Help Save An Atlanta Institution - WRAS

[RudyJK]

Many of you may have heard of the shabby treatment WRAS/88.5 has received from Georgia State University administration and Georgia Public Broadcasting. The highly-awarded, student-run radio station is having it's musical programming slashed to just the evening and late night hours so GPB can run news and current event shows - much of it already broadcast on WABE.

WRAS is one of the treasures of Atlanta. Broadcasting new, local and other music that doesn't get airplay on commercial radio since 1971, 88.5 is one of the most highly respected college radio stations in the country with one of the most powerful signals at 100,000 watts. The loss of the majority of the station's original musical programming hours would be a major blow to fledgling acts from the state and the country and the dedicated listening audience.

But most of all, it would be a huge loss (and a slap in the face) to the students that use the station as a springboard to future careers in the broadcast and music industries and to those students that spent years making the station the success that it is today.

I know that we have a lot of GSU students and alumni on this board. As a 30+ year fan of WRAS, please use your voices to object to this change.

https://www.facebook.com/savemywras

[MNT]

I wrote GPB to let them know I would not be supporting GPB or WRAS during their membership drives, and would be making a point to support WABE more often (WABE is run by Public Broadcasting Atlanta, and has nothing to do with GPB or the WRAS takeover). GPB is a state-run agency with considerable influence from the governor (search for the stories about him getting jobs at GPB for his friends) so it's pretty sad to see our own state government ruining one of Atlanta's long-time cultural institutions.

I also wrote to NPR letting them know what I thought about a public radio station contributing to the death of local media culture in one of the nation's largest cities.

[Tuckerman]

This is seemingly quite complicated. As a long time supporter of WABE I welcome the effort to have more NPR programs available locally. However, the evisceration of WRAS is very unfortunate. I believe that some type of negotiation among all the parties, GPB, GSU and WABE, could result in a win-win for all. WABE could keep its emphasis on classical music, through WRAS GPB could introduce some coverage of NPR that is not on WABE, and the GSU students could have a central role in running that content and also retain control over much of the daily programming that students and faculty want and need. This whole thing was simply a rush to judgement and appears to this listener as a brazen takeover and a strategy to reduce the importance of WABE - a station that has served Atlanta responsibly for years.

[arjay57]

What Tuckerman said.

[Alfred E Neuman]

What arjay 57 said about what Tuckerman eloquently said.