Just want to point out that this isn’t Brown’s only radio station.  They also run WBRU which is a completely student run commercial radio station that broadcasts all over southern new england and competes with the big corporation channels.

Acknowledging that this “news” blog basically exists for the lolz of smug undergrads, I feel compelled to correct some misreported and misleading statements and to offer a more balanced, if also biased, account of this deal:
— Perhaps it was slightly disappointing and disheartening that BSR has been a tenant to a day school’s signal, but if you know about the history of the station and of radio at the school, it’s not quite embarrassing. As noted in the first comment, BSR is the second, younger station at Brown. WBRU is now a commercial behemoth spreading alt-rock over one of New England’s strongest signals. Admirable to some, but not exactly college or community radio. Which is where BSR stepped in in ’97, as an offshoot of radio nerds who kickstarted a new student group and finagled a lease with Wheeler, no small feat. If you have any interest in finding out the rest of the story of radio at Brown, this audio documentary (bit.ly/BSRDoc), produced by BSR and BRU alums, is a good place to start.
— Characterizing the termination of the WELH lease as something “only learned about it when they were shown the door” and as something to “win back” is at best a misguided interpretation of the facts and at worst misleading and blatantly false. The facts of the lease were that BSR was one of a handful of part-time tenants on the WELH signal. We signed contracts to lease broadcast time from the owner, the Wheeler Schoool, as did other broadcasting groups. The exact terms of the contracts, such as broadcast hours and length of contract, have fluctuated over the years. BSR has always lived under the very real possibility of losing its terrestrial signal. Threats to our continued tenancy had come up before and, as an organization, we had spent many hours over the years preparing for such a possibility. We just, until last year, would have been given a few more weeks’ notice prior to losing it.
— Furthermore, the termination was nowhere near as abrupt nor as unexpected to BSR management as this article makes it out to be. The station was not idly cruising along debating which Pavement album is the best, as much as this article suggests otherwise; rather, we made the only prudent and proper business decision and kept such a large and confidential process behind closed doors. The situation was not ‘Wheeler kicks us off without notice then we try to win them back’. The owner approached multiple potential operators, solicited proposals, and choose the one which they determined to be the most advantageous for their organization, as is their legal right. This process took months from start to finish, and the station was busy planning for the consequences of both successful and unsuccessful bids for that entire duration (or even longer). Obviously, we would have rather them chosen ourselves, and perhaps would have benefited from a little more notice or forthcomingness, but such is the world of business.
— A fact not mentioned in this article nor the linked Daily Herald article is that within the past few years, Wheeler was granted a massive power upgrade on the signal, which no doubt increased its market value. This fact is more than likely the primary mover behind the Wheeler School’s motions to consolidate to a single operator, rather than a mixture of part-time tenants.
— Finally, the second half of this statement is outright untrue: “Though Rhode Island Public Radio is finalizing negotiations to take over
the signal, nobody has been broadcasting on it for the past month.” The smallest amount of legwork, entailing tuning into WELH via their website or a radio (should you live in the area/remember what they are), would have shown the station to still have content— the Wheeler School did produce content even when leasing parts of the signal, and presumably is continuing to do so while the deal is inked. This is actually the norm for signal cases like these— it’s in the interest of the owner of the signal to keep the area clean for the new operator and to avoid complication with overlapping leases/contracts. E.g. the loss of one of the best freeform stations in the country, KUSF (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KUSF / http://savekusf.org/), to a classical station who already broadcasts on the signal though the deal is not officially finalized.

Written by a former BSR manager, as well as a whole lot of other things around the station, current programmer/station member, former Brown student and Providence resident.

P.S.— For more information, you can visit bsrlive.com or read an article, which includes an interview with one of our publicity directors, from the beginning of last month when this all happened here: http://www.radiosurvivor.com/2011/07/25/brown-student-radio-station-bsr-to-go-online-only-august-1/

Help! Long comment. This the internet, short attention span zone.

what a poorly written article.

Jon Mack, as an ‘aspiring novelist’, I am rather surprised and saddened that you did not take the few minutes to read Mr. McGarry’s  reply. It’s not fiction, but worth reading nonetheless. 

The fact that this article is grossly misleading is heavily muted by the embarrassing attempt at humor and overall tactless writing. From what I can tell, that’s what the Ivy Gate Blog does really well. 

Wrong, BSR is the only station Brown funds; BRU is a commercial enterprise with no ties to the school save for the students running it.