AROUND THE QUADS
WKCR 89.9 FM Is Back on the Air
By Shira J. Boss ’93
Two years after its transmitter went down with the World Trade
Center, WKCR is back on the air in the tri-state area, beaming its
signal from an antenna atop a new midtown office tower, 4 Times
Square.
Following September 11, 2001, the station had been broadcasting
from atop Carman Hall, with a limited outreach. Now its potential
listenership is back up to 11 million, about 90 percent of what
it was when broadcasting from the top of the World Trade Center.
The station is celebrating its return to the wider airwaves this
fall with multi-day festivals for Latino Heritage Month, the 20th
Anniversary New Music Festival, the African Music Festival and the
December Bach Fest. Phil Schaap ’73, Sharif Abdus-Salaam ’74
and other beloved DJs are returning to their programs.
WKCR’s return to the airwaves did not come easily.
While other stations went straight to the top of 4 Times Square,
WKCR sought to transmit from the top of Riverside Church, which
had housed the station’s studio for five years while Lerner
Hall was being constructed. Even though the FCC was granting stations
affected by the World Trade Center collapse expedited processing
of new transmitter applications, WKCR’s application was delayed
because of an objection from Seton Hall’s radio station, which
broadcasts on the same 89.9 frequency from New Jersey and said the
Riverside Church location would interfere with its broadcast range.
City College, just north of Morningside Heights, also lodged an
objection. While WKCR awaited a ruling by the FCC, the station was
only heard in the immediate campus vicinity.
“The University, along with the students, has been frustrated
with how long it’s taken us to get back on-air,” says
Kevin Shollenberger, executive director for student development
and activities. “It’s been unfortunate.”
Early this summer, WKCR’s application for the Riverside
Church antenna was rejected. A new application promptly was submitted
for 4 Times Square, however, and that was approved in two days.
The antenna was installed by September, but just as former listeners
began tuning back in, the station fell off the air temporarily.
A large crane involved in construction atop 4 Times Square was moved
to protect it from the winds of hurricane Isabel, and it blocked
the microwave signal coming from atop Carman to the transmitter
in Times Square. That problem was solved by speeding the installation
of an ISDN line that allowed WKCR to broadcast again, although at
a reduced audio quality, until the crane could safely be moved.
Being knocked off the air a second time highlighted one of the
previous problems — that WKCR was operating without a reliable
backup in place. “This is part of a short-term plan,”
Shollenberger says of the latest antenna. “We’re looking
to make 4 Times Square our backup and seeking a more permanent home.”
A prime candidate is the Empire State Building, but Columbia is
exploring other possibilities, including buildings under construction.
In the meantime, Carman remains the backup.
The two years of downtime dealt a financial blow to WKCR as well,
because it had just moved into new studios in Lerner Hall and had
planned fund-raising drives to help pay off substantial debt associated
with the new facility. A centerpiece was to be a two-week-long John
Coltrane festival in September featuring his entire recorded works
as well as guest artists, but the September 11 tragedy and problems
with the move to 4 Times Square forced that festival to twice be
postponed.
“We have a mounting deficit, mainly because we haven’t
been able to fund raise,” says Matthew Niederhauser ’05,
a WKCR board member. Niederhauser notes that some alumni have helped
out and that some expenses have been covered by insurance and a
grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
But expenses continue to mount, and more funds are needed.
Now that the radio station is again reaching a wider audience,
student recruitment is up and King’s College Radio can again
turn to fund raising. The University is in the process of hiring
a full-time director to work with the station, with part of the
job being to help raise funds.
The Coltrane festival, meanwhile, is being rescheduled for the
spring, not as a fund raiser this time, Niederhauser says, but “more
as a celebration of going back on the air.”
For more information about WKCR, see www.columbia.edu/cu/wkcr.
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