10:20 AM EDT on Thursday, September 23, 2004

BY ANDY SMITH
Journal Television Writer

Members of the nonprofit foundation that helped bring public radio to Rhode Island met yesterday to consider strategies, including legal action, that would keep a public radio station in the state.

Among those attending the meeting of the Foundation for Ocean State Public Radio were former Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse and Claire Richards, special counsel to Governor Carcieri.

Whitehouse said he was there to offer "legal and strategic advice" as a friend and fan of public radio.

"We're looking at legal avenues, but we need to know more facts," he said. "Court action is certainly a possibility. That's what they're there for, to resolve these disputes."

Public radio station WRNI, which broadcasts at 1290 AM in Providence and 1230 AM in Westerly, has been put up for sale by its parent station, Boston University's WBUR.

The move, announced Friday by WBUR general manager Jane Christo, left local public radio supporters furious.

Eugene Mihaly, president of the foundation, said the group is determined not to lose WRNI.

"We are on this like dogs," said Elizabeth Delude-Dix, the organization's vice president.

The group helped raise $3.1 million to bring WRNI, which began broadcasting in 1998, to the state.

Many contributors, who had helped raise millions to bring WRNI into existence, now wish they had insisted on more legal control over the station's licenses.

"In retrospect, we should have put in some legal protection for the money," said Don E. Wineberg, an attorney and a member of the foundation board. "Our goal now is to control the license so we are never in this position again."

Mihaly said the foundation has only been aware of WBUR's intention to sell the station for a few days, so it is pursuing a variety of tactics.

One is legal action. On Monday, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch asked Boston University to halt the proposed sale until his office could study the issue.

WBUR has yet to respond to the letter; spokesman Will Keyser said university officials are still considering it.

In an interview Tuesday, Lynch said he is responsible for monitoring the assets of charitable trusts in Rhode Island. Whether WRNI, run by a nonprofit organization, qualifies as a charitable trust is something Lynch said his office is still examining.

Yesterday, Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline weighed in, writing a letter to Carcieri urging him to preserve a public radio station in Rhode Island.

Although the Foundation for Ocean State Public Radio is being advised by several attorneys, Mihaly said the organization has not yet retained anyone to begin legal proceedings.

Besides the legal route, the foundation is also considering purchasing WRNI for itself.

Yesterday, foundation members were attempting to contact Stephan Sloan of Providence-based Media Services Group, the broker for the WRNI sale.

Mihaly said the foundation has also been in contact with several potential partners, including educational instutitions and other broadcasting organizations. He declined to be more specific.

In the late '90s, WBUR spent about $2.3 million to buy the licenses of WRCP-AM in Providence and WERI-AM in Westerly.

The licenses are now held by the WRNI Foundation, which is incorporated in Rhode Island but controlled by Boston University.

Since purchasing the stations, WBUR officials said they have made significant improvements, including boosting the signal strength of the Providence station from 5,000 to 10,000 watts and making major improvements in the transmission towers.

According to figures from Arbitron, the radio ratings service, WRNI had a weekly audience of 33,800 for the last available ratings period, spring of 2004. Commercial news/talk station WHJJ-AM had 98,000 weekly listeners and pop music station WPRO-FM had 293,000.

Neither WBUR nor Sloan have indicated a price for WRNI.

Since WRNI is a public station with two licenses for sale, comparisons are difficult to come by.

A spokesman for AAA Entertainment in Pawtucket said that company sold WICE-AM, a talk station, to Radio Disney in 2001 for about $2.5 million.

WRNI broadcasts from a studio at One Union Station in downtown Providence, in space leased from The Rhode Island Foundation. The foundation has been a major contributor to the station, donating about $500,000 since 1998.

Rhode Island Foundation spokesman Rick Schwartz said WBUR recently renewed its lease for another five years.

Schwartz said foundation President Ronald V. Gallo informed Boston University that, under the terms of the agreement, WBUR cannot assign the lease to another party without the foundation's permission.