Why Is Louisville Public Media Pledging Again
Text and photos past SCOTT FYBUSH
There are some cities with multiple public radio stations offer listeners a variety of formats. (Your editor is lucky enough not merely to live in one of those cities, but to work for i of those stations.)
There are some cities where 1 operator runs, for instance, both a news-and-talk station and an all-classical station. (See above.)
There are others that accept news, classical and some flavour of developed anthology alternative (AAA) – take, for instance, Philadelphia and its prissy mix of news on WHYY, classical and jazz on WRTI and AAA on WXPN.
But there are very, very few where one operator has three full-time FM signals conveying each of those formats, all nether a single roof. There'southward St. Paul, where Minnesota Public Radio runs its multiple networks. At that place's Iowa Public Radio'due south fairly recent expansion into three formats.
And in that location's one of our favorites: Louisville Public Media in Kentucky'south biggest market, which for more than 25 years now has brought that city's three public FM signals together nether a single operating entity. It was a big deal dorsum in 1993 when the "Public Radio Partnership" united the University of Louisville's WUOL (90.5) with the two FM signals owned past Louisville's Free Public Library, WFPL (89.3) and WFPK (91.ix).
As with so many markets, these separate stations had evolved along somewhat parallel paths. WFPL was i of the oldest noncommercial FMs in the state, having started as a ten-watter back in 1950 (a yr later the high school across the river in New Albany, Indiana put an even more pioneering 10-watter on the air, WNAS 88.ane). WFPK joined it in 1954, playing classical music while WFPL did a wide variety of educational and cultural programming. There was a WFPK-Telly, too, starting in 1958 on channel 15; it went independent from the city and the library in 1969 as WKPC, and eventually was merged in with the statewide Kentucky Public Television network. Just yet again, we digress…
The university launched WUOL in 1976, calculation a second classical format to the market. (Both WFPK and WUOL benefited, every bit did and then much else in Louisville, from the charity of the Bingham family that endemic the city's newspapers; when they flipped the format of WHAS-FM from classical in 1975, they donated the record library to WFPK and equipment to WUOL.)
By the late 1980s, the library was looking to reduce its expenses in operating WFPK and WFPL,
In 1993, the three stations came together operationally nether the new PRP banner (changed to Louisville Public Media in 2008), though their studios remained split up. It took three years to realign the stations with a new set of formats: WUOL remained classical, WFPL sharpened its focus on news and talk – and WFPK became a pioneer in the AAA format as "Radio Louisville."
The stations bought the former Louisville Electrical Visitor building in 1997 and started making plans to renovate the iii-story structure on South Fourth Street in the middle of downtown, only to be set back by a fire that gutted the edifice, followed by an outpouring of support from the city, generous donors and listeners.
Past the end of 1999, the building was set up, the stations started moving in, and all was practiced for another 18 years. By 2017, information technology was fourth dimension for a refresh, with new Wheatnet digital audio replacing older consoles and each of the studios getting new furniture and equipment – which meant they had that shiny new studio look when we dropped past on a warm afternoon in the summertime of 2019.
One more note before we head inside: LPM isn't the only media operator on this block of South Fourth: directly across the street, Summit Media's four FM stations (land WQNU 103.1, throwback R&B WRKA 103.nine, Air-conditioning WVEZ 106.nine and archetype hits WSFR 107.vii) have streetfront studios looking out at the sidewalk, though they were obviously all voicetracked when we walked by.
Over here at LPM, the lobby has an unusual feature: one wall is lined with drinking glass cases showing off the wide diverseness of station swag on offer. (Yous can buy some of it online if you lot can't make it to Louisville!)
Through the door, in that location'due south a long hallway running the depth of the building, lined on the kickoff floor by all the studios and technical core for the stations. Immediately to the left is the "Blinking Light Center" (there'south a sign, really!), where one studio functions as a master control room with monitoring of all three stations' transmitters and streams, adjoining a rack room where the guts of the Wheatnet system lives.
The graphic design hither is remarkably consequent: the "50" logo of LPM is made up of three blocks representing each of the stations, and the colors of the blocks in the logo are carried into the studio hallway to mark off each set up of studios.
WFPL's air and production studios, plus its talk studio, sit down upwardly front behind the low-cal blue doors; the talk studio gets the view right through the front end windows to the lobby and the street.
WUOL is the darker blue at the center of the logo and the middle of the studio lineup; its air studio sits across the hallway from the tape library that was reimagined during the renovation to go an blusterous space that also provides some music office space and serves as a greenish room for guests. WUOL has its own small functioning space adjacent to the air studio for chamber groups and such (and pledge drives, likewise!)
Toward the back of the hallway, with doors in red, is WFPK, whose studio is a little more than decorated than the others, conforming the broad variety of music its DJs play. There's enough room in this studio to bring in performers for smaller live music appearances, besides.
Bigger live groups go the large studio at the back of the edifice, a double-height space that'due south largely unchanged from the original 1999 buildout. "Friday Alive Lunch" is WFPK's offering in here, complete with a live audience (well, ithadone, anyway), while WUOL does "Lunchtime Classics"; the space is also regularly rented out for recording and rehearsal purposes.
The control room for the functioning space was refreshed in 2017, too, with a new Midas mixer, amidst other goodies.
Upstairs, there are the usual business concern offices, of grade – and as part of the renovation, a hugely expanded newsroom that takes up much of the pinnacle floor, with its ain small-scale row of studios for interviews and vocalization piece of work.
In addition to the original iii radio stations, there are two more than legs to LPM these days: the newsroom not but feeds WFPL only is also home to the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting (KyCIR), which does its own deep reporting on matters of public interest that are getting ignored by other media.
LPM too added an events website, Do502.com, a separate commercial entity that runs somewhat independently of the balance of LPM.
WFPK has its music and programming offices at the dorsum of the building up here, also – and at least for at present, that wraps up our tour of this very impressive content mill that'south churning out and then much good radio, podcasting and digital media.
But before we exit downtown Louisville and head 90 minutes abroad dorsum into Indiana, there's one more bit of local radio history just a couple of blocks south on 4th Street: the apartment tower at 800 S. fourth, once the tallest building in town, has long been crowned past the antenna for what'southward now WXMA (102.3), Alpha Media's "Jack FM."
Ask whatsoever Louisville old-timer, though, and they'll remember the 102.3 frequency non equally "Jack" but as WLRS, the pioneering contained progressive FM station owned by Clarence Henson'due south Louisville Radio School. In that location's a whole story to be told about Henson'southward importance in the Louisville broadcast community – and well-nigh his son, Ed, who'due south still a prominent station owner and broker – but that's for some other Louisville trip, and hither's hoping nosotros become to take 1 shortly.
Cheers to LPM's Russell Wells for the tours!
LAST Run a risk!
The Belfry Site Calendar is nearly sold out.
We have only a few copies left, and and then it's gone.
If you lot haven't ordered yours, at present is the time. Click hither.
And don't miss a large batch of Louisville IDs next Wednesday, over at our sister site, TopHour.com!
Next week: French Lick, Indiana at sunset
onealdeverfelle37.blogspot.com
Source: https://www.fybush.com/site-20200522/
0 Response to "Why Is Louisville Public Media Pledging Again"
Post a Comment