KERA 90.1 FM announced on Friday that it intends to take over WRR Classical 101.1 FM, run by the city of Dallas and the oldest radio station in Texas, according to a statement released by KERA on Friday.
"We're a public broadcasting organization," says KERA President and Chief Executive Officer Nico Leone. "We've been one for more than 60 years. We operate an NPR station, a PBS station, a triple-A music station, and the one format we don't have in our family that is really thriving in public broadcasting is classical music."
The city's Office of Arts and Culture has been the main operator of WRR, making it a municipal radio station under its current management, according to the city's request for proposals (RFP) seeking a nonprofit to operate the station.
According to a statement from the city, WRR has been in the red for the last eight years, "with a declining fund balance in operating reserves of $5.1 million since 2012."
"As a responsible steward, the city of Dallas is exploring new management for WRR 101.1 FM to ensure it remains a city-owned classical music format radio station," the statement reads. "All RFP respondents must operate as a nonprofit. If the station's operating and capital reserves were exhausted, the city would not be able to require it remain a classical station."
The city started taking bidders to take over its RFP agreement for management in order to present its proposal to the Dallas City Council on Monday with a full counsel vote scheduled sometime in June.
"If the station's operating and capital reserves were exhausted, the city would not be able to require it remain a classical station." – City of Dallas statement
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Leone says KERA will not change the station's format if the city reaches an agreement with KERA, and the station will not be relocated from its home in Fair Park.
"Our explicit intention and the requirements of the RFP are that WRR will stay a classical station," he says.
He also says the station plans to schedule concerts and form partnerships with groups like the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Fort Worth Symphony to stage live productions and further WRR's efforts to make classical music as accessible as any other format on the airwaves.
"I think that's one of the really exciting opportunities for us, and KERA has such a long history of working in the arts, of bringing arts content to audiences," Leone says. "We think this is just another way to do that and a way for us to expand our work in that area and the community."
WRR started in 1921 as a public frequency for Dallas firefighters to report and coordinate fire brigades. In between calls, firefighters played music or belted out jokes on the air. The fire department also used the station to help solicit donations for new equipment as Dallas began to grow. The station became popular as residents tuned in to listen to the latest fire updates or just enjoy the sounds of bored firefighters trying to keep each other entertained in between fires, according to WRR.
The station moved to the Adolphus Hotel in 1926, and later to the the Jefferson and Hilton Hotels, before settling into its current home in the late 1930s. The station's format changed to all classical music in 1964, making it the oldest and only classical format station in Texas. It was also the first to broadcast in an entirely digital format in 2006.