What is in a name?
I chose the name Classic Gainesville because it captures two central points about WUFT-FM: much (most?) of the programming comes under the very broad heading of classical music and the station is in Gainesville.
As my tagline notes, however, the programming is not just classical music, and its listeners are not just in Gainesville. The name Classic Gainesville, while pointing to the central notions of classical music and Gainesville, tends to be limiting. How does the name serve people who like world music or people who live in Ocala?
The name Classic 89 is both descriptive and memorable. Those of us who favor station and its existing format could well be described as "Friends of Classic 89". It is a shame, but I'm afraid to call this website Classic 89 for fear of getting into legal issues.
So where does this leave things? I have heard it suggested that we not use such a limiting name as Classic Gainesville, but if not, what name could we use? The name needs to be short, descriptive, memorable, and not already in use. These rules apply equally to the domain name (the name you use in your web browser to reach the site), except that it should be even shorter.
Let the discussion begin.
the running list
ok-so we won't vote just yet; feel free to add more to the growing list; maybe some will start to rise to the top. a few more:
1) Orange Blossom State Radio (WOBS--that's actually kind of funny but, sounds more like what should be the name for our "new" state radio network of seamless NPR ...ugh!)
2) Orange Blossom Trail Radio Network
(WOBT .I'm tickin' myself here : wobot radio ... too much! i do like this one as it identifies us with Florida, allows for expansion across the region/state, has a "found art" aspect to it in the sense of a mixture of music discovered along the path of an inquiring mind)
3) Florida DeepSpring Radio (heh --WFDR ... nice "public works" association ... loosely associates us with the unique-in-the-world refreshment NCF has to offer and is a recurrent metaphor in petition comments ... about how soothing and refreshing and healing the programming on WUFT was.) [if it makes you think of "wellspring", that radio nome is taken ... I think ... what's not overtly covered here is the fact that the west of NCF is spring country wheras to the east is lake country; springlake and lakespring don't seem viable to me though, of the 2, I think I'd like Lakespring over Springlake ... maybe as LakeSpringFlorida Radio (WLSF)] ...still waiting for a discussion about this and submissions from others in our group to get going
Group & Website Name
How about keeping this topic open for the next week, and then, let's have a vote on the top 5 names. Is there a way to set-up a clickable poll with the top 5 names suggested, so that we can all vote for one that most of us like? If not, we can take a count from member comments in this forum.
As Mike and others have stressed: "The name needs to be short, descriptive, memorable, and not already in use ."
To borrow further from Mike, "these guidelines should apply equally to our name as a group, the website name, and to its URL." I've even begun to think in terms of how a name might be shortened to station call letters, if appropriate, for when we get back onto the air. Some of those might work well as URLs for the website. Be sure to Google your ideas to see if other groups are using them before you submit a suggestion.
That said, a few brainstorms (not all my ideas):
1) Classic Gainesville [www.classicgvl.org] (Mike's explanation is above & URL is available --we are using this name temporarily just to get "something" going but, by all means, express your opinion about it if you want to keep that as a name)
2) Gainesville Quality Music Radio (Call letters WGQM)
2a) Quality Music Radio Gainesville (call letters WQMR)
2b) NCF Quality Music Radio [NCF stands for North Central Florida]
2c) Quality Music Radio NCF [ditto; it's also harder to call-letter this one]
3) Citizens' Radio Gainesville (Call letters WCRG)
3a) Gainesville Citizens' Radio (Call letters WGCR)
3b) Citizens'Radio NCF [ditto per above; difficult to call-letter]
3c) NCF Citizens' Radio [ditto per above; difficult to call-letter]
4) Gainesville Quality Radio Network (Call letters WGQR)
4a) NCF Quality Radio Network [ditto per above; difficult to call-letter]
4b) Florida Quality Radio Network (Call letters WFQRN ; WFQR)
5) Florida Music Lover's Radio Network (call letters WFMLR ; FMLRN ;
[can it be more than 4 characters?]
6) NCF Music Radio Network (Call letters WNCF-MRN)
Group names that have been mentioned:
1) Foundation for Quality Radio Gainesville
2) Foundation for Gainesville Quality Radio
3) Citizens for Quality Radio Gainesville
4) Citizens for Quality Radio NCF [ditto per above]
5) Citizens Quality Radio Network (WCQRN)
6) Florida Citizen's Quality Radio Network (WFCQR)
7) Florida Radio Music Network (WFRMN)
8) Quality Radio Music Florida (WQRMF)
Nope, not that easy. In a way, the above seem overly obvious to me but, then, that might not be a bad thing if people are looking for us on the web.
Make your suggestions and then we will vote on July 31.
Group Name
Actually, I strongly prefer that we leave our group in its current state, with a rather amorphous identity. There are advantages to this. Various members may want to go off in different directions, which is fine. However, we may not want our group as a whole to get identified with each of these people's efforts, since everyone is free to do what they want and could use our name without our control. I don't actually see the advantage to having a definite name, and I'm happy with the situation as it is.
If we do adopt a name, I like "Save Classic 89", because that's the focus of the group right now, and it's short and catchy, and it includes everyone in the current listening area. Another good possibility that has been suggested to me is "Save Music Radio".
About WRUF: a prominent article in the Gainesville Sun published on July 19th stated, "(Dean) Wright said programming also is being reviewed at the other commercial station, WRUF 103.7 FM, including the sometimes controversial 'Lex & Terry' morning show." So, hopefully, that problem will soon be solved. If not, we can modify this website or start another one dedicated to improving WRUF's programming, and at that point create a new group.
a few more names
1) Florida Eclectic Radio Network (Call letters WFRN or WFERN or just, FERN) [Googling this, FERN is taken; WFRN.ORG is for sale?; ERN.org is taken ; flaern is taken; floridaecelecticradionetwork.org is not taken; nor is just, eclecticradionetwork.org ; nor is eclecticradio.org]
2) Cultural Infinity (suggested at the meeting last Thursday) Call letters WCI? Google search yields a culturalinfinity.com but not.org ;
3) Florida E-Quality Radio Network or Just E-Quality Radio Network (Call letters same as for #1 above?)
4) Mensa Radio Florida (Call letters WMRF) [mensaradio.org is not taken ; mensaradioflorida.org is not taken] ...maybe, too elitist? I was thinking in terms of "music that makes you think"
5) Museradio Network and Radiomusa Network are up for grabs on the Internet; Call letters WMRN or WRMN ...I kind of like the inspirational aspect of this name
6) Orangestate Radio is taken by Syracuse NY -grr! Tangerine Radio and Clementine Radio are up for grabs
enough already! --REGISTER! VOTE! SUGGEST!