If there’s a silver lining in the demise of KCPW radio, it’s that the error in judgement made in 1992 by the then-staff of Park City’s public radio station, KPCW, to name the new Salt Lake City station KCPW, could possibly end the station confusion with a new owner.
“I was definitely not there. But I lived with the consequences of that decision for many years," Eisenberg said.
That’s a former station manager of KCPW Chris Eisenberg. He started as a reporter for the Park City station KPCW in 1993, just months after the Salt Lake station KCPW signed on the air.
In 1992, KCPW became Utah’s first 24-hour commercial-free news and information station. The state-funded station at the University of Utah, KUER, was filling its airwaves with classical music during the day and jazz at night besides "Morning Edition."
The founder of Community Wireless, Blaire Feulner recognized the potential and secured an FCC license for 88.3 FM and signed the new station, KCPW, on the air in November of 1992.
At the time, the station’s staff thought it was rather clever to name the new station KCPW. But it was a mistake and even 30 years later, listeners are still confused and interchange the middle two call letters all the time.
“I don't know what you guys were thinking exactly,” Eisenberg said. “But my sense always was that you had this idea that you could create in Salt Lake what had been done so beautifully and so successfully in Park City over the years, and that you'd basically take KPCW and just do it on the other side of Parleys Summit. And maybe all you needed to do is swap the two letters in the middle. But, yeah, that proved to be challenging at times.”
For a couple of years, both KP and KC were run from the ground level offices of the Marsac Building with staff from the Park City station taking turns programming and fundraising for the Salt Lake station.
KCPW secured a trailer on the Westminster College campus for a few years before making the move to Library Square when the new Salt Lake City Library opened in 2003.
KCPW’s daytime programming brought something unique to the Salt Lake market. It featured high-quality national and international programs, supplemented by local programs, like Midday Utah and Talk of the City.
But it wasn’t long after KCPW signed on the air when KUER followed suit and began offering the same public radio programming. As a university station, it received financial support from the state legislature and has a state-wide reach. It wasn’t an even playing field and made it difficult for the small independent station to compete.
In 2007, Ed Sweeney, founder of Sweeney Associates, a Salt Lake based fundraising consulting firm, was hired to raise money for KCPW, which was still being subsidized by the Park City station. In 2008, after Feulner stepped down, the Board of Directors made the decision to cut the cord and sell the Salt Lake station.
Rather than lose the independent station to a religious organization, Sweeney founded Wasatch Public Media and in a matter of months came up with the financing for the $2.8 million purchase price. The timing though couldn’t have been worse.
“KCPW was an independent public radio station not tied to the university or state funding,” Sweeney said. “And it had, I think we had a cume at one point of 60,000. We took the bull by the horns and said, ‘OK, let's continue that.’ And gosh almighty, in September of ‘08, when the transfer finally occurred, that's when we had the big crash.”
And the station’s challenges of raising money only increased.
“We actually expanded our listenership considerably,” Sweeney said. “And, we were very active and participated, and we had successful biannual phone-a-thons and it just got to the point where it became more of a challenge, and the debt was always on top of us.”
Sweeney stepped down as President of Wasatch Public Media in 2014. In a statement posted on its website, KCPW wrote that there were a number of factors that brought the station to this point, including the purchase price, the recession that followed and more recently the financial challenges created by the global pandemic.
For Eisenberg, the news that the station has come to its end is bittersweet.
“That was a project that so many of us really poured our heart and soul into for many, many years,” he said. “So many folks in the Salt Lake Community really came to bat and helped to support and grow. It’s sad to see that in the long run, maybe it wasn't going to be here for another 30 years. And despite the fact that the station may be moving into a new era, I think there's no denying the fact that it was so valuable for many, many years.”
Wasatch Public Media is accepting qualified bids with a minimum of $350,000. If more than one qualified bid is received, KCPW’s license and transmitter construction permit will be put up for auction on Oct. 9.
Brad Wheeler, a former DJ for KRCL and founder of Wasatch Public Communications was planning to make a bid for the station. Wheeler says he has received financial commitments from Steve Denkers and Pete Ashdown who have both been consistent and generous supporters of the station for the last three decades. Wheeler is also running a GoFundMe campaign but has only raised just over $7,000 of the $350,000 goal. He says, “if we lose KCPW, we lose a piece of our community’s soul, and once public airwaves are gone, they don’t come back.”
