After a couple years of trying to preserve the license through STA's and brief "on" periods to reset the 12 month clock, Dartmouth threw in the towel and returned the license for WDCR to the FCC.
While it's always a bummer when a college radio station "dies", this isn't the usual case. WDCR needed expensive transmitter repairs, and tower repairs as well (I believe). The students already had another outlet at WFRD 99.3FM, so it'd be hard to justify spending a lot of money on a Class C AM on a graveyard channel. And when the transmitter originally died in 2008, the students formed a web-only station to replace it. In many cases, a properly-done web-only station can be just as effective a student "radio" outlet as an actual FCC-licensed station is.
Similarly, the tower is in the midst of athletics fields; the grounding system was immediately underneath some of them. So a sale would almost certainly involve Dartmouth requiring a move of facilities...something that's never easy or cheap for AM. And again, it's a weak graveyard signal - who's gonna buy it under those conditions? Especially considering that Hanover, NH has been hell on AM towers...just ask Bob Vinikoor about WQTH!
This whole thing probably says more about the viability of AM radio, especially in small and rural markets, than it does about college radio and the increasingly-contentious relationship many stations are having with their parent colleges.
While it's always a bummer when a college radio station "dies", this isn't the usual case. WDCR needed expensive transmitter repairs, and tower repairs as well (I believe). The students already had another outlet at WFRD 99.3FM, so it'd be hard to justify spending a lot of money on a Class C AM on a graveyard channel. And when the transmitter originally died in 2008, the students formed a web-only station to replace it. In many cases, a properly-done web-only station can be just as effective a student "radio" outlet as an actual FCC-licensed station is.
Similarly, the tower is in the midst of athletics fields; the grounding system was immediately underneath some of them. So a sale would almost certainly involve Dartmouth requiring a move of facilities...something that's never easy or cheap for AM. And again, it's a weak graveyard signal - who's gonna buy it under those conditions? Especially considering that Hanover, NH has been hell on AM towers...just ask Bob Vinikoor about WQTH!
This whole thing probably says more about the viability of AM radio, especially in small and rural markets, than it does about college radio and the increasingly-contentious relationship many stations are having with their parent colleges.