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Cape college weighs cost of returning WKKL to air

Paywall. What is the $10k needed for? Always enjoyed tuning in when on the mid-cape
 
I saw the following had been posted on WKKL's Facebook a couple years ago when the
air signal was down:

"Big thanks to everyone who's left suggestions here on FB. There are two equipment issues. The first is that either the antenna or the cable connecting the antenna with the transmitter is faulty. The second issue, intimately connected with the first issues, is that the tower is leaning. That is, the tower on top of the Tilden Arts building, where the WKKL antenna lives, is leaning slightly, and some of the guy wires are slightly loose. The tower expert, who consulted with WKKL in January, refused to climb the tower (to examine the antenna) until it was secured. SO, we need a tower engineer to determine what remediations are necessary and then we need to make those remediations BEFORE the antenna/cable are replaced. Please feel free to contact me for further information. [email protected] Cheers, despite life's little challenges."

https://www.facebook.com/wkkl907/

I did manage to read the CCT article a few
days ago (WUMB's Tai had linked to it on FB)
and recalled a mention of the tower leaning)

Wikipedia mentions WKKL's general manager is "Naomi Arenberg, formerly of WGBH"

From WKKL site:"Note: The transmitter for WKKL is currently down, so the signal for 90.7FM cannot be heard. The live stream is still available. "
 
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Sadly too many college stations are bound by guidelines that do not allow it to be self-sustaining in some manner. With college administrations looking at costs, many stations are not an asset but a liability. I would encourage any college station to lobby for a more self-sustaining position where unexpected costs and maintenance can be covered by dollars not doled out by the college but rather generated from the station itself. It all comes down to money or the lack of, something that some non-profit broadcasters fail to understand.
 
b-turner said:
Sadly too many college stations are bound by guidelines that do not allow it to be self-sustaining in some manner. With college administrations looking at costs, many stations are not an asset but a liability. I would encourage any college station to lobby for a more self-sustaining position where unexpected costs and maintenance can be covered by dollars not doled out by the college but rather generated from the station itself. It all comes down to money or the lack of, something that some non-profit broadcasters fail to understand.
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Besides the FCC legal inability to air outright commercials, college stations are not legally bound to any guidelines or regulations that prevent them from raising funds to (help) sustain themselves, and certainly colleges are not going to impose such guidelines beyond those required by the FCC to restrict on-air commercial content.

Like public radio (NPR, etc...) stations, non-comm college stations are allowed to raise funds via asking on-air (and online, by postal mail, etc..) for donations, and by airing non-commercial sponsorship underwriting announcements that are somewhat like commercials but must follow certain content restrictions preventing them from being considered commercials by the FCC. They can also host benefit events such as concerts, public discussion forums, etc., where the proceeds from an admission price at least partially benefit the station. There are also some cases where the stations may qualify to (solicit and) receive certain corporate or government grants.

Some college stations here in the city are almost completely self-sustaining. MIT’s WMBR raises over 95% of its funding via listener donations during their annual on-air fundraising week. With a completely all-volunteer staff and no payroll, this covers all costs of operating, maintaining, repairing, and occasionally upgrading the station. A small annual stipend from MIT only accounts for less than 5% of its total funding.

Unfortunately for a station such as WKKL, these options would be much more difficult (if even possible) to achieve at this time, not because of any guidelines or restrictions on fundraising imposed on them by Cape Cod College (I doubt there are any, besides FCC non-commercial restrictions), but due to not having much current listenership because of their on-air signal having been down for a period of time, and not being in a densely populated area such as Cambridge/Boston in the first place.
 
Agree with the above. I have come across a few stations (college) where a portion of the student activity fee went to the station but in return station was to offer no underwriting nor ask or listener donations. At a few spots a dollar amount is allocated in the budget but when that budget doesn't cover everything, the station likely had a long history where it never solicited dollars from listeners nor businesses and non-profits. In some of those instances, the station went from an asset to a burden for the institution.

There are plenty of successful college stations that do pay attention to the funding issue and have cultivated an audience of value to underwriters and programming of value to a respectable number of listeners.
 
b-turner said:
Agree with the above. I have come across a few stations (college) where a portion of the student activity fee went to the station but in return station was to offer no underwriting nor ask or listener donations. At a few spots a dollar amount is allocated in the budget but when that budget doesn't cover everything, the station likely had a long history where it never solicited dollars from listeners nor businesses and non-profits. In some of those instances, the station went from an asset to a burden for the institution.

There are plenty of successful college stations that do pay attention to the funding issue and have cultivated an audience of value to underwriters and programming of value to a respectable number of listeners.
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Though I'm sure what you're saying is true, I don't see why a college wouldn't allow a non-profit station to raise its own money (legally) to help sustain itself, even if given a stipend from the college. (The <5% of their annual funding that MIT gives WMBR is a student activity stipend, actually the highest funded student activity on the MIT campus).

Though there may be some, I'm not aware of any college stations around the Boston area where the school does not allow the station to fundraise even if given a student activity stipend. In addition to WMBR at MIT (where I used to be a volunteer community DJ), I know that WERS at Emerson, WZBC at Boston College, and WMFO at Tufts University do on-air fundraising at times, despite receiving some funding from their colleges. I haven't heard other local college stations do on-air fundraising, though some may and I haven't happened to catch it.

One anomaly is Harvard's WHRB. I've heard that when it went on the air in 1957, Harvard gave them a commercial license as their means to fund themselves. I don't know whether Harvard gives them any funding besides that. Local commercials are still heard at times, especially when the station broadcasts Harvard sports games.
 
I totally agree with you. In fact, in trying to help some LPFMs, I told them they had many of the same bills to pay as a commercial station and it was a good idea to have a good game plan for creating the needed cash. It's just a great idea to be able to be monetarily independent and not reliant on another entity for funding.
 
Hearing that WKKL is back on-- they had a Dec deadline to return and spent money on repair...
FCC FM silent list mentions them but that was last updated in Nov
 
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