station. I still remember the uproar when Brian O'Donovan completed his graduate degree and lost his show at WERS.
WGBH got rid of Steve Schwartz and cut Eric Jackson way back.
Remember back in 2009, WGBH dumped "the peoples' music" (folk and blues), too.
"I can only assume this has something to do with the almighty dollar. Isn't this supposed to be public radio and aren't we the public. Folk music has been a mainstay on WGBH for as long as I can remember. Acoustic artists are as popular as ever and in some ways even more popular then in days gone by. I don't get it. WGBH should be ashamed of itself. Well, as Ma Joad said, "We're the people and you can't stop us and you can't lick us. We just keep coming, 'cause we're the people."
-Jim Kweskin, November 11, 2009.
http://notlobmusic.blogspot.com/2009/11/wgbh-drops...
RIP Rockers
Damn, Rockers was the only thing that station had going for it. It was a great show for decades.
88.1 WMBR (MIT community radio), 90.3 WZBC (BC community), 95.3 WHRB (Harvard) and don't forget our amazing AM station, WJIB AM 740!
Berklee has an internet radio
Berklee has an internet radio station that is rather ....... eclectic. Google the birn.
WERS = Boston Branch of the Connecticut School of Broadcasting
To save costs I expect WERS will re-broadcast George Knight's new non-student professional commercial-sounding DJ's morning program.
Read "George Knight Jumps Ship from WUMB to WERS", 7/30/13.
http://notlobmusic.blogspot.com/2013/07/george-kni...
I don't know who the more commercial sounding DJ is, Knight, or his "on-air personality" backfill replacement at non-student UMass Boston AAA radio WUMB, Dominick "I shape young radio minds" Indindoli!
Read "I shape young radio minds", 8/15/13
http://notlobmusic.blogspot.com/2013/08/i-shape-yo...
Sustainable source of revenue?
WTF this is a non-profit educational institution station FOR A COMMUNICATIONS SCHOOL! You don't say "gee, we have to make basic training in the military a sustainable source of revenue"? You don't have engineering schools saying "we need to turn our freshman chemistry lab into a sustainable source of revenue".
Massive bloated ego stupidity. This is what happens when you have corporations running colleges and not educators.
What are they supposed to run on Fairy Dust and Happy thoughts?
"You don't have engineering schools saying "we need to turn our freshman chemistry lab into a sustainable source of revenue".
Really? Do you know how much money MIT and other major research universities bring in on tech transfer and sponsored research?
MIT has a membership group that corporations have to pay to join to get access. I don't think DARPA has a line item in their budget for Reggae and Ska research.
Emerson is hardly run by a corporation, but all non-profits need to bring in revenue to keep in the black.
They are supposed to be educational and non profit
If a college radio station is generating revenue, it isn't supposed to exist. Check the terms of their FCC licensing before you reply "nuh uh", please!
Furthermore, college radio at a COMMUNICATIONS and MEDIA school is a TRAINING PROGRAM. This is not an NPR station, which is listener supported. There should be no expectation of listener support - any more than any other college should expect students to hold fundraisers to support any other basic educational and training activity of their university. How many candy bars did you sell to support your Linear Algebra lectures?
Last I checked, MIT's undergraduate laboratories and such weren't expected to be sponsored by anybody. And they aren't. Neither are Wentworth's various tech laboratories. I've also never heard of basic training for licensed practical nurses or for automobile repair technicians or any other occupational training being sponsored by anything but student tuition and, rarely, those who need trained people.
Get it yet?
WERS used to have
a wonderful variety of music. I particularly loved the world music and jazz shows. It has become pretty boring as far as programming is concerned. I just don't listen anymore. We need more jazz on the radio, at all hours of the day. And we need a community jazz station.
Unfortunately it seems what
Unfortunately it seems what little jazz and classical used to be on the radio has been replaced by formulaic country music.
Did they even TRY to raise money for the shows?
I think everyone who listened woulda donated... If donations keep WJIB going--and they ain't even online, why couldn't WERS have said to the public they need money?????
Nasty, cynical move
I didn't listen too much at night, but I always appreciated that ERS made an attempt to appeal to different communities and serve a variety of tastes. The hip-hop they played, and which I would occasionally stumble upon, was better and more interesting than the urban pop stuff played over and over on 94.5 and 107.9 (T-Payne and Beyonce and Kanye West and all those folks). This change leaves such a bad taste in my mouth that I'll definitely be looking into some of the other college stations, though I don't think they have the same signal strength.
Well there goes 88.9 out of
Well there goes 88.9 out of my radio presets. Rockers and 88.9@ night were the only reasons i listened to this station.
Local music
In the late 70s/early 80s WERS was a great supporter of local music. They were essential, as a matter of fact. That's a thing of the past now, but, then again, the local music "scene" isn't what it was back then either.
I know college stations play a wide variety of material, and bless em for it, but playing showtunes excessively is rather unhip.
playing showtunes excessively is rather unhip?
Consider Emerson is a school of theater training, it may be unhip for you/most, but it serves that community.
Bum Deal
I especially am disappointed with how they just dumped the shows without some kind of grand sendoff like it was some new experimental thing.
Very sad to see it go despite my lack of radio listening these days.
Jebus...
...the largest College town in the entire world, but no, we can't have an eclectic venue of music to demonstrate it. Even 'GBH is cutting back shows to go "Talk."
Screw the talk, I want good MUSIC. Damn you. Damn you all.
(Charlton Heston, Planet of the Apes moment, pounding fist into the sand...)
The Boston Globe has picked up the story
The Boston Globe has broken the news at 12:45pm, about 11 hours after Universal Hub, posting the following on its Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/globe
"Emerson College has released a statement about the cancellation of two hip-hop and reggae programs of its radio station, 88.9 WERS, stating the current format has made it difficult to build its audience. "Rockers" and "88.9@night" will be replaced with Secret Spot (R&B, soul), which will broadcast from 10 PM to 2 AM.
What do you think of the cancellation?"
http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2013/08/20/h...
"Replaced" huh? That doesn't
"Replaced" huh?
That doesn't really sound like a replacement at all.
Get the TuneIn App for your smart phone
You'll never miss WERS....
OK, that's it.
Rockers was the only thing I enjoyed on ERS. That's the end of them for me.
I would sometimes put them on for wakeup music just because I can't get MBR or ZBC on my clock radio, but their morning DJ's are just abysmal. Their patter is totally formulaic -- introducing a two-year old song as "new music from ," and occasionally dropping an "interesting" factoid about the band that they probably read in Rolling Stone or Spin. It's always obvious that they don't know music, they're just training for careers in commercial radio.
And don't get me started on the weekend show tunes and a capella...
Well...
...Jazz Oasis was pretty damned good too.