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Long Island University has negotiated an agreement with Stony Brook University that will allow the WLIU-FM 88.3 radio station to remain in its studio on the Stony Brook Southampton campus until at least the beginning of December.
Station manager Wally Smith said Wednesday that LIU convinced Stony Brook officials to let the station stay put for two months past the expiration of its current lease. The new “drop dead date” for WLIU to move out of its studios in Chancellors Hall is December 3, according to Mr. Smith, although broadcasting likely would end earlier to allow time for the station to relocate its equipment from the college facilities.
“That takes an enormous amount of pressure off and shows a good spirit of cooperation from Stony Brook,” he said. “Otherwise, LIU was going to have to start disassembling the station in September, which would have taken another month away from our broadcasting.”
Long Island University announced last month that it was putting the station up for sale after more than 20 years of broadcasting and would stop funding it on October 3, the same day its lease on the Southampton campus was set to expire.
Now that they have two extra months, Mr. Smith said he and the rest of the station’s staff can focus on their work and on efforts to secure the future of WLIU. Mr. Smith and other WLIU supporters have created a nonprofit corporation, called Peconic Public Broadcasting, and are in the process of raising funds to make a bid to purchase the station’s licenses and equipment and keep WLIU on the air in the same format, and with the same staff.
Porter Bibb, another of the founding principals of Peconic Public Broadcasting, said he expects the group to be able to make a competitive bid for the station within the next two weeks.
“We will not put a low-ball bid in. It will be a fair and full price and probably in excess of what a station like WLIU would command in most circumstances,” Mr. Bibb said, noting that WLIU has almost no assets, like real estate, or even its own broadcasting tower, which typically generates additional revenue via leases to cellular phone companies. “Our concern is some of the evangelical broadcasters, who are very deep pocketed. Several of them have been gobbling up public stations in the last few years. We don’t know if someone will come in and blow us away.”
The decision to sell was strictly a financial one, according to Long Island University’s chief financial officer, Robert Altholz. The university more than doubled its contribution to keep WLIU on the air in the last two years, bringing the total to $1.3 million annually. Mr. Altholz said this week that six organizations have expressed interest in bidding on the station, including Peconic Public Broadcasting. Bid offerings have been sent out to the interested groups asking that a letter of intent to bid be returned to the university by September 23. No bids have been received by the university yet from any organization, he said.
Peconic Public Broadcasting’s officers expect to have their bid to purchase the station fully underwritten by supporters, Mr. Bibb said. The group is already in talks with local banks and “several prominent individuals” in the East End community about how much will be needed to pose a competitive bid, though he would not say what the expected price will be.
Mr. Bibb said that Mr. Smith and the group have developed a business plan for the radio station that would allow it to sustain itself after the initial purchase without any further funding support, as has been required from LIU for the last 10 years. He said that limitations the university had put on the station regarding marketing efforts, affiliations with other public radio stations that would attract national advertisers and syndication of the programs WLIU produces itself retarded the revenue sources for the station.
WLIU has a $2.4 million annual operating budget. The station has typically brought in about $1 million in annual underwriting support from some 200 East End businesses, another $300,000 from listener contributions, $160,000 from the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and smaller amounts from state grants. The rest came from Long Island University.
A grassroots community group calling itself Save Public Radio East End, or SPREE, has also started enlisting a groundswell of supporters of the effort from the East End community. The group has nearly 300 supporters, Mr. Smith said.
The actual sale of the station is being handled by a national non-profit organization, Public Radio Capital, that facilitates the sales of radio stations at the low end of the FM radio dial that have been specifically set aside for public radio broadcasting. Marc Hand, a sales consultant with Public Radio Capital, said there is no way to know how much the station and its equipment might fetch. The faltering economy and plunging revenues has severely reduced the market value of radio stations—a factor that may ultimately play into the hands of Peconic Public Radio if it can secure a solid funding source. WQXR, a Manhattan-based public radio station, sold earlier this year for $45 million. Three or four years ago, Mr. Hand said, he would have expected the station to fetch $200 million to $250 million.
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My understanding is that they are not permitted to accept advertising,
although some broadcast 'underwriting' announcements - with just
the name of the underwriter - not a commercial.
WQXR, mentioned in this article was owned by Interstate Broadcasting,
a subsidiary of the New York Times Co. It was a commercial broadcast
station - not a public station- and was permitted to accept advertising.
WPKM- ... more 88.7 FM Montauk and WPKN 88.5 FM Bridgeport are non-commercial stations that are heard in this area They accept NO advertising from for profit
organizations. This would violate the terms of their license.
Total comments by Tony Ernst: 5
Residents and visitors of all ages and lifestyles. It speaks for us from southern Connecticut, to Mastic, from Montauk, to Orient. It resonates in our homes, studios, businesses, while painting, gardening, working in the shop, walking with headphones. Cooking, parenting, playing, partying. Personally, the voice of WLIU kept me sane in Shanghai for 7 months while based there last year for a job stint, streaming faithfully from my pc, ... more just like a magical potion from home.
WLIU’s voice works for us, the volunteers in the arts and education. It adds value to LIFE locally.
As a part time volunteer helping with publicity for a few local, historical and arts groups, I’ve experienced “The WLIU Difference” over and over again.
For example, one Southold student entered his photo in the Student Artist Invitational all on his own, because he heard it on the air. He said, “this enhanced my college applications”.
The Water Mill Museum art gallery’s attendance increases when our announcement goes live on the air. Membership goes up, we are able to preserve and maintain our 1644 grist mill.
The Southampton Artists at the Southampton Cultural Center greet a few folks at every show who say, “I heard it on the radio, 88.3 fm”. It helps keep this vital group operative and active.
Our radios without WLIU would just empty shells. There would be no local voice box, trumpeting us, our events, our achievements, and occasionally, our grief. Silenced, forever, leaving a gaping void.
Bonnie, Eddy, Jazz, American Roots, Baum on Books, Objective News, good solid news reporting, Connie, Brian…the show has to go on!
Glad there is a solid effort afoot; Urge everyone to get involved, and make this community voice the best, brightest, and yes, most profitable one ever. It’s not business, it’s PERSONAL.
Hope you are all surviving, in great challenge lies great opportunity. I see a bright future. “how” will become clear, but “it is” is already known.
Total comments by ann lombardo: 1
Total comments by tracie hotchner: 1
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