SBU's campus radio station loses signal, partly knocked off air
WUSB radio host Finn Miller works at the control room under low power conditions on Tuesday. The station lost its main signal at 90.1 FM Monday morning because of a power outage, university officials and a disc jockey told Newsday. Credit: Morgan Campbell
Stony Brook University’s campus radio station was partly off the air Wednesday as the school looked for temporary and permanent replacements for the 4,000-watt station’s 30-year-old transmitter.
The university has launched a search for a temporary transmitter, station general manager Isobel Breheny-Schafer said. Credit: John Griffin/SBU Communications
WUSB lost its main signal at 90.1 FM Monday morning because of a power outage, university officials and a disc jockey told Newsday. The university has launched a search for a temporary transmitter, station general manager Isobel Breheny-Schafer said in a statement.
Disc jockey Tyrone Wisdom said the station was hoping to get back on the air later this week.
“We are looking for a temporary transmitter to alleviate the problem and within a few months, I think we will have a new [permanent] transmitter in place,” said Wisdom, a volunteer disc jockey in his 50s who is not a Stony Brook student.
A new transmitter could cost between $20,000 and $30,000, Wisdom estimated.
He said the old transmitter was designed to last about 15 years and had long since surpassed its expected life span.
"It’s been adequate enough, but it’s been lower [power] than we usually are,” he said.
The station could still be heard Tuesday on its website, wusb.fm, and on its second frequency, 107.3 FM, which covers a small part of the North Shore where the main frequency can't be heard, Breheny-Schafer said.
"WUSB's 30-plus-year-old transmitter, which previously broadcast on 90.1 FM, is no longer in operation and will be replaced with a temporary low-power transmitter while WUSB raises funds for a new full-power 3,600-watt transmitter," she said.
WUSB broadcasts a mix of news and music programs ranging from rock, jazz and reggae to country, polka and classical, as well as campus sports events.
The loss of the transmitter came in the midst of WUSB's annual fund drive. Wisdom said the station hoped to raise $20,000 and was approximately halfway to its goal.
Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.
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