Sale of Shaw's WSHA strikes sour note
Before Raleigh's downtown was cool, WSHA-FM was cool downtown. Now the Shaw University radio station that fills the airwaves with a fine collection of jazz music and other shows devoted to reggae, blues and gospel music may be going from cool to cold.
As in knocked out cold.
Paulette Dillard, interim president of the historically black university in downtown Raleigh, has announced plans to sell the station's frequencies to the Educational Media Foundation, a nonprofit organization that operates radio networks specializing in adult contemporary Christian music.
That news sounds like a needle being dragged across vinyl.
Dillard won't disclose the sale price, but whatever it is is too low. WSHA at 88.9 FM is a Raleigh gem. Newcomers to Raleigh who enjoy jazz are amazed to find a station of such quality in a mid-size city. The station sends out waves of jazz in the capital of a state known for the genre. North Carolina was home to John Coltrane and Nina Simone.
John Brown, a bassist and director of Duke University's Jazz Program, said the sale of WSHA "kind of flies in the face of that history." He added, "I would have thought someone would have had more vision than to let that go."
But Joseph M. Sansom , a former deputy state treasurer and a member of WSHA's advisory board, said the station is popular, but listeners are not sufficiently supportive. "They want to listen and enjoy, but they don't want to give anything," he said.
If that's the case, listeners should pay up. WSHA is worth keeping. Through the station, people listen to Shaw and Shaw listens to Raleigh. Along with music, WSHA offers public affairs shows featuring state and local officials and activists. It lives up to its motto, "Serving the community like no other." Computers playing contemporary Christian music programmed elsewhere won't replace that.
Proceeds from the station's sale are to fund improvements in Shaw's Department of Mass Communications, but it's hard to see how the department can be improved though such a disservice to communication. Not only will the community lose an important way to listen and be heard, but the announcement has come quietly and without a broad discussion within the Shaw community or with the station's supporters in Raleigh and Wake County.
"We all feel like (Dillard) needs to be a little more forthcoming on this matter," said Danny Coleman, head of a Raleigh's South Central Citizens Advisory Committee. "You've got to engage people. You cant just throw this out there."
An application for the sale has not yet been filed with the Federal Communications Commission, a FCC spokeswoman said Tuesday. Once it is, the public will have a chance to comment. Solid local opposition could block the deal, but those objections will be louder if matched with money.
Dillard could not be reached for comment, but in announcing plans to sell the station she suggested that it was time to move on 50 years after WSHA was founded as the first public radio station owned by a historically black college. With music now available from many digital sources, she said radio is a bit of anachronism. "The media landscape has evolved," she said.
And, not to worry, a university press release noted, WSHA will continue to stream content over the internet.
But some people are worried. Kesha Monk, a 1995 graduate of Shaw who works in radio in Boston, is trying to save the station, possibly by having it purchased by Shaw alumni and other WSHA supporters .
"As a Shaw alum, I am appalled that this is what it's come to," Monk told The News and Observer's Brooke Cain. "Our rich history is being sold for a few pieces of silver to fill budget holes left behind by past presidents."
An online petition to save the station has drawn over 1,900 signatures. That's a feeling Shaw University — and those who enjoy its station — need to tune into.
Barnett: 919-829-4512
This story was originally published March 27, 2018 at 1:43 PM with the headline "Sale of Shaw's WSHA strikes sour note."