It’s Official: Nashville Public Radio Finalizes $3.35M Purchase Of Vanderbilt’s WRVU

Since building its offices in MetroCenter, Nashville Public Radio has bought 1430 WPLN AM and now WFCL 91.1. The sign may need to be updated. Credit: Blake Farmer / WPLN

As of 10 AM Friday, Nashville Public Radio officially owns WFCL Classical 91.1 FM, formerly Vanderbilt’s student-run station. Money has finally changed hands after first announcing the deal three years ago.

The Federal Communications Commission approved the purchase of WRVU in March, and the Tennessee Attorney General had signed off too. But it wasn’t final until Vanderbilt Student Communications received the $3.35 million purchase price.

Of the total, $2.4 million was borrowed as a kind of interim financing.

“We didn’t have time to put a full capital campaign together before we had to make the commitment to buy the station,” says Nashville Public Radio chairman Byron Trauger.

A second FM frequency was seen as a way to have one focused solely on news and another just for music, Trauger says.

Public radio stations around the country have been snapping up college signals as universities see the potential to move broadcasts online and generate a multi-million dollar payday.

College radio advocates have been trying to play defense, though not with much success. Fans of WRVU hired attorneys and petitioned the FCC.

Jennifer Waits, who founded the website “Radio Survivor,” says it’s really a matter of convincing schools they shouldn’t sell.

“It’s still good to stand up for what you believe in,” she says. “People can change their mind.”

Waits and others are now focusing attention on Atlanta, where just this month, Georgia Public Broadcasting announced a deal to partially take over a powerful signal owned by Georgia State.