The non-profit "Friends of MVY" has already raised about $175-thousand of the necessary $600-thousand to keep WMVY programming alive online. Aritaur Communications president Joseph Gallagher, the current owner, told The New York Times a "major donor had made an offer," as he assembles a governing board. The paper featured its coverage in its New York edition, and in the Media Decoder blog online. 
The Martha's Vineyard, MA station is being sold (pending FCC approval) to NPR-member WBUR, but the non-profit hopes to keep MVY's traditional adult alternative/eclectic format going as an online-only station (see our coverage here).
WMVY reportedly attracts about 30-thousand unique monthly listeners to its live online stream. Backers must "be able to convince a much higher percentage of its listeners to continue to donate to keep it going," Gallagher told the paper.
Gallagher explains the number of online listeners is not enough to sustain a commercial venture, thus the decision to keep the stream non-commercial. Gallagher said, "The power of MVY is its deep, deep relationship with its listeners."
Read more in The New York Times here.
We're happy to announce our second-annual RAIN Summit Europe industry event, May 23 in gorgeous Brussels, Belgium. We'll gather with Internet radio leaders from across Europe and around the world at the Hotel Bloom for a full day of informative panels, presentations and networking.
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