Station Question
June 3, 2016 7:40 PM   Subscribe

Radio station WOSB-FM is one of four repeater stations owned by Ohio State University. The others are WOSE-FM, WOSV-FM and WOSP-FM They are all retransmitting WOSA-FM, which is OSU's classical music flagship station. WOSA was created so WOSU-FM could broadcast NPR news and other programming. Oddly, WOSU is also not listed as an NPR member station.

The four repeater stations are listed as NPR member stations - http://www.npr.org/stations/pdf/nprstations.pdf, but the flagship station isn't. If they are rebroadcasting the flagship station, why isn't WOSA also listed as a NPR member station?
posted by CollectiveMind to Media & Arts (9 answers total)
 
I don't know why WOSU is not listed, but they definitely refer to themselves on-air as an NPR member station with regularity.
posted by kevinbelt at 8:43 AM on June 4, 2016


Backing up kevinbelt, when I run the "find a station" widget on the NPR website (from my Ohio location), WOSU pops right up on the list.

I think it's probably just a mistake, possibly somewhat caused by the repeater stations being former repeaters of WOSU-FM as an NPR station from 2008-2010. So an older reference would count them as NPR stations even though they no longer broadcast NPR material. Also that pdf list seems to be from 2013, so maybe there was some kind of transition period where WOSU wasn't a full-fledged NPR station, while the repeater stations still were?
posted by soundguy99 at 9:52 AM on June 4, 2016


Response by poster: So, do you think WOSA is in the same boat?
posted by CollectiveMind at 2:26 PM on June 4, 2016


You could call them and ask. Probably the simplest approach since outsiders really can't know.
posted by Miko at 2:58 PM on June 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


More like the other way around, I would think - I'm pretty sure WOSA and the repeaters are programmed independently, with no NPR material. So possibly only WOSU 89.7 FM "should" be an NPR station, WOSA & the repeaters not. Maybe.

Seconding Miko, I would contact NPR about this to see what's up with that list.
posted by soundguy99 at 4:53 PM on June 4, 2016


I really meant just call the parent station itself; they would be in the best position to talk about their licensing and affiliations. I'm not sure NPR, the org in DC, would be able to break it down clearly enough for this question.
posted by Miko at 4:59 PM on June 4, 2016


Oh, gotcha. My thought was that the OP could contact NPR, since they're the source of the list, let them know/ask why the PDF list of member stations available @ the NPR site is unclear regarding these central Ohio stations.
posted by soundguy99 at 5:13 PM on June 4, 2016


Response by poster: I've contacted the NPR Ombudsman on only a few issues over many years. Overall, the response has never been better than sluggish and generalized. Calling WOSU is a better idea.
posted by CollectiveMind at 1:59 AM on June 5, 2016


Yeah, I would expect the ombudsman to be overwhelmed primarily with content issues rather than governance and licensing issues, not really their bailiwick. Go to an administrative entity for that.
posted by Miko at 6:58 PM on June 5, 2016


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