Paul McLane’s editorial about college radio (“Why Radio Should Go Back to School,” RW July 18) was right on. I got my start at WWUH at the University of Hartford. Now a consultant engineer, I appreciate the value of college radio still.
Here in Connecticut, we worked with the state broadcasting association to lower their membership dues for noncoms. Initially their dues were the same as a daytime-only commercial AM station, several hundred dollars, which was a huge amount to those nonprofits with annual budgets of four figures or less.
The association lowered the membership fee to $25 and enrollment jumped. They understood that having college stations as members would benefit commercial radio and could result in better programming, greater participation in the Alternative Broadcast Inspection Program and a trained pool of qualified potential employees.
A few years ago, I founded the CT Radio Alliance (ctradioalliance.org), an informal association of the state’s non-commercial broadcast stations. We have meetings several times a year, held around the state. This has been very effective in getting all of the non-commercial stations on the same page about issues surrounding the ABIP, FCC and EAS.
The state broadcaster’s association has embraced our new group and even provides a room for us to hold a meeting at their annual convention. So thanks for the good work, and we’ll keep supporting from this end.
John Ramsey
President
Ramsey Communications Services
West Hartford, Conn.
