DaytonDailyNews.com

OXFORD — Budget cuts could squelch the relationship between WMUB-FM and Miami University, which owns the public radio station's license and funds the majority of its $1.6 million annual budget.

WMUB (88.5) is facing a decrease of almost $100,000 in institutional support from Miami and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for the fiscal year ending June 30.

At the station's request, Miami president David C. Hodge in February appointed a committee to review the future of WMUB and its relationship with the university.

"That in turn could give a framework so that we would know how much money to expect from the university, so that we could plan our program service accordingly," said Cleve Callison, general manager of WMUB.

WMUB broadcasts National Public Radio programming, as well as original programs such as The Mama Jazz Show, to more than 35,000 listeners in Oxford, Hamilton, Cincinnati and Dayton. Its largest audience is in Montgomery County.

Miami's subsidy of WMUB is higher than typical, said Richard Campbell, committee chair and director of Miami's journalism department. The university provides $750,000 to $1 million each year for staff salaries, facilities and cash support.

Options presented to Hodge this fall could range from partnerships with Dayton-area public radio stations WYSO-FM and WDPR-FM, to selling the station. "The Cincinnati universities have gotten out of the public radio business in recent years," Campbell said.

In the long run, WMUB will be able to absorb cuts of a certain level through increased fundraising. "If listeners really want this programming they need to be more responsible for the cost of it," Callison said.

WMUB's membership support grew by an average of 26 percent annually from 1998 through 2005. It has allowed the station to fund five local talk shows and new media growth including a $75,000 conversion to digital (HD) broadcasting.

"We're very proud of the fact that we've been technological innovators," Callison said. "We were one of the first stations in Ohio to do HD broadcasting. We were one of the first in the nation to do three HD streams."

WMUB's fall 2006 and spring '07 membership campaigns fell short of their ambitious goals, but post-pledge drive initiatives have brought in additional money.

"I'm predicting this will be our best year as far as fundraising goes and it will go a long way toward making up that $100,000 deficit," Callison said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2419

or dlarsen@DaytonDailyNews.com.

Listener feedback

To share your thoughts on WMUB-FM with the Miami University committee studying the station's future, send an e-mail to wmubcommittee@muohio.edu. Comments are posted on the WMUB Directions Blog at wmub.org/Directions/directions.html.