WSCS, college station in NH, facing closure

https://www.facebook.com/pages/WSCS-The-Charge-909-Colby-Sawyer-Radio/176690866493

>>The administration at Colby-Sawyer College has made the decision to close down WSCS 90.9 FM - the only non-commercial educational radio station in the Kearsarge / Sunapee regions. If non-commercial educational and local community radio is important to you, please contact the administration

Based in New London NH
http://radio-locator.com/pats/WSCS_FM_LU.gif

Welcome to the 21st century. Colleges are strapped for cash, and operating an FM station typically doesn't serve their core mission. If this is a problem for people in the community, perhaps they might form a non-profit coalition to "buy" the station from the college.

I don't know anything about this station, but I wonder how many actual students are participating in it. That would be my first question. The second is who is paying for it.

All very true, just putting it out there. I recall Phillips Andover academy in MA gave up on their WPAA 91.7 after awhile
(disinterest?)

>>the FCC has a tendency to hand out some big penalties when you violate some rules you didn't even know existed.

Yes but there's also cases like WBMT 88.5 Boxford MA (Masconomet high) which has been operating without a license for several years (someone called it basically a legalized pirate) while they await an FCC hearing on a bunch of stuff, and now someone wants to share the freq w a new station in Newburyport.

One way or the other, whether or not the station can survive, they can always do an online broadcast.

>> If this is a problem for people in the community, perhaps they might form a non-profit coalition to "buy" the station from the college.
Hopefully something can be done, as it would be a good source for music, public service, etc

raccoonradio said:

Hopefully something can be done, as it would be a good source for music, public service, etc

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The bad news is that looking at the station coverage map, it would be cheaper and more efficient to build a town hall where everyone could come and listen to music. There don't seem to be enough people living in the coverage area to financially support a non-commercial radio station. Even one that's all volunteer.

From what I was told by another dj at WSCS, there are only a couple of people involved. I can't honestly blame the Administration for wanting to let go of this station, when there is no participation.

I used to DJ (before I got into commercial radio) at WNEC in Henniker,NH from 1992-95 back when we had almost a full schedule of students and volunteers.

I also hear that WNEC in Henniker is struggling. Too bad I think! These stations could be a great resource for not only the college but community as well. I listen to WNEC and honestly the format is horrendous, no flow or direction what so ever and they still play legal id's that were produced in the 70's and 80's . I've also heard that all the board members don't even have an airshift which I think should be a requirement to be a board member

Their facebook page has a "RIP WSCS" message on it; previous posts said they could spend $3k on automation that would put their signal on 24/7. Looks like the college didn't feel it was worth it; no doubt they could streamcast in the future at least.

raccoonradio said:

Their facebook page has a "RIP WSCS" message on it; previous posts said they could spend $3k on automation that would put their signal on 24/7. Looks like the college didn't feel it was worth it; no doubt they could streamcast in the future at least.

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Is the station off the air, then? I just tried to listen to its stream, but WSCS, firmly stuck in the past, offers only a RealPlayer feed, and I've never had any need to download that particular piece of bloatware into this 2010-vintage PC.

from fybush.com:

>>local broadcaster Bob Vinikoor stepped in to rescue the license. His Vinikoor Family Foundation is paying the college $4,000 for the license, which will be operated separately from WNTK-FM

WSCS is back on the air

As of yesterday, it's running a classical music format.