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WRAS Atlanta Album 88
A Stereo Odyssey




STRATEGIC PLAN
2013-2023





WRAS Strategic Plan, 2013-2023

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Mission Statement

To provide quality programming that encourages
conversation and discovery.


By the Numbers

1971 WRAS goes on air for first time
520 Months on air
84 Hours of GSU sports programming in 2013
41 Number of specialty shows
65 Number of WRAS staff
208 Hours of educational programming in 2013
84 Hours of GSU sports programming in 2013








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History

WRAS Atlanta 88.5FM has
been in operation since January 18,
1971, airing live 24 hours a day at the
campus of Georgia State University.
Along with countless awards received
from Creative Loafing, Atlanta
Magazine, and The College Music
Journal (beating out many of Atlantas
commercial radio stations), WRAS has
been run professionally for 43 years
without fines or lawsuits from the
FCC, all under the leadership of
students. Over 60 student volunteers
run the station, which host regular rotation and specialty shows, and may work as office
assistants or hold a position on management as well.
Album 88 is a place where any student from any background or area of academics
can come and express their love for music while meeting new people. We believe such an
experience allows for a true hands-on opportunity of what it is like to run an actual radio
station. The community of WRAS runs
across all demographics: from alumni
who have moved to other parts of the
world (alumni from Japan and New
Zealand), to alumni who may have not
been involved in the station but
supported our endeavors, to the
Metro Atlanta community that tunes
in. Atlanta has become such a major
hub for business in various industries
- especially in music, film, and arts
fields and we believe WRAS has
played and will play a huge role in
such a market. Our respectful and
professional relationship with the GSU administration for the past 43 years has allowed us
to become the station that we are today.



WRAS Staff circa 1978
"I understand that NPR listeners want
more of their favorite network, but
satisfying them comes at a cost to,
ultimately, hundreds of would-be
broadcasters, writers and producers,"
he says, stressing that he speaks only for
himself and not his employer. "A
university should favor the students
over the general public. I'm sorry that is
not what GSU chose to do."

-Richard Belcher,
first WRAS GM on GPB merger

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Influence

For the past 43 years, WRAS has been a trusted name in college radio in not only
the Atlanta market, but also the entire world. Many of the worlds now critically-acclaimed
artists laid their paths to the fame with the help of college stations like WRAS: The Go
Gos, Elvis Costello, Bob Geldof, The B-52s, Outkast, Janelle Monae, Madonna, etc. The
advantages and influence of WRAS
have been built by the massive
coverage of its analog signal, which
covers the entire Atlanta-metro area
and reaches as far north and south
as an hours distance away from the
capital. This is thanks to WRASs
prestigious 100,000-watts of power
which, until WREK acquired the
same amount of power in 2011, is
the largest amount of wattage for
any college radio station in the entire
world. This unusual amount of
power has drawn media and musical
attention to WRAS, and by
association Georgia State
University, for the past 43 years.
Because WRAS has been a high-powered trusted name in college radio for more
than four decades, the student leaders at WRAS have a lot of complex responsibilities and
opportunities. Each staff member can take on as much work as he or she feels motivated
to accomplish, and the opportunities are endless. However, the day-to-day tasks remain
relatively the same from year to year but are nonetheless complex and important, relying
heavily on the availability of WRASs
100,000-watt analog signal.
One fundamentally important
task is music submissions. WRASs
operations and management
structure has evolved drastically
over its 43-year legacy, but in recent
years, WRASs music department
has been a three person team.
These three Music Directors are in
charge of screening music, adding
Notable WRAS Alumni:
-Richard Belcher, investigative reporter for WSBTV
-Alan Moore, writer and voice over for Cartoon Network
-Michael Fang, QPrime artist management company
-Peter Heckman, National Broadcast Director for SkyTV
New Zealand
-Matt Steadman, Music Director/Senior Producer/
Webmaster at AM 1690
-Matt Kehril, director at Turner Network Television in the
On-Air creative group
-Talib Shabazz, co-owner Ear Wax Records/ WVEE/
WRFG/RED Distribution
-Jez de Wolff, Sr. Consumer Marketing Manager at Adult
Swim
-Shachar Oren, founder and CEO of Neurotic Media
-Kimberly Drobes, Sr. Producer The Clark Howard Show
-Millie de Chirico, Program Manager for Turner Classic
Movies and advisor for SCAD ATL Radio

Longtime WRAS DJ, Yoon Nam, reads a PSA on air
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music into the Prophet system, scheduling music in the NexGen system, speaking to CMJ
promoters on a weekly basis (to confer on the music submissions) and compiling caller
feedback into Atlanta-region charts. Compiling the CMJ charts is possibly the most
important of all of these tasks, because the data compiled is sent to the College Music
Journal in New York for national data consolidation. Music promoters (that work in
accordance with CMJ) have said that WRAS is crucial in setting the national charts for
college artists, because WRAS is the largest college radio station in the Southeastern
market. In other words, WRAS single-handedly helps decide what breaking musicians will
be nationally recognized in the CMJ charts each week. By association, depending on what
WRAS adds each week; WRAS indirectly supports record sales in Atlanta.
WRAS directly helps to promote local venues through ticket giveaways, mostly
performed during drive-times, with virtually every venue in Atlanta (and sometimes Athens):
Terminal West, The 529, The Earl, Tabernacle, Philips Arena, Lakewood Amphitheatre,
Variety Playhouse, Buckhead Theatre, The Mammal Gallery, Drunken Unicorn, Center
Stage, The Basement, The 40 Watt, Masquerade, etc. In recent years, this has been the
job of one person: the Promotion Director. Recently, we added a Promotion Assistant to
help with community-outreach and event planning, but the Promotion Directors most
important job is obtaining and scheduling ticket giveaways. The Promotion Director has a
relationship with every booking agent, production company and venue manager in Atlanta.
Local venues reserve a few tickets specifically for radio giveaways on our station, because
if a ticket giveaway is announced on-air, this is free promotion for the show and the venue.
As a non-commercial station, WRAS has prided itself on being a voice of diversity in
a sea of radio-sameness. As such, WRAS gives voices to the voiceless. WRAS accepts no
money in exchange for public service announcements, which are created and monitored
by the Public Service Director. As a public service, WRAS supports Atlantas local 501c(3)
non-profits by helping to promote them through written and recorded PSAs. This same
amount of attention is given to the University for the use of promoting campus events,
clubs, news (weather and tuition due dates), and recruitments for scientific research
studies. Relationships like these would not be possible if WRASs analog programming
was lost or exchanged. The less influence that WRAS garners, the fewer relationships it will
have, and the fewer responsibilities there will be for WRASs staff.








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Album 88 Today

WRAS has been in the business of providing quality programming that encourages
conversation and discovery since 1971. Though the station has had its high and low points
throughout the years, the modern era of WRAS has been marked with consistent progress.
Within the past year the station has seen record numbers of DJ applicants, increased
listener feedback, more diverse programming than ever before, two of our most successful
events thus far and enhanced relationships at GSU as well as within the Atlanta community
and beyond. Aside from winning the CMJ 2013 for Never Selling Out, we also won best
non-commercial radio station in Atlanta by Creative Loafing in 2012. We have one of the
most robust news departments we have had, currently headed by a proactive and creative
individual. Local music acts such as Mood Rings and Dasher, which we played first, are
getting major record deals and national recognition. We believe that the WRAS of today
reflects the station of tomorrow, with the mindset of our founders. There are a few specific
initiatives we have been working on that we believe will only benefit our station going
forward.

Research-Based Programming
As a non-commercial educational station, part of WRASs license states that WRAS
must play public affairs programs as a service to the community. WRAS has been aware of
the importance of being an outlet for the University, and thus created an Educational
Programming Application last year, which would allow for students and professors access
to the WRAS studios to create pre-recorded public affairs programs. This application was
created with University-promotion in mind, and with sufficient manpower, could become a
respected source for news on Georgia States advancements in research. This opportunity
also allows for students on WRAS staff to have hands-on experience creating NPR-style
programs, which would broadcast to the entire Atlanta-metro area and beyond. Working
with the School of Public Health for our first partnership, we have begun a Public Health
series of programming that allows graduate students and professors to discuss their
research in a talk radio format. WRASs goal was to have a GSU-based research program
air each day during the morning drivetime. With more funding and support, we could hire
more student managers to oversee this effort and create more exposure for the University
in its proudest areas: public health, public policy, neuroscience, communications, nano-
optics, biomedical sciences, computer information systems, etc.

indieATL
indieATLs mission is to promote independent artists and the local music
community of Atlanta. During this past year, WRAS signed a partnership with indieATL to
record WRAS Sessions, with the goal in mind to build national exposure for WRAS and, by
association, the University. The terms of the partnership state that WRAS uses its influence
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to book national (and local) touring bands to perform a recorded in-studio session at the
DAEL. (For years this has been a frequent offer from bands, but WRAS has consistently
lacked the space to house musical performances.) With this partnership, indieATL agrees
to utilize its equipment to film and audio record interviews and live performances with
artists. indieATL and WRAS retain equal ownership of the audio and footage, which is to
be used to air on WRAS and to upload to WRAS and indieATLs websites. The inspiration
for a partnership like this was to reach the professionalism and influence of Austin City
Limits or KEXPs In-Studios, and to be a go-to source for intimate footage of musicians.
This initiative strives to make Atlanta and Georgia State University as an artistic and
cultural think-tank, to be respected by the rest of the nation.

Creative Loafing
During the past year, WRAS began an Underwriting Agreement with Creative
Loafing, Atlanta alternative weekly newspaper and recent recipient of multiple Atlanta
Press Club awards. This agreement outlines that WRAS offers two daily mentions during
drivetime for CL by announcing a Concert Calendar made possible by Creative Loafing in
exchange for a weekly ad space in the paper. We believe this exemplifies WRASs
professionalism, through the ability to monitor and maintain such an agreement on a
weekly basis. This also helps to promote WRAS, thereby promotion the University by
affiliation.

Odyssey
WRAS Odyssey is slated to be a second stream that would be available alongside
the 24/7 analog programming we do here at WRAS. It would feature a different format and
would create an international audience for WRAS and, by affiliation, and international outlet
for Georgia State. It would be WRASs wish to maintain the analog, the already existing
stream and WRAS Odyssey to broaden the amount of opportunities for staff and
appropriately reflect the changing landscape for radio from terrestrial to online. However, it
is not in WRASs best interest to exchange the analog broadcast in favor of any online
stream, as outlined in the complexity of WRASs relationships, the analog signal is
necessary to serve the public interest.









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Album 88 Tomorrow

Although the modern era of WRAS is something to be proud of, we believe we have
a long way to go. Other than continuing to pursue the initiatives outlined above, we believe
WRAS could continue on the trajectory of becoming a nationally recognized radio station.
We believe that with increased support and full backing from the GSU administration,
along with beginning to pursue stronger fundraising opportunities, would allow WRAS to
grow a national and potentially international profile. Such a situation could occur with
increased focus on educational programming, a refined marketing campaign, more
community involvement at events and more representation at national events and
conferences all while staying student-run. While we see the future of WRAS as being
completely student run, we encourage some community volunteer participation along with
increased numbers of management opportunities as well as potential graduate student
(GA) assistantship opportunities. We believe that these changes would bring a much
stronger national appeal for GSU as compared to limited opportunities within the state of
Georgia. In order to explain our potential in real terms, we look to another non-commercial,
university-licensed analog radio station: KEXP. Though changes over the years have lead
this station to not be as student-run as we desire WRAS to remain, the international
recognition this station receives motivates us to build WRAS in this direction, for the
benefit of the students and the University.
KEXP (90.3 FM) is a public radio station based in Seattle, Washington, that
specializes in alt and indie rock programmed by its DJs. Its broadcasting license is owned
by the University of Washington, which operates the station in a partnership with the
Experience Music Project, a nonprofit museum that is dedicated to contemporary popular
culture. We believe that WRAS has the potential to become the next KEXP in terms of
national significance and recognition. According to a report on Seattle radio published by
The Seattle Times in 2009, KEXP was the 3rd most listened to station in the Seattle market.
Since 2009, KEXP has continued to receive numerous awards while maintaining its place
atop ratings charts. This has afforded the station opportunities such as hosting an entire
stage at SXSW 2014 and serving as the main stage for the College Music Journal
conference in both 2012 and 2013. Because of all of this recognition, KEXP brought in over
$7 million in 2012 revenue, with over 41% coming from listeners.
We believe that with increased University support in addition
to our place in such a large media market, WRAS could become the
next KEXP in terms of global recognition. Such recognition would
benefit the university not only in terms of increased university
recognition nationally, but would also serve as an enhanced recruiting
tool for admissions. These benefits would enhance the profile of GSU
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while simultaneously generating more revenue. The future of WRAS in this type of model
would stand out from KEXP in three distinct ways.

1) Continually focusing on improving and increasing university-based
educational programming. As mentioned before, we have been working over the past
year to significantly increase the level of educational programming aired on WRAS. After
encountering such a positive partnership with the School of Public Health as our first
series, we plan to work with all departments on campus that want to share their research
on our station. Along with our long-running student news show The Hub, we plan to
increase our focus on educational and public affairs programming by as much as 20 hours
per week. Though we believe at least 50% of this programming should be focused on
university research and Atlanta affairs, purchasing the rights to popular national
programming such as This American Life and Science Friday would allow us to transition
listeners from WABE following Morning Edition. We believe such programming would draw
listeners to WRAS and keep them engaged for subsequent GSU student produced news
programming. Further, we believe that the number of hours of such program could
increase even more if the opportunity for music-based educational programming becomes
an objective.
2) Serving a
community that is much
larger than the market
that KEXP serves while
maintaining our
student-run status. Its no secret that Atlanta is one of the biggest media markets in the
United States. By evolving into a station that balances creative music programming with
university produced educational programming, we believe that WRAS could gain a larger
share of the Atlanta radio market. Since the market is much bigger than that of Seattle,
WRAS has the potential to surpass KEXP in national recognition, which GSU as a whole
would be able to reap the benefits from. If given the opportunity to effectively market the
evolution of WRAS, the opportunity for growth is endless. Working at such a station would
give students even more opportunities than the hands-on experience of running a 100,000-
watt station already does.
3) Sustained support from alumni and community. Being that WRAS has been on
the air for over 43 years, we have gained a spot among what makes Atlanta iconic while
simultaneously being recognized nationally. The enduring support of our alumni and long
time listeners serve as a strong jumping off point for WRAS as a national station - not just
an Atlanta mainstay. With support from over 12,000 fans - and growing - on social media
as well as constant calls and emails to the station, we have the support group that it is
necessary to put WRAS and GSU on the national map. WRAS as a national station would
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cement GSU as a supporter of the arts and creative expression, drawing in an even more
diverse range of students to our already diverse University.
For all of this to happen, we must rely on our analog signal. Though improving and
increasing our digital capacity is vital for the station going forward, we believe that our
analog signal serves as the foundation of our station. According to the Pew Research
Center, 92% of
Americans 12 and
older listened to radio
on a weekly basis in
2012 the opportunities
for the University as an
entity or for the
students. Further,
reliance on HD radio is
a lost cause as
statistics show that it is
a sparse medium.
Though we
acknowledge the
inclusion of HD streams in stock luxury cars that are coming on the market, note that such
systems are in new luxury cars. According to Pew Research Center in 2012, HD radio
streams by stations were down to an all time low.
Altogether, WRAS has been on the path to a bright future. With increased University
support as described above, we as radio professionals believe that WRAS has strong
potential to become the national radio station that is run by students increasing the
profile of the University more so than any other option. We are not executives, we are not
commercially motivated, we are not exclusive. We are WRAS Atlanta Album 88. Left on the
Dial, Right on the Music.