[BC] NYC area Jazz

[Scott Fybush]

WBRadiolists at aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 05/06/2008 12:35:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
> dpuopolo at usa.net writes:
> 
>> WBGO 88.3 in Newark. They also stream.
> 
> Terriffic. With 88.5 right nearby, this one will be hard to pull out. Come to 
> think of it, I think NPR has a 25Kw satellator on Long Island. I think this 
> signal is a lost cause in these parts. I already know that it is not at all 
> audible here in West Haven, as the NPR satellator completely dominates that 
> frequency up here.

Point of information, if I may:

"NPR" does not own or operate any stations - well, save for an 
experimental license held by NPR Labs for some IBOC testing in the 
Washington DC area.

NPR is a program provider funded by underwriting, grants and by dues 
from member stations, of which there are several hundred local 
operations around the country. Some are owned by school districts, some 
by colleges and universities, some by community nonprofit organizations. 
Much of the programming people think of as "NPR" doesn't even come from 
NPR - "A Prairie Home Companion" and "Marketplace," for instance, come 
from American Public Media in Minnesota. Unlike NPR, APM is tied in with 
station ownership; it's commonly owned with the Minnesota Public Radio 
network, and with several stations in California, and its management has 
national ambitions that have aroused suspicion from some of the local 
stations that buy its programs. The public radio system is far more 
balkanized than most people outside the community understand.

Be that as it may: the "25 kW satellator" on 88.3 to which Willie refers 
is actually WLIU, Southampton, NY, which is locally owned and operated 
by Long Island University. A look at their schedule shows them to be 
rather heavy on jazz, at least some of it (10 AM-3 PM daily) programmed 
locally. There's also 90 minutes of local Long Island news each day, as 
well as local talk. The only long-form NPR programming WLIU carries is 
an hour of Morning Edition at 6 AM and a handful of syndicated music 
shows. If that's a "satellator," I'd like more of them in my neighborhood.

I think Willie may be getting WLIU confused with another Southampton 
station, WRLI 91.3, which operates as a part of the Connecticut Public 
Radio network (which identifies as "WNPR," the calls of its 89.1 signal 
in Norwalk.)

One could quibble about whether Connecticut Public Radio needs a signal 
on the East End of Long Island (their argument, I believe, is that the 
area is beyond the reach of NYC's public radio stations and more closely 
tied culturally to the Connecticut coast than to NYC), but if nothing 
else, Connecticut Public Radio at least employs a news staff on Long 
Island to produce local coverage. That compares favorably to a true 
"satellator," like my "local" outlet of EMF's California-based "K-Love" 
network, which holds a main-studio waiver, has no programming staff here 
in town (just a promotions person), and carries a 24/7 program feed off 
the bird from somewhere in Sacramento. (Or the "local" outlets of Family 
Radio and Jimmy Swaggart's Family Worship Center, for that matter, fed 
respectively from Oakland and Baton Rouge.)

s