KPCW Receives an Early Christmas Gift: A Donated Salt Lake City FM Radio Station and a New Transmission Facility For KPCW
KPCW-FM, the nonprofit community radio station serving Summit and Wasatch Counties since 1980, has entered into an agreement with Salt Lake City-based Broadway Media to acquire its FM station KUDD, operating along the Wasatch Front on 107.9 FM. Broadway Media is donating the radio station at no cost to KPCW.
“This is the largest donation to KPCW in our 35 year history and helps secure our future as the community broadcaster dedicated to local coverage of news and information in Summit and Wasatch counties,” said Bob Richer, Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Community Wireless, Inc., which owns KPCW. “KUDD is a significant asset to add to our current station. We are free to either program it ourselves or sell it to a third party to raise money for an endowment to help support KPCW.”
In a related transaction, KPCW will agree to move its frequency on the FM dial from 91.9 to 91.7 in the coming months. “Broadway generously has offered to cover all the costs of the frequency change, including the construction of new transmission facilities at a higher power level,” KPCW President and General Manager Larry Warren reported. “The enhanced signal at 91.7 will widen and strengthen our over-the-air signal, allowing us better reception inside buildings and along the Wasatch Back’s major transportation corridors.”
The frequency move will allow Broadway to make signal improvements to KUUU, an FM station it operates at 92.3 FM on the dial. “This is a change in frequencies which benefits both parties,” Warren reported. “Each station gets a better signal to better serve its listeners.”
“In addition,” Richer added, “we now have the costs of our signal upgrade covered by Broadway, eliminating our need to launch a capital campaign and compete with other worthy nonprofits in our community which also have substantial capital needs.”
The transaction requires federal regulatory approval from the Federal Communications Commission. After that, Broadway will construct the necessary transmission facilities to move KPCW to 91.7 FM. The project is expected to be completed in late winter, 2016. The two parties involved closed the deal on Tuesday, December 1, 2015.
“This project will only strengthen KPCW, both financially and in terms of our broadcast infrastructure,” Community Wireless Board President Bob Richer commented. “We are confident this positions KPCW to continue serving our listeners and communities far into the future.”
