WRNI’s fight to survive Several things, including the end of AG Lynch’s investigation, could shed more light on the future of public radio in Rhode Island BY IAN DONNIS

ALTHOUGH PROSPECTS for invigorating public radio station WRNI (1290 AM) remain uncertain at best, several related situations offer a bit of fresh hope for the poor cousin to Boston-based WBUR (90.9 FM). For the time being at least, Boston University has no plans to sell WRNI. As Bryant University considers getting involved, local boosters have developed a business plan for slightly expanding the public radio station’s diminished local presence. Meanwhile, the pending conclusion of a review of WRNI by the office of Attorney General Patrick Lynch — due to be completed within approximately the next 30 days — could expedite some forward movement regarding the station’s future.

All this marks a sharp contrast from the Friday morning last September when Jane Christo, an imperious figure who made WBUR a powerful national name in public radio, walked into a gathering with WRNI’s major donors at One Union Station. Not far from where WRNI broadcasts in space offered at below-market rent by the Rhode Island Foundation, she proceeded to unceremoniously tell the boosters that WRNI and its sister station in Westerly were being offered for sale on the next business day.

It was a shock for those following the situation, albeit one that wasn’t entirely unpredictable. Although the WBUR Group, backed by significant financial contributions from Rhode Islanders, launched WRNI in 1998 with the pledge to make it a strong local news-and-information presence, the station’s scope and ambition had steadily been scaled back in the years before Christo’s announcement (see "The undoing of WRNI," News, September 24, 2004).

If the resulting local outrage — in which Lynch and Governor Donald L. Carcieri asked Boston University to delay the sale of WRNI — precluded a precipitous transaction, it did nothing to restore the cuts in station staff or the elimination of the weekly one-hour newsmagazine Focus: Rhode Island. Yet it also signaled the beginning of the end for Christo. Accused of mismanagement in an anonymous letter sent to Boston University, she resigned in October 2004 following reports that WBUR and WRNI had accumulated millions of dollars in debt in recent years. (As the Boston Globe reported March 24, a consulting firm hired to review WBUR’s business operations recently made a series of recommendations, including greater fiscal transparency, streamlined management, and a closer working relationship with Boston University, which holds its license.)

Here in Rhode Island, WRNI continues to operate as something akin to the public radio equivalent of a ghost ship. There’s still plenty of thoughtful reporting from National Public Radio, including such staples as Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and WBUR-originated content like Car Talk, but almost nothing in the way of local reporting. Rhode Islanders are better off for this presence, but the station’s remaining skeletal staff (executive producer Mark Degon, producer Jim Moses (who is also doing work for WBUR), anchor Bob Ames, and an engineer) has spent months in limbo, lacking the time to do little beyond reading headlines and interviewing an occasional guest.

The pending conclusion of Lynch’s investigation into WRNI, however, might shed some light on the station’s future. The AG declined to comment on the possible findings, although he hopes to conclude the examination "probably within the next 30 days." The scope of the review includes the money received by WRNI, how it was spent, and the matter of how the collective millions were donated by large and small donors "with charitable intent that the station would be maintained and used for public radio."

Boston University suspended the sale of WRNI after the hue and cry from Rhode Island last fall, and BU, perhaps seeking to make the best of what had become something of a public-relations fiasco, hardly seems in a hurry to move the property, notably the licenses for WRNI and WXNI and the studio infrastructure at One Union Station. "The university has no plans to sell the station," says spokeswoman Nancy Sterling, who works for ML Strategies in Boston. "We have said from the beginning that it is our goal to maintain public radio in Rhode Island. We want to make that happen, and we are taking active steps to make that happen."

Citing the unfinished nature of the review by the Rhode Island AG’s office, Sterling declines to elaborate. "We’re not going to say much publicly, as you’ll understand, until we hear what the attorney general has to say to us," she says. Asked what circumstances would cause BU to offer WRNI for sale, Sterling says, "I can’t think of anything at the moment that would cause that situation to change." Does BU anticipate a long-term role in the station’s ownership or management? "We’re not going to discuss options," Sterling says, "until we hear a response from the AG."

Several other factors, including the prospective interest of Bryant University and the presentation of a business plan this week by the Foundation for Ocean State Public Radio — might offer some other hints of what the future holds for WRNI.

For now, the question remains not just whether public radio can flourish in Rhode Island — the only state to lack it, other than Delaware, prior to 1998 — but whether it can survive.