Franklin College.
DAILY JOURNAL FILE PHOTO.
Franklin College officials plan to sell the school’s radio station, WFCI 89.5FM, to Catholic Radio Indy, operated by Inter Mirifica, Inc.
Both sides have agreed to the sale, but the Federal Communications Commission needs to approve it before the transfer becomes final. That approval, if it happens, should occur in the next month or two, said Jim Ganley, general manager emeritus for Catholic Radio Indy.
Ganley declined to disclose the amount of the sale.
The radio station had previously been student-run, but interest in radio broadcasting has waned over time. Without student-driven content and with another method for sports broadcasting, the station was redundant, Franklin College President Kerry Prather said in a news release.
“In the recent past, WFCI has been used to broadcast Franklin College athletic events and provide public broadcasting to Johnson County through a partnership with WFYI Indianapolis,” Prather said. “Now, our athletic events are broadcast via digital live stream as a component of our sports communication major, also making them accessible to our alumni across the nation. Additionally, with public broadcasting now reaching the county directly from WFYI, we realized the continuation of the radio station had become duplicative.”
Other Indiana colleges, including Purdue University and the University of Evansville, have sold their radio station in recent years, the release said.
The station, if the sale is approved, will become the fourth owned by Catholic Radio Indy, the others being its original spot in Indianapolis, and further acquisitions in Noblesville and Anderson. Franklin will be a valuable addition to Catholic Radio Indy’s arsenal of radio stations, Ganley said.
“Franklin is a great community and it’s right on the southern border of our current signal. It makes sense to expand in that direction,” Ganley said. “I’m excited about being able to reach out into that area. Right now, our signal ends in Greenwood or some place in that general area.”
Catholic Radio Indy is a listener-supported, nonprofit “established to present the gospel of Jesus Christ to all in Central Indiana” with a goal to “broadcast the beauty and teachings of the Catholic Church and to inform, inspire and challenge listeners,” according to the organization’s website.
Programming for the Franklin station will be largely the same as it is on the organization’s three other stations: Indianapolis’ 89.1FM, Noblesville’s 90.9FM and Anderson’s 90.3 FM. Programming will include local talk shows and nationally syndicated segments, Ganley said.
“We try and involve as many local people as we can. We will be doing that in all the areas we serve,” Ganley said. “We have a program called ‘Faith in Action,’ a half an hour-long interview program that always has someone local on it talking about various things and how they practice their faith in their everyday lives.”
Programming will likely begin on the station a couple of weeks following the FCC’s approval of the sale, he said.
