WMVY-FM Aims to Shift to Web Streaming as a Nonprofit

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WMVY has lost as much as “big six figures” annually, the owner, Joe Gallagher, said.Credit

The radio station WMVY-FM in Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts is beloved by many listeners for its eclectic alternative programming and local news and sports, but since 2008, that affection has not translated into enough advertisers to keep it profitable.

So the owner, Aritaur Communications, is staking out an unusual path to keep the music alive: if it raises $600,000 in donations by the end of January, it will try to reinvent WMVY as a nonprofit Web streaming venture.

“It’s not often that a commercial operation gets up and says we’re going into the noncommercial, public radio business,” said Joe Gallagher, Aritaur’s president. “But I think that in this case it fits: it fits the programming, it fits the sensitivity, and I think it’s ultimately the one that works.”

In recent years, WMVY has lost as much as “big six figures” annually, Mr. Gallagher said by telephone. Rather than switch formats, Aritaur announced in November that it was selling WMVY’s 92.7 FM frequency — pending approval by the Federal Communications Commission — to WBUR-FM, the nearby Boston public radio station.

Aritaur will keep the sale proceeds, but donate other assets, including WMVY’s format, staff and equipment, to the nonprofit Friends of MVY if the $600,000 — a year’s expenses — is raised. So far, more than $175,000 has been pledged, and Mr. Gallagher said one major donor had made an offer as he sought to assemble a governing board.

WMVY was a pioneer in online streaming beginning in 1998, and about 30,000 unique listeners tune in monthly to the live stream. The Web stream is already supported by donations, but the station must “be able to convince a much higher percentage of its listeners to continue to donate to keep it going,” he said.

The number of online listeners is not enough to sustain a commercial venture, he said, adding, “The power of MVY is its deep, deep relationship with its listeners.”

In a telephone interview, the country singer Lyle Lovett, who is based in Texas, agreed. “I know about WMVY because of the feedback I’ve gotten from listeners,” he said. Asked about the value of broadcast or Internet radio among services like Pandora that offer personalized playlists, Mr. Lovett said that, given the diffuse nature of music listening, “I don’t know anything anymore.” But he said he sold more concert tickets in cities with stations like WMVY that play adult album alternative music like his.

While he plans a streaming future for WMVY, Mr. Gallagher said that he would also someday like to find a new broadcast outlet and that he was exploring options in the public radio realm. He said he was talking to the owner of a Vineyard-licensed noncommercial FM station, not yet broadcasting, or may try to piggyback on another commercial station’s digital frequency.
https://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/wmvy-fm-aims-to-shift-to-web-streaming-as-a-nonprofit/?ref=business
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