WRFW granted major upgrades
By
Craig Corsten The
University received $85,750 dollars in matching funds to upgrade several pieces
of equipment essential to the station. Among
the major upgrades are: Half
of the needed money will come to the University from the U.S. Department
of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
The other half of the needed money will come from Wisconsin Public Radio,
and the UW System. “The
credit really goes to Wisconsin Public Radio,” said Rick Burgsteiner,
the faculty advisor to WRFW. “They were aggressive in applying for these
grants.” The
upgrades come to the station at a much-needed time. WRFW, as a Wisconsin
Public Radio affiliate, is to remain on the air 24 hours a day seven days
a week, 365 days a year.However, with aging equipment that is difficult
to do. “Some
of the equipment at WRFW is over 40 years old,” said Al Murray, UW-RF
engineer. The
antenna is over 40 years old, and the transmitter is over 15 years old.
Both are worn and in need of upgrades. Murray
compared the radio stations broadcast equipment to a computer saying,
“If your computer ran 24/7, 365 days a year for twenty years, would
it last?” While
the station could go on running on the obsolete equipment it has been
a strain on the staff. According to the grant application for the new
equipment, in the year of 2000 the station outages from April to June
caused a total of nearly 24 hours of downtime, depriving listeners of
their right to hear W.P.R. broadcasts. “Al’s
(Murray) done an incredible job of keeping all this stuff working,” said
Burgsteiner. "All of the obsolete equipment will be kept by the station
as a backup to prevent further station outages as it has next to no market
value." The
upgraded equipment, in addition to lowering maintenance time will affect
the station in other ways. “The
signal will be stronger,” said Murray, “It will be perceived
as being a little louder.” There
is a possibility that the upgrades may also expand the stations listening
area, which currently travels as far as the eastern Twin Cities area. “I
think it’s great if we can get a clearer signal,” said Abe O’Rourke,
a UW-RF student and WRFW former station manager. Al
Jaeb, a WRFW D.J. agreed, hoping the station will reach St. Paul now. “We’d
appeal to St. Paul, because we give them music they don’t hear otherwise,”
Jaeb said. WRFW’s
student run programming is an eclectic mix of music, unlike anything else
in the Twin Cities area.
“I think we have something very special here. We’re an endangered
species, free-form college radio,” said O’Rourke. Murray
echoed O’Rourke’s statement saying, “There are few stations
run by students, and when you have one that’s a wonderful, wonderful
thing.” 
The University of River Falls’ own radio station, WRFW, is in line
for some big upgrades, thanks to a large award the state of Wisconsin
received from the Federal Government.
• A transmitter costing $27,000.
• An antenna costing $25,000.
• A studio-transmitter link costing $20,000.