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WMUB pursues local news bureau with Cincinnati Public Radio

Kelly Ament

In an effort to save money during economic strain, Miami University contracted its National Public Radio station, WMUB-FM, out to Cincinnati Public Radio (CPR) through a local management agreement in February.

Since then, CPR has taken over WMUB's programming, according to Cleve Callison, former general manager of WMUB.

Callison said the programming and signal now originate from Cincinnati, and there is no longer any station at Miami to create programming.

"Miami legally owns the license to broadcast, but Miami does not operate it," Callison said. "The staff (at the station) will be out of their jobs on June 30. Some of them have already left."

David Creamer, vice president of finance and business services, said the majority of the savings yielded from the agreement with Cincinnati Public Radio comes from cutting staff positions.

Callison also said there are no students currently working at the WMUB, though a broadcast journalism capstone class is still running.

Creamer said Miami has no intention to sell its license to broadcast at this time. However, he said the agreement with CPR contains an option in which CPR may consider purchasing the license from Miami after five years.

The agreement with CPR also stipulated Miami would have a member on CPR's board of directors, said Richard Campbell, director of the journalism program.

Campbell said he thinks Presdent David Hodge asked him to fill the position for Miami because he (Campbell) is interested in establishing a public news bureau. With the current arrangement, there is no local Oxford-based public radio news on the station, according to Campbell.

"We'd like to continue the WMUB capstone class because it's great for students," Campbell said. "The plan is to continue the class and partner with WBXU, which is also run by Cincinnati Public Radio."

Campbell said Miami's signal now reaches the Cincinnati region; however, the Cincinnati signal doesn't have news from Butler County, Oxford and surrounding areas.

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"If we're producing good stuff from our region, they will want to put it on because the signal is broader," Campbell said. "It's important that there be news from those places on WBXU."

Campbell also said he was pleased Miami didn't sell the station. He said Miami's license could become more valuable in the future because of the growth in the public radio audience. The public radio audience has grown by 6 percent and is the only area where the traditional news audience is growing, according to Campbell.

"People are listening to public radio," Campbell said. "There's a need for regional, national and international news."

According to Campbell, people feel they are not getting this news from the decline in newspapers.

Campbell said he fears the decline in journalism that may accompany the decline in popularity of newspapers and other forms of traditional news media.

"(We should) do what we can to support good journalism," Campbell said. "My hope is to create a news bureau that is supporting journalism in this area."

By transferring operation of WMUB to CPR, Callison said Miami was able to slash a large chunk of money from its yearly budget.

"The figure I've seen suggests that they're saving or they will save as of the next fiscal year ... half a million per year," Callison said.

Creamer elaborated on this figure saying the university will be saving $535,000 per year.

Campbell added the administration was trying to figure out how to run WMUB with fewer subsidies. According to Campbell, the university supplied 62 percent of WMUB's budget, while the national average for university-affiliated public radio stations is 36 to 37 percent.