WRAS Atlanta Album 88 A Stereo Odyssey STRATEGIC PLAN

Transcription

1 WRAS Atlanta Album 88 A Stereo Odyssey STRATEGIC PLAN

2 Mission Statement To provide quality programming that encourages conversation and discovery. By the Numbers 1971 WRAS goes on air for first time 520 Months on air 84 Hours of GSU sports programming in Number of specialty shows 65 Number of WRAS staff 208 Hours of educational programming in Hours of GSU sports programming in

3 History WRAS Atlanta 88.5FM has been in operation since January 18, 1971, airing live 24 hours a day at the campus of Georgia State University. Along with countless awards received from Creative Loafing, Atlanta Magazine, and The College Music Journal (beating out many of Atlanta s commercial radio stations), WRAS has been run professionally for 43 years without fines or lawsuits from the FCC, all under the leadership of WRAS Staff circa 1978 students. Over 60 student volunteers run the station, which host regular rotation and specialty shows, and may work as office assistants or hold a position on management as well. Album 88 is a place where any student from any background or area of academics can come and express their love for music while meeting new people. We believe such an experience allows for a true hands-on opportunity of what it is like to run an actual radio "I understand that NPR listeners want more of their favorite network, but satisfying them comes at a cost to, ultimately, hundreds of would-be broadcasters, writers and producers," he says, stressing that he speaks only for himself and not his employer. "A university should favor the students over the general public. I'm sorry that is not what GSU chose to do." -Richard Belcher, first WRAS GM on GPB merger station. The community of WRAS runs across all demographics: from alumni who have moved to other parts of the world (alumni from Japan and New Zealand), to alumni who may have not been involved in the station but supported our endeavors, to the Metro Atlanta community that tunes in. Atlanta has become such a major hub for business in various industries - especially in music, film, and arts fields and we believe WRAS has played and will play a huge role in such a market. Our respectful and professional relationship with the GSU administration for the past 43 years has allowed us to become the station that we are today. 3

4 Influence For the past 43 years, WRAS has been a trusted name in college radio in not only the Atlanta market, but also the entire world. Many of the world s now critically-acclaimed artists laid their paths to the fame with the help of college stations like WRAS: The Go Go s, Elvis Costello, Bob Geldof, The B-52 s, Outkast, Janelle Monae, Madonna, etc. The advantages and influence of WRAS have been built by the massive coverage of its analog signal, which covers the entire Atlanta-metro area and reaches as far north and south as an hour s distance away from the capital. This is thanks to WRAS s prestigious 100,000-watts of power which, until WREK acquired the same amount of power in 2011, is the largest amount of wattage for any college radio station in the entire world. This unusual amount of power has drawn media and musical attention to WRAS, and by association Georgia State University, for the past 43 years. Notable WRAS Alumni: -Richard Belcher, investigative reporter for WSBTV -Alan Moore, writer and voice over for Cartoon Network -Michael Fang, QPrime artist management company -Peter Heckman, National Broadcast Director for SkyTV New Zealand -Matt Steadman, Music Director/Senior Producer/ Webmaster at AM Matt Kehril, director at Turner Network Television in the On-Air creative group -Talib Shabazz, co-owner Ear Wax Records/ WVEE/ WRFG/RED Distribution -Jez de Wolff, Sr. Consumer Marketing Manager at Adult Swim -Shachar Oren, founder and CEO of Neurotic Media -Kimberly Drobes, Sr. Producer The Clark Howard Show -Millie de Chirico, Program Manager for Turner Classic Movies and advisor for SCAD ATL Radio Because WRAS has been a high-powered trusted name in college radio for more than four decades, the student leaders at WRAS have a lot of complex responsibilities and opportunities. Each staff member can take on as much work as he or she feels motivated to accomplish, and the opportunities are endless. However, the day-to-day tasks remain relatively the same from year to year but are nonetheless complex and important, relying heavily on the availability of WRAS s 100,000-watt analog signal. One fundamentally important task is music submissions. WRAS s operations and management structure has evolved drastically over its 43-year legacy, but in recent years, WRAS s music department has been a three person team. These three Music Directors are in charge of screening music, adding Longtime WRAS DJ, Yoon Nam, reads a PSA on air 4

5 music into the Prophet system, scheduling music in the NexGen system, speaking to CMJ promoters on a weekly basis (to confer on the music submissions) and compiling caller feedback into Atlanta-region charts. Compiling the CMJ charts is possibly the most important of all of these tasks, because the data compiled is sent to the College Music Journal in New York for national data consolidation. Music promoters (that work in accordance with CMJ) have said that WRAS is crucial in setting the national charts for college artists, because WRAS is the largest college radio station in the Southeastern market. In other words, WRAS single-handedly helps decide what breaking musicians will be nationally recognized in the CMJ charts each week. By association, depending on what WRAS adds each week; WRAS indirectly supports record sales in Atlanta. WRAS directly helps to promote local venues through ticket giveaways, mostly performed during drive-times, with virtually every venue in Atlanta (and sometimes Athens): Terminal West, The 529, The Earl, Tabernacle, Philips Arena, Lakewood Amphitheatre, Variety Playhouse, Buckhead Theatre, The Mammal Gallery, Drunken Unicorn, Center Stage, The Basement, The 40 Watt, Masquerade, etc. In recent years, this has been the job of one person: The Promotion Director. Recently, we added a Promotion Assistant to help with community-outreach and event planning, but the Promotion Director s most important job is obtaining and scheduling ticket giveaways. The Promotion Director has a relationship with every booking agent, production company and venue manager in Atlanta. Local venues reserve a few tickets specifically for radio giveaways on our station, because if a ticket giveaway is announced on-air, this is free promotion for the show and the venue. As a non-commercial station, WRAS has prided itself on being a voice of diversity in a sea of radio-sameness. As such, WRAS gives voices to the voiceless. WRAS accepts no money in exchange for public service announcements, which are created and monitored by the Public Service Director. As a public service, WRAS supports Atlanta s local 501c(3) non-profits by helping to promote them through written and recorded PSA s. This same amount of attention is given to the University for the use of promoting campus events, clubs, news (weather and tuition due dates), and recruitments for scientific research studies. Relationships like these would not be possible if WRAS s analog programming was lost or exchanged. The less influence that WRAS garners, the fewer relationships it will have, and the fewer responsibilities there will be for WRAS s staff. 5

6 Album 88 Today WRAS has been in the business of providing quality programming that encourages conversation and discovery since Though the station has had its high and low points throughout the years, the modern era of WRAS has been marked with consistent progress. Within the past year the station has seen record numbers of DJ applicants, increased listener feedback, more diverse programming than ever before, two of our most successful events thus far and enhanced relationships at GSU as well as within the Atlanta community and beyond. Aside from winning the CMJ 2013 for Never Selling Out, we also won best non-commercial radio station in Atlanta by Creative Loafing in We have one of the most robust news departments we have had, currently headed by a proactive and creative individual. Local music acts such as Mood Rings and Dasher, which we played first, are getting major record deals and national recognition. We believe that the WRAS of today reflects the station of tomorrow, with the mindset of our founders. There are a few specific initiatives we have been working on that we believe will only benefit our station going forward. Research-Based Programming As a non-commercial educational station, part of WRAS s license states that WRAS must play public affairs programs as a service to the community. WRAS has been aware of the importance of being an outlet for the University, and thus created an Educational Programming Application last year, which would allow for students and professors access to the WRAS studios to create pre-recorded public affairs programs. This application was created with University-promotion in mind, and with sufficient manpower, could become a respected source for news on Georgia State s advancements in research. This opportunity also allows for students on WRAS staff to have hands-on experience creating NPR-style programs, which would broadcast to the entire Atlanta-metro area and beyond. Working with the School of Public Health for our first partnership, we have begun a Public Health series of programming that allows graduate students and professors to discuss their research in a talk radio format. WRAS s goal was to have a GSU-based research program air each day during the morning drivetime. With more funding and support, we could hire more student managers to oversee this effort and create more exposure for the University in its proudest areas: public health, public policy, neuroscience, communications, nanooptics, biomedical sciences, computer information systems, etc. IndieATL IndieATL s mission is to promote independent artists and the local music community of Atlanta. During this past year, WRAS signed a partnership with IndieATL to 6

7 record WRAS Sessions, with the goal in mind to build national exposure for WRAS and, by association, the University. The terms of the partnership state that WRAS uses its influence to book national (and local) touring bands to perform a recorded in-studio session at the DAEL. (For years this has been a frequent offer from bands, but WRAS has consistently lacked the space to house musical performances.) With this partnership, IndieATL agrees to utilize its equipment to film and audio record interviews and live performances with artists. IndieATL and WRAS retain equal ownership of the audio and footage, which is to be used to air on WRAS and to upload to WRAS and IndieATL s websites. The inspiration for a partnership like this was to reach the professionalism and influence of Austin City Limits or KEXP s In-Studios, and to be a go-to source for intimate footage of musicians. This initiative strives to make Atlanta and Georgia State University as an artistic and cultural think-tank, to be respected by the rest of the nation. Creative Loafing During the past year, WRAS began an Underwriting Agreement with Creative Loafing, Atlanta alternative weekly newspaper and recent recipient of multiple Atlanta Press Club awards. This agreement outlines that WRAS offers two daily mentions during drivetime for CL by announcing a Concert Calendar made possible by Creative Loafing in exchange for a weekly ad space in the paper. We believe this exemplifies WRAS s professionalism, through the ability to monitor and maintain such an agreement on a weekly basis. This also helps to promote WRAS, thereby promotion the University by affiliation. Odyssey WRAS Odyssey is slated to be a second stream that would be available alongside the 24/7 analog programming we do here at WRAS. It would feature a different format and would create an international audience for WRAS and, by affiliation, and international outlet for Georgia State. It would be WRAS s wish to maintain the analog, the already existing stream and WRAS Odyssey to broaden the amount of opportunities for staff and appropriately reflect the changing landscape for radio from terrestrial to online. However, it is not in WRAS s best interest to exchange the analog broadcast in favor of any online stream, as outlined in the complexity of WRAS s relationships, the analog signal is necessary to serve the public interest. 7

8 Album 88 Tomorrow Although the modern era of WRAS is something to be proud of, we believe we have a long way to go. Other than continuing to pursue the initiatives outlined above, we believe WRAS could continue on the trajectory of becoming a nationally recognized radio station. We believe that with increased support and full backing from the GSU administration, along with beginning to pursue stronger fundraising opportunities, would allow WRAS to grow a national and potentially international profile. Such a situation could occur with increased focus on educational programming, a refined marketing campaign, more community involvement at events and more representation at national events and conferences all while staying student-run. While we see the future of WRAS as being completely student run, we encourage some community volunteer participation along with increased numbers of management opportunities as well as potential graduate student (GA) assistantship opportunities. We believe that these changes would bring a much stronger national appeal for GSU as compared to limited opportunities within the state of Georgia. In order to explain our potential in real terms, we look to another non-commercial, university-licensed analog radio station: KEXP. Though changes over the years have lead this station to not be as student-run as we desire WRAS to remain, the international recognition this station receives motivates us to build WRAS in this direction, for the benefit of the students and the University. KEXP (90.3 FM) is a public radio station based in Seattle, Washington, that specializes in alt and indie rock programmed by its DJs. Its broadcasting license is owned by the University of Washington, which operates the station in a partnership with the Experience Music Project, a nonprofit museum that is dedicated to contemporary popular culture. We believe that WRAS has the potential to become the next KEXP in terms of national significance and recognition. According to a report on Seattle radio published by The Seattle Times in 2009, KEXP was the 3rd most listened to station in the Seattle market. Since 2009, KEXP has continued to receive numerous awards while maintaining its place atop ratings charts. This has afforded the station opportunities such as hosting an entire stage at SXSW 2014 and serving as the main stage for the College Music Journal conference in both 2012 and Because of all of this recognition, KEXP brought in over $7 million in 2012 revenue, with over 41% coming from listeners. We believe that with increased University support in addition to our place in such a large media market, WRAS could become the next KEXP in terms of global recognition. Such recognition would benefit the university not only in terms of increased university recognition nationally, but would also serve as an enhanced recruiting tool for admissions. These benefits would enhance the profile of GSU 8

9 while simultaneously generating more revenue. The future of WRAS in this type of model would stand out from KEXP in three distinct ways. 1) Continually focusing on improving and increasing university-based educational programming. As mentioned before, we have been working over the past year to significantly increase the level of educational programming aired on WRAS. After encountering such a positive partnership with the School of Public Health as our first series, we plan to work with all departments on campus that want to share their research on our station. Along with our long-running student news show The Hub, we plan to increase our focus on educational and public affairs programming by as much as 20 hours per week. Though we believe at least 50% of this programming should be focused on university research and Atlanta affairs, purchasing the rights to popular national programming such as This American Life and Science Friday would allow us to transition listeners from WABE following Morning Edition. We believe such programming would draw listeners to WRAS and keep them engaged for subsequent GSU student produced news programming. Further, we believe that the number of hours of such program could increase even more if the opportunity for music-based educational programming becomes an objective. 2) Serving a community that is much larger than the market that KEXP serves while maintaining our student-run status. It s no secret that Atlanta is one of the biggest media markets in the United States. By evolving into a station that balances creative music programming with university produced educational programming, we believe that WRAS could gain a larger share of the Atlanta radio market. Since the market is much bigger than that of Seattle, WRAS has the potential to surpass KEXP in national recognition, which GSU as a whole would be able to reap the benefits from. If given the opportunity to effectively market the evolution of WRAS, the opportunity for growth is endless. Working at such a station would give students even more opportunities than the hands-on experience of running a 100,000- watt station already does. 3) Sustained support from alumni and community. Being that WRAS has been on the air for over 43 years, we have gained a spot among what makes Atlanta iconic while simultaneously being recognized nationally. The enduring support of our alumni and long time listeners serve as a strong jumping off point for WRAS as a national station - not just an Atlanta mainstay. With support from over 12,000 fans - and growing - on social media as well as constant calls and s to the station, we have the support group that it is necessary to put WRAS and GSU on the national map. WRAS as a national station would 9

10 cement GSU as a supporter of the arts and creative expression, drawing in an even more diverse range of students to our already diverse University. For all of this to happen, we must rely on our analog signal. Though improving and increasing our digital capacity is vital for the station going forward, we believe that our analog signal serves as the foundation of our station. According to the Pew Research Center, 92% of Americans 12 and older listened to radio on a weekly basis in 2012 the opportunities for the University as an entity or for the students. Further, reliance on HD radio is a lost cause as statistics show that it is a sparse medium. Though we acknowledge the inclusion of HD streams in stock luxury cars that are coming on the market, note that such systems are in new luxury cars. According to Pew Research Center in 2012, HD radio streams by stations were down to an all time low. Altogether, WRAS has been on the path to a bright future. With increased University support as described above, we as radio professionals believe that WRAS has strong potential to become the national radio station that is run by students increasing the profile of the University more so than any other option. We are not executives, we are not commercially motivated, we are not exclusive. We are WRAS Atlanta Album 88. Left on the Dial, Right on the Music. while only 29% streamed radio online. This gap is alarming, and though the gap is closing very slowly over time, we still believe that it is a large enough gap to strongly rely on the analog system for years to come. Without such a signal, this plan is not possible and nor are 10