Rhode Island Public Radio has made a $1.5 million deal to acquire the radio station at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. The purchase will double the potential reach of the station, but it will also push WUMD, a student and community radio station, onto the Internet.
“It means better listening and for more people,” said Rhode Island Public Radio General Manager and CEO Torey Malatia of the station’s acquisition of WUMD from UMass-Dartmouth.
More people, because Rhode Island Public Radio estimates that a move to 89.3 will roughly double the reach of the station, improving coverage in some parts of Rhode Island, and expanding to listeners in the South Coast of Massachusetts, including the cities of Fall River and New Bedford.
“About a year from now you’ll be able to hear us on 89.3 FM, very clearly in the major population centers of Rhode Island,” said Malatia. “We’ll still be on 88.1 and 91.5 and 102.7 in South County.”
Rhode Island Public Radio has been looking for a long time for a way to improve its signal. Malatia said buying WUMD will create a potential audience of 1.4 million people. And he said the acquisition is important for another reason: RIPR currently owns just one of the three signals it currently uses.
“If we’re going to be here and we’re going to be part of this community, and we’re going to be invested as the source of public service journalism for years to come, what matters is if we are here and we are permanent,” Malatia said Wednesday, in an interview explaining the purchase on RIPR.
The only public radio station based in Rhode Island, RIPR has agreed to pay $1.5 million for WUMD’s license. The station faces another million dollars in costs to move the transmitter into Rhode Island, and Malatia says the station will launch a multi-million dollar capital campaign to cover those expenses and fund new digital infrastructure and reporting capacity.
The purchase agreement also calls for a partnership with UMass-Dartmouth that would include public forums and internship opportunities for UMass students.
“We have an arrangement with the journalism program and with the public policy center, which studies the economics of the area, as well as social changes in the area, in the South Coast,” Malatia said.
But not everyone’s cheering the arrangement.
WUMD will live on as an internet-based radio station, but some local music enthusiasts say that will diminish the station’s reach and hurt the indie music scene. On Facebook, local music writer Rob Duguay calls WUMD one of the best college radio stations in New England. He says turning over the signal to Rhode Island Public Radio will hurt the region’s music scene.
Calls to WUMD were not returned in time for this story. But UMass-Dartmouth Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs David Milstone acknowledges some people are upset by the change at the college radio station.
“There’ll be some disappointment, there’ll be some anger. There will be a lot of questions that want to be asked. And we are in the process of setting an opportunity for that to happen,” said Milstone.
But Milstone adds that university administrators see the sale of WUMD as a positive move, one they look forward to sharing with the college community. They plan to use proceeds from the sale to endow financial aid and community engagement programs.
The announcement of the sale comes while many UMass students remain away on vacation. They’ll return to campus for the start of the Spring term later this month.
The deal still needs approval from the Federal Communications Commission.
