It’s a rare item that should have great value because of it. But 91.7 FM – the Tacoma-based public radio frequency – continues to search for an owner and a mission.
It’s rare because there are only so many frequencies reserved for nonprofit broadcasting. They were initially set aside for college stations but have become more popular with the explosion of NPR, other public broadcasters such as Minnesota Public Radio and religious organizations.
Sandwiched between better known KUOW and KPLU – and suffering from a lack of promotion – the frequency is little known under the call letters KXOT, and little listened to. KUOW has been making a go of programming it for its Colorado owners, even trying to create some local programming. But a feasibility study says there is little chance the station could raise the money to purchase it, creating the possibility that it will go back on the market.
Though it cannot be used for commercial radio, it could become an outlet for national religious broadcasters that are unlikely to provide local programming.
Radio has not been kind to Tacoma lately. Changes in federal law in the 1980s allowed companies to purchase Tacoma-based frequencies at low prices and move their operations to Seattle. A once-fertile local radio marketplace has nearly disappeared.
That should make 91.7 even more valuable. Yet over the past decade it has become less so. Bates Technical College operated it under the call letters KBTC as part of its broadcasting classes. While it gave students good practice, the programming was a waste of air – employing a classic rock format available elsewhere on the dial.
Bates abandoned its radio broadcast program and negotiated a sale in 2004 to Public Radio Capital, a nonprofit entity that works to preserve existing public radio frequencies. PRC went in search of either a buyer or someone to operate 91.7. First came KEXP, the Seattle-based station with an eclectic mix of music. It had a small, passionate and eventually disappointed listenership because KEXP decided it couldn’t afford to operate both frequencies.
KUOW took over in 2006 and has a purchase option that expires in 2011. It has never promoted the station as a Sound Sound voice (its Web page features the Space Needle) and uses the frequency to run programs from NPR, the BBC and CBC.
Station managers tested a $25 million fundraising campaign with $12.5 million going to buy the frequency, $10 million for an endowment and the rest for expenses. But The Collins Group surveyed so-called stakeholders – nearly all in the Seattle area – and concluded this was not the time for such an effort.
“Among other things, participants questioned whether purchasing a radio frequency made sense in the context of a transitioning media market, whether KUOW was the right organization to fill the need for South Sound news, what impact a purchase would have on KPLU, and how Seattle listeners would benefit,” the study concluded.
Wayne Roth, the general manager of KUOW, said his board is deciding how to proceed with KXOT but has decided not to launch a fund drive.
“The climate and the timing are the reasons – no surprise,” Roth said of asking for money in a recession. He said he would work with PRC to decide whether to extend the agreement to program the station but there is a possibility KUOW could back out and the station would be put on the market again.
Fledgling attempts to create programing aimed at Pierce and South King counties will end and Tacoma-based reporter/producer Dominic Black will be laid off.
Marc Hand, managing director of Public Radio Capital in Colorado, said using KXOT to run national and international programming could work well because listeners want local news and information as well as national shows. And while KXOT doesn’t overlap KUOW’s audience completely, it does reach 2.7 million potential listeners, Hand said.
But it is unlikely that the Tacoma frequency would provide badly needed local programming, and KUOW shows little interest in moving beyond a Seattle-centric mission.
Peter Callaghan: 253-597-8657
peter.callaghan@thenewstribune.com
blogs.thenewstribune.com/politics
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