{"id":2764,"date":"2023-02-22T00:08:01","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T00:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=2764"},"modified":"2023-03-18T21:55:33","modified_gmt":"2023-03-18T21:55:33","slug":"goodbye-woas-fm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=2764","title":{"rendered":"Goodbye WOAS FM?"},"content":{"rendered":"

UPDATE NO. 1 – AS OF MARCH 20, 2023,<\/strong> OUR FUND RAISING EFFORT FOR A NEW TRANSMITTER IS IN FULL SWING – WHILE I AM HAPPY TO REPORT WE ARE 1\/3 OF THE WAY TO OUR GOAL OF $2,850, WE HAVE A WAYS TO GO.\u00a0 ANY AMOUNT YOU CAN COMMIT TO HELPING US UPGRADE IN LIEU OF THE STORY PRINTED BELOW, WE WOULD APPRECIATE IT GREATLY.\u00a0 DONATIONS CAN BE SENT TO\u00a0 WOAS-FM, 701 PARKER AVE, ONTONAGON, MI\u00a0 49953.<\/strong>\u00a0 OUR FIRST DONOR, WHO WISHES TO REMAN ANONYMOUS, GAVE US HOPE THAT WE CAN GET THIS DONE.\u00a0 THE DONOR PRAISED WOAS-FM FOR BEING A COMMUNITY ASSET AND WORTHY OF SUPPORT (I am paraphrasing here as I do not have the note in front of me, but you get the picture).\u00a0 THANK YOU INADVANCE FOR YOUR SUPPORT!\u00a0 KER, MANAGER<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On April 25, 2022, WOAS-FM received an email from a religious radio group from Marquette, Michigan.\u00a0 In this email, they explained that they had been granted a CP (construction permit) from the FCC for a translator station in Rockland, Michigan.\u00a0 This new translator would be taking over our 88.5 frequency.\u00a0 \u201cWOAS will be required to change frequencies to accommodate our new station,\u201d was the part that made my stomach do a series of flip flops.\u00a0 When I inquired why they needed 88.5, I was told their consultant had deemed it the best frequency for them to use.\u00a0 Further questions about their choice were not answered.\u00a0 They helpfully sent us a list of \u2018available frequencies\u2019 that could suit our needs but one does not change a radio station\u2019s frequency with the same ease as one changes their socks.\u00a0 They also offered to help us, \u201cany way they can,\u201d in making the transition to a new frequency.\u00a0 At this point, I did not know enough about the whole process to even begin to venture what kind of help we would need or they could provide.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The shortest way to explain all of this goes like this:\u00a0 As a non-commercial 10 watt station, we are in what is referred to as an \u2018unprotected\u2019 area of the radio frequencies licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).\u00a0 The group that bought our frequency is also non-commercial but their more powerful signal gives them the right to purchase unprotected frequencies occupied by lower power, non-protected non-comms like ours.\u00a0 This is not meant to be a legal description of what happened to 88.5;\u00a0 the FCC representative I contacted confirmed it is something that happens to stations like ours.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Many years ago, we were offered the option of upgrading WOAS to 100 watts but we did not have the capital to do so at the time.\u00a0 A boost to 100 watts would have only had a minimal effect on how far we can broadcast in the local area due to the hills surrounding Ontonagon on three sides. We were in the early stages of establishing ourselves on the internet at <\/span>www.woas-fm.org<\/span><\/a>, so we felt standing pat at 10 watts was our best option at that time.\u00a0 The current situation was not something on our radar or perhaps we would have made the change then and secured our spot on the radio dial.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In answer to the question in the title, let me be clear:\u00a0 \u201c<\/span>No, WOAS-FM isn\u2019t going away.<\/b>\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The license for our frequency was sold in November of 2021 and the CP is in effect for three years.\u00a0 The only guarantee we were given was there wouldn\u2019t be anything done on the CP until \u2018the summer of 2023 at the earliest\u2019. \u00a0 I sat down in January of 2023 with our engineer Jim Bradley (and his partner in crime, fellow engineer Al Harrison by phone) and we weighed our options.\u00a0 Jim and Al did all of the primary installation work with our current transmitter and studio equipment when we did the last round of studio remodeling in 1998-99 (yes, it is hard to believe it has already been 25 years!).\u00a0 The last major upgrades were funded by a two year $8000 grant ($4k per year) from the Ontonagon Area Schools, $1000 provided by UPPCO, and the rest from public donations.\u00a0 At that time, our broadcast board, transmitter, and studio equipment were all replaced.\u00a0 Labor on shelving, storage units, new studio doors, and cabinets was donated by a couple of woodshop students.\u00a0 This remodeling happened to coincide with the school library being recarpeted, so with one day\u2019s notice, we completely emptied both studios so our area could also be redone.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In August of 2020, our current transmitter failed and we were forced to send it to BEXT Corp in San Diego, CA for repairs.\u00a0 The school district was not able to help us with the cost of this repair putting all of our operational plans up in the air.\u00a0 The COVID-19 pandemic was blowing up and everyone wrestled with how to conduct business while remaining safe – things looked pretty bleak.\u00a0 At that time, I said in an article in the Ontonagon Herald and on our website, \u201dRunning any form of fundraising campaign at this juncture would not be a great idea.\u00a0 There are more important agencies that are in dire need of public support as we cope with the COVID-19 pandemic that is affecting all of us.\u00a0 With that said we are going to leave the door cracked open a little bit and just say, \u2018If our listeners have the resources available to give us a hand, we would ot turn down any \u2018freewill\u2019 donations to help us get out of this hole.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 With in two weeks of this message being published, we had received sufficient donations to cover our repairs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We have tried to not be one of those stations that is always doing fundraisers.\u00a0 The school does cover our yearly music license fee and utilities, but the district\u2019s budget is already in the red with cuts being planned for the next year.\u00a0 In order to secure the future of WOAS FM, we are going to have to make an appeal to our supporters once again.\u00a0 Things are slowly getting back to normal (or at least our post-pandemic version of a \u2018new normal\u2019), but we now find ourselves in a similar position as we did in August of 2020.\u00a0 A new transmitter allowing us to upgrade to 100 watts and secure our new frequency has a price tag of $2850.\u00a0 We are in the process of identifying a new frequency and preparing the FCC application so we will be ready when 88.5 is no longer available to us.\u00a0 The last we heard, it could happen as soon as July or September.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Why upgrade now?\u00a0 Our engineers pointed out our current transmitter is 25 years old and has already had one major breakdown (in 2020).\u00a0 We could change the frequency of this unit and continue as a 10 watt non-comm, but as we recently found out, we would still be in the unprotected band and subject to having our new frequency bought out from under us.\u00a0 The best investment we can make is to upgrade to 100 watts along with the frequency change to prevent us from getting bumped again.\u00a0 Unlike the major upgrades done in 1998, our broadcast board is still in fine shape.\u00a0 The studio equipment has been replaced as needed over the last five to ten years with\u00a0 our available funds.\u00a0 This is something we have been able to do by stretching our meager resources rather than constantly running fundraisers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If you are able to help us, we remind you that donations to WOAS-FM are tax deductible.\u00a0 Donations to this effort can be sent to:\u00a0 ONTONAGON AREA SCHOOLS – WOAS-FM<\/span><\/p>\n

701 PARKER AVENUE, ONTONAGON, MI\u00a0 49953.\u00a0 All gifts will be acknowledged at a later date unless you wish yours to remain anonymous.\u00a0 Let me thank you all in advance for your past and present support of WOAS-FM, Your Sound Choice.\u00a0 This year marks our 45th year on the air and we are looking forward to being here for you in the future even if we will no longer be broadcasting on 88.5 FM.\u00a0 Ken Raisanen, Manager, WOAS-FM\u00a0 88.5 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Top Piece Video – If it deals with money – then it fits!\u00a0 \u00a0How about ‘We need a new transmitter?’<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATE NO. 1 – AS OF MARCH 20, 2023, OUR FUND RAISING EFFORT FOR A NEW TRANSMITTER IS IN FULL SWING – WHILE I AM HAPPY TO REPORT WE ARE 1\/3 OF THE WAY TO OUR GOAL OF $2,850, WE HAVE A WAYS TO GO.\u00a0 ANY AMOUNT YOU CAN COMMIT TO HELPING US UPGRADE IN […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-local-music-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2764"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2792,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2764\/revisions\/2792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}