Monday, the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees voted unanimously to purchase Spring Hill College’s WHIL-FM 91.3 public radio station for $1.1 million.
Based in Mobile, Ala., the listener-supported station has a coverage area that, in addition to reaching the Alabama gulf coast, extends into parts of Louisiana, Florida and Mississippi, the WHIL website states.
WHIL has been operated for over 30 years by Spring Hill College, a private Catholic school of less than 2,000 students.
Difficult economic conditions made the sale of WHIL inevitable, Spring Hill College President Richard Salmi, S.J. said in a statement on the college’s website.
“The station’s role in our community is an important one, but the College must focus its energy and limited resources … to providing an exceptional education for our students,” he said. “Therefore, ultimate responsibility for the operations of a public radio station cannot be a main focus for us.”
In addition to the declining revenues, due to hard economic times, public radio stations such as WHIL may soon lose all federal funding for their programming. The U.S. House of Representatives recently voted to eliminate all federal funding for public radio. Should the measure become law, it would mean drastic revenue losses for WHIL and other public radio stations.
“The loss for 91.3 WHIL would be about $100,000 [per year] in federal support,” the WHIL website states.
Once acquired by Alabama Public Radio, the station will no longer have to rely on federal funding for a large portion of its expenditures.
“The stronger financial resources of the University of Alabama Public Radio system in today’s environment of uncertainty in federal public radio funding make the impending transfer to the University all the more timely for the 91.3 WHIL listening audience,” the website states.
Since trustees from both institutions have agreed to terms for the sale, acquisition of WHIL needs only the approval of the FCC, which is expected to take up to two months.
WHIL programming will be taken over by Alabama Public Radio, which broadcasts from studios in the College of Communication and Information Sciences at the University. APR currently broadcasts in Tuscaloosa, Muscle Shoals, Huntsville, Montgomery and Selma. WHIL is expected to add significantly to APR’s listening base.
“This will give the University of Alabama access to an additional 800,000 listeners,” UA President Robert Witt said, as reported in the Mobile Press-Register.
Acquisition of the station by APR may also provide better programming for listeners.
The station currently spends $190,000 for programming from vendors such as National Public Radio, Public Radio International and American Public Media, the WHIL website states. Takeover by APR will result in new offerings for WHIL listeners that were previously too expensive for the station to purchase.
Even after the acquisition, however, the programming of WHIL is expected to change very little.
“It is currently assumed that the basic format of the station will remain intact – NPR News and Classical Music – since Alabama Public Radio’s schedule substantially mirrors WHIL’s during the weekdays,” the WHIL website states.
Once the sale is complete, WHIL will have a more sound financial future and the University of Alabama will have a new voice in the southern part of the state.
