Tampa Bay's community radio station, WMNF 88.5 FM, has had a rocky few years when it comes to fundraising.
Although supposedly out of the recession, most Americans have been feeling the economic squeeze for three years or so, which is approximately when the station started having more trouble than usual hitting its financial goals during spring and winter month fundraising drives.
Add to the mix the fact that the region's NPR affiliate, WUSF-FM 89.7, has finally gone to the News & Public Affairs daytime format that most other NPR stations switched to years ago, and the recipe is a daunting one for those who toil at Tampa Bay's 31-year-old successful experiment with community radio (where this reporter was Assistant News Director for 10 years before moving to Creative Loafing in 2009).
So Program Director Randy Wynne is now thinking of radically changing the station's format,
This article appears in Oct 28 – Nov 3, 2010.