What's the frequency, Pat and Patty?

UMass Boston's WUMB has always been something of an enigma (it has always been a radio station licensed to the university but unlike its counterparts WMUA UMass Amherst, WUML Lowell and WUMD Dartmouth, not run by students; four years ago it became "Boston's NPR Music Station", continuing to operate with a paid professional staff).

Moreso when long-time general manager Pat Monteith was moved aside - see

notloB Music: Montheith and Laurenti Out at WUMBMay 07, 2012
Going back a week and a half or so, talk on the street that Pat Monteith was out as general manager of "Boston's NPR Music Station'" reached the internet last Thursday, first in "A new era?" in Fans of Former Folk Radio ...

Today. things are no different.

The latest bit of strangeness comes from a note in "Towards Independent College / Community Radio WUMB which informs us that Pat Monteith is still the general manager and its Arbiton ratings either have fallen so low they are no longer being reported, or Monteith's replacement, Patty Domericoni, has not remembered to pay the bill.

WUMB's Arbitron's Ratings Fall and Disappearanceby Towards Independent College / Community Radio WUMB on Wednesday, August 15, 2012 at 6:29pm ·
July ratings just came out on radio-info.com
 http://www.radio-info.com/markets/boston

WUMB is not rated this month! Though their ratings were previously low, I don't think it's possible that they could have dropped from 0.4 in June all the way down to below 0.1 (unrated) in a month.



Two possible scenerios:

#1): U. Mass. Boston is reviewing station expenditures in the wake of "relieving" Pat Monteith of the General Manager position, and may have decided that paying fees to Arbitron to subscribe to their ratings system was not worth the money.

#2): Without Pat Monteith in control, maybe no one took care of everything technically and/or bureaucratically necessary to make sure that WUMB's ratings were submitted to, and/or published by, Arbitron for the July month.

Of course, it could be something completely different. We would welcome a reply from Director of Adminstration & Operations and Acting Program Director Patty Domeniconi. Or from Patricia Monteith, who at the time of this note (8/15/12, 6:20pm), is still listed at http://wumb.org/about/php  as "General Manager" (or is that another oversight?).

Format changes at WGBH still not helping them. They are now third from the bottom of stations with published ratings.

(The stations with no numbers displayed either stopped subscribing to Arbitron, or rated below 0.1, some of them are out-of-area stations that only reach small portions of the Boston market).

Below them is student-hosted but administration-run WERS Emerson, and WKOX-AM, the Spanish station that loses half the Boston market at sunset with a directional nighttime signal that mainly beams to the North Shore per FCC regulations for their frequency.

WBUR, Boston's original NPR News station, continues undaunted by WGBH so far, holding its place at the bottom of the top ten with the successful commercial stations, and is showing a slight increase over June.

So, what's the frequency, Kenneth, or in this case, what are the numbers (or reason for lack of them), Patti and Pat?

Inquiring minds want to know.