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Students wondering why Appalachian State University’s campus radio station WASU 90.5 experienced difficulties over the past several weeks will be happy to know the station is back to broadcasting regularly through airwaves.
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The broadcasting problem was due to winter weather inhibiting access to the new antenna on Rich Mountain, which was acquired by the station in November.
Dan G. Hill, WASU station adviser, said the mixture of wind and ice from the winter storms that hit Boone beginning in December damaged the antenna. Prolonged broadcasting difficulties resulted because no one was able to reach the top of the mountain to fix the damages.
“I was a bit anxious about the antenna being on Rich Mountain because I know how the winter weather is in Boone, but I’m almost glad we had the worst winter this year so we can learn from it,” Hill said.
The station will have plenty of time to learn, Hill said, because the Federal Communications Commission granted WASU a three-year period to work out all the kinks with the new antenna.
Although WASU was not functioning through airwaves for a short period of time, the station was still operating fully online and continuously streaming on wasurocks.com.
“None of our shows were canceled, none of our music was altered, and we continued operations as normal,” Jon M. Wood, WASU station manager said. “Everything that is online is part of our normal programming.”
Hill said the Rich Mountain antenna is programmed to call the station when there is distress.
When that happens, the station switches to an auxiliary antenna on campus, which has been there for the last several years.
Hill said WASU acquired the Rich Mountain antenna in November because he wanted to maximize the WASU signal before the opportunity to expand was lost by other stations’ signals.
“From the Rich Mountain location the signal not only goes further, now reaching further down [U.S.] Highway 421 into Deep Gap and over to West Jefferson, but the pockets where the signal used to drop out now receive the signal clearly because of the height of Rich Mountain,” Hill said.
The station is on the air and will be running tests from both locations over the next few weeks.
Students should not expect any more off-air situations, except rare occasions of doing maintenance or upgrades, which can mostly be done on the air anyways, Hill said.
Story: RACHEL DINKIN, Intern News Reporter |
