Student: ‘I can’t imagine not having it anymore’

Students stunned by sale of beloved radio station WNKU

Hannah Hagedorn, Assistant News Editor|February 15, 2017

Tommy Bailey

Alec Reynolds

WNKU’s sale was announced in February. It went off air this morning.

Mitchell Sellars said he was disappointed to see Northern Kentucky University part with something so unique.

“Not many other universities have their own radio station, and now we won’t either,” Sellars said.  

The Northern Kentucky University Board of Regents announced the sale of WNKU Tuesday; a decision that, some say, may impact the local music scene.

In Tuesday’s Board of Regents meeting, WNKU general manager Aaron Sharpe said the sale of locally-owned campus radio stations is something that has become “the norm.”

“This was the last university-owned public radio station in our market,” Sharpe said.

 

 

A note to our listeners and supporters: You may have heard by now that our owner, Northern Kentucky University, has authorized the sale of WNKU (89.7 FM) and WNKE (104.1 FM). In these challenging financial times for higher education, NKU is no longer able to subsidize the operations of WNKU. We expect that the WNKU and WNKE frequencies will be sold to new owners and that the FCC will approve the sale. Sometime in the coming months, once the sales are finalized, WNKU and its affiliated stations will go off the air. Until that process is complete, our promise to you is that we will continue to discover new music, support local music, and bring you new discoveries every day. In the meantime, if you are a sustaining member contributing monthly to WNKU via a credit card, please rest assured that there will be no further charges made to your account. Thank you for inviting us into your homes and your lives for the past three decades. Thank you for supporting us. It has been an honor to bring public radio and local music to the airwaves with your support, and we have enjoyed every minute of it.

A post shared by Discover Music. Discover WNKU. (@wnku897) on

Sellars, a sophomore business informatics major, said the decision was unfortunate, but he understands why it was made.

“After looking into it more, I saw that there were a lot of budget-based reasons to sell WNKU and I understand that,” Stellars said.

“I just hope that NKU takes the saved money and uses it to creatively help the students.”

NKU junior communication major Natalie Hughes said she has always wanted an internship with WNKU, but now knows that’s no longer a possibility.

“I was really hoping to contribute a lot to WNKU … it’s my favorite station,” Hughes said.

Junior PR major Olivia House said she was devastated by the decision as well.

“I love WNKU. I donate to the station every month. It is the only station I listen to, and I can’t imagine not having it anymore,” House said.

Hughes said she found comfort listening to WNKU for the past two years.  

“WNKU really offered an outlet to listen to music in the car,” Hughes said. “I’d tune in and know that I’d be hearing local music, new bands and new songs.”

The Board of Regents voted to sell the station for $1.9 million to Bible Broadcasting Corporation.

House said she won’t listen to the new station.

“I have no words for that,” House said. “I’m just done. I was tearing up … it’s so sad.”

Matt “Sledge” Waller, an on-air host at WNKU, tweeted this message to his followers once the sale was announced. 

 

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Listeners took to Twitter in a similar fashion: