[BC] seattletimes.com: Asset too valuable to sell

[Brent Hall]

Asset too valuable to sell
Full story: 
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/dannywestneat/2002262108_danny04.html


  Sawyer Moe may be new to radio. But he's a pro at the ancient disc-jockey 
art of begging for money.

First he woos his listeners with praise. They must be cool if they're tuned 
to C89.5-FM, Seattle's hottest dance music, right?Next he scolds. Why is no 
one calling during our pledge drive?

Finally, the high school junior tries the blunt truth:

"We need the money!" Moe shouts over a thumping dance-hall beat. "You know 
the Seattle School District won't give us any -- they don't even have any 
for themselves!"

There's a lot of gallows humor around the C89.5 studios these days. That's 
because selling the station -- arguably the most successful high school 
radio outfit in the country -- is on the list of ideas for how to solve the 
district's budget crisis.

It's startling how much the district says it could make: $8 million.

It would be a one-time cash windfall. In the short term it's more money 
than you get by closing schools and cutting transportation. It's almost 
enough to balance next year's out-of-whack budget by itself.

Not bad for a bunch of kids toiling out of a dingy, converted classroom at 
Nathan Hale High School in North Seattle.

It's also why the district should leave the station alone. It's way too 
valuable to sell.

"The kids have built this place into a powerhouse," says Gregg Neilson, the 
station's teacher-manager since 1983. "They aren't fiddling with radio in a 
classroom. They're doing it on a par with the biggest radio stations in the 
city."

That's not just pride talking. The 50 student DJs and technicians reach 
110,000 listeners weekly. That's about one-fourth as many as Seattle's top 
FM station, KMPS (94.1) country, and as many as some AM commercial stations.

Billboard magazine considers C89.5 one of the six most influential dance 
stations in the nation. The others are all owned by multibillion-dollar 
corporations such as Clear Channel and Entercom.

The noncommercial station is almost self-sustaining. Listeners contribute 
$220,000 a year, enough to pay for all but two teachers (who, besides 
managing the station, teach classes in radio and video).

All this would vanish if the district sells. It has happened elsewhere; in 
2003, Portland schools got $5.5 million for a classical station.

Selling irreplaceable assets to patch recurring budget deficits is a 
mistake. Even if you net $8 million. Public treasures are lost forever, and 
without more cuts the ledger just goes back in the red.

C89.5 also has intriguing plans to seek underwriting, à la National 
Public Radio, so it has the potential to turn a profit.

But I was especially swayed by an aside from a reader, Patricia Goudge, 
whose son Matt Cohn is the station's student manager. She heard I was 
dropping by the station around 3 p.m., and wondered: Could I urge Matt to 
come home by 10?

We usually fret about how to get kids to stay in school.

What's it worth to have them so obsessed with what's going on at school 
that they won't stay away?

Danny Westneat's column appears Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at 
206-464-2086 or dwestneat at seattletimes.com.