December 16th, 2008 
joel In the radio biz, you usually hear about format changes after they are made, but not for WMCE.
Yesterday, Mercyhurst College released news that in February WMCE will change to a full-time jazz format. In my conversation earlier with Station Manager Michael Leal, the plan is to program a straight-ahead traditional jazz format, while keeping their weekend specialty shows. As for the classical format, it hasn’t seen growth. From the release:
However, station Director Mike Leal says the WMCE listening audience hasn’t grown in the past 10 years, leading him to consider strategies to increase the station’s appeal.
“We want to program music that’s not available elsewhere in the Erie market,” he said. “We didn’t want to duplicate what was already out there.” He says research shows that the radio audience for jazz nationwide has grown 6 percent over the past 10 years, so WMCE will soon become the first full-time jazz station in Erie. (Public radio station WQLN-FM does carry jazz shows, including “Jazz Flight” hosted by psychology department chair Rob Hoff, but is better known for classical music and talk shows.) With a new sound and a new look, the station will also begin using a new tagline, calling itself JAZZ FM – “Erie’s Jazz Station.”
The changeover to jazz will also give Communications students at the college more of a chance to participate in the programming and be mentored by the announcers at WMCE. The syndicated classical format mostly precluded that.
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As an alum of the College and the station, I’m very happy to see this change. I was around when the format switched from the “Jack” of the 90′s type station to “All Classics, All the Time” including the brief foray into Classic Hits/ Rock after six pm. This has always been a catch-22 for me. The College wants to fill a void and create a niche, but the station also needs to train its students who are pursuing broadcasting as a career. Jazz FM has the potential to do both if it’s done right.
How can Mercyhurst have an impact on its students when its students do not fill on-air performance slots?
The entire jazz daypart is syndicated. How can you train young broadcasters if you only offer a not-for-profit version of “Carnivore” Broadcasting, with no human beings inside the studio?
How can you train young broadcasters if you only offer a not-for-profit version of “Carnivore” Broadcasting, with no human beings inside the studio?
That’s PRECISELY how they learn the reality about a “career in brodacasting!”
Max:
Point well taken. I guess I was being nostalgic.
Mercyhurst…selling out just like all the rest!
Since we’re talking “college radio”, why are non-profit educational institutions running commercial radio stations (WYNE 1530 & WPSE 1450) which sell advertising in competition for listeners with other local tax-paying commercial broadcasters ? Granted it’s not much competition given their top-o-the-dial frequency, lackluster content in the case of WPSE, and graveyard signals …. but it seems amiss nonetheless.
I was half-expecting the Mercyhurst FM translator to flip over to rebroadcasting WYNE-AM, given recent changes in FCC rules, although now I’m not so sure with Bill’s departure for Mercyhurst-North East.
EBW,
There is quite a bit of precedent for non-profit’s owning commercial licenses. Perhaps the greatest is NBC affiliate WNDU-TV/South Bend, that until 2006 was owned by the University of Notre Dame. The other one that immediately comes to mind is Howard University’s WHUR/Washington DC.
I’ll grant you that it is unusual for two commercial frequencies in a market as small as Erie to be owned by colleges.
Hi Joel: I was aware of WNDU, but hadn’t known of the Howard Univ station in D.C. Actually the first one that came to my mind was WOI-TV in Ames, Iowa established by Iowa State Univ but Wikipedia says that they sold it about 15 years ago.
Then there was good old WETG Channel 66 when Gannon College put it on the air as an independent commercial TV station in 1986, although I think technically the Diocese of Erie held the license. So that would make even one more historical instance of this phenomenon in the Erie area, albeit 66 is now under much different ownership of course.
Happy New Year !