Wednesday (8/4) on the St. Petersburg Times (Florida) blog The Feed, Eric Deggans reports, “For years, Tampa’s WUSF-FM (89.7) has negotiated a careful balance between its classical music fans and a much larger news and information audience tethered to its National Public Radio programs. But the balancing act ends Sept. 15, when WUSF turns WSMR-FM (89.1), a 50,000-watt contemporary Christian radio station in Sarasota, into a full-time classical music station. On the same day, WUSF will change formats to feature NPR programming during the day and jazz programs at night, theoretically satisfying both audiences by giving them each their own radio station. … WUSF will spend $1.275-million buying WSMR, which signs off at 5 p.m. today, using a 10-year loan from the University of South Florida Foundation. … WUSF general manager JoAnn Urofsky said the moves are an investment in the public radio station’s future, expanding their potential audience by 500,000 people and expanding programs for news and information fans—which tend to outnumber classical music fans at public radio stations across the country.”
Posted August 6, 2010
