Editing WRAS (FM) (section)

===GPB transfer===
Despite being in the works for years, the signal transfer arrangement with GPB was kept secret until the day after [[final exam]]s ended, as students were leaving campus for the summer or preparing for [[graduation]], and the station's management was making its annual change.  GSU and GPB officials claimed that the deal had only been finalized the day before.  This made Album 88 staff and GSU students upset at the manner in which it was handled, with some claiming that the transaction may have been illegal.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://current.org/2014/05/students-opposing-wras-deal-get-new-support/|title=Students opposing WRAS deal get new support|website=Current|access-date=2021-10-15|archive-date=2015-06-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150627134920/https://current.org/2014/05/students-opposing-wras-deal-get-new-support/|url-status=live}}</ref> Student anger manifested itself at a protest during GSU's spring commencement ceremony,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wabe.org/graduating-gsu-seniors-hold-protest-commencement-wras/|title=Graduating GSU Seniors Hold Protest at Commencement for WRAS|date=May 12, 2014|access-date=October 15, 2021|archive-date=October 19, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019061229/https://www.wabe.org/graduating-gsu-seniors-hold-protest-commencement-wras/|url-status=live}}</ref> and a social media campaign with the tag #savewras,<ref name=autogenerated1>{{Cite web|url=http://savewras.com/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180131033117/http://savewras.com/|archive-date=2018-01-31|title=#savewras &#124; Save WRAS 88.5 Atlanta}}</ref> A petition on change.org drew over 10,000 signatories.

Claims were made that the new daytime programming had the benefit of bringing more NPR news and talk programming to radio listeners in Atlanta.  Until the fall of 2015, Atlanta's main NPR affiliate, WABE, had long aired [[classical music]] during the day between the morning and afternoon "drive time" periods.  A number of NPR programs popular elsewhere in the U.S. were not heard in the Atlanta market until WABE launched an all-news stream on its third HD subcarrier; still others were heard on [[Clark Atlanta University]]'s [[WCLK]], an otherwise jazz-formatted station with a weaker signal than WABE.  But with WABE's move to replace daytime music with informational programs (made in response to the new WRAS programming as perceived competition), much of GPB's shows on WRAS began, inadvertently or not, duplicating programming already airing on WABE.

This is the second time that GPB has made use of a student station from a [[University System of Georgia|state university]].  In 2004, [[WUWG]] in [[Carrollton, Georgia|Carrollton]] was acquired from the [[University of West Georgia]], its entire [[broadcast license]] transferred from UWG to GPB.  During the 2000s, the Radio Communications Board of [[Georgia Institute of Technology|Georgia Tech]] declined similar overtures made by GPB to its long-running [[WREK]].

Album 88 supporters also raised concerns about the appearance of a [[conflict of interest]] by Douglass Covey, Vice President for Student Affairs at GSU.  Until April 2014, he served on the board of Public Broadcasting Atlanta, the arm of the [[Atlanta Public Schools]] that operates WABE and [[WABE-TV]], during the same time GSU was negotiating the deal to bring GPB into competition for listener donations and corporate [[underwriting]]s that would otherwise go to support WABE.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://creativeloafing.com/content-218072-gsu-vp-involved-in-gpb-deal-previously-served-on-wabe-board-denies |title='Most Interesting Man in the World' inspires Nappy Roots |access-date=2014-06-30 |archive-date=2014-07-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140703203531/http://clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/2014/05/23/gsu-vp-involved-in-gpb-deal-previously-served-on-wabe-board-denies-conflict-of-interest |url-status=live }}</ref>