Comments on: ‘Fig’

By: Hal Levin

Hal Levin — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 01:43:37 +0000

We were told last night at the Board of Directors’ meeting at Louden Nelson Center that this and all the other proposals on the Participate blog are no longer being considered. There are new options being considered and there was an anonymous donation of $100,000 yesterday that will fund the station for approximately another 90 days with some staff cuts that the Board considered in executive session last night. I have no news on what happened. The Board should direct the staff to update the web site so we all know what’s going on.

You can send a message to the Board of Directors by using this link:
http://kusp.org/board-contact.shtml

By: Todd Wipke

Todd Wipke — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 05:41:33 +0000

One always needs straw men to shoot down and this is one of those. There is no mention of local news, and who would want to get their news from such a biased, filtered source. KUSP listeners will veto this as against the principles of the station they know.

By: Roberta Troxell

Roberta Troxell — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 00:00:25 +0000

If we are to use the talk format discussing local issues that people can actually see in their own community is the right approach.( Elm) Do not sell our license or translators. It will be the death of KUSP as we know it. Roberta

By: Bart Coddington

Bart Coddington — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 19:41:13 +0000

The selling of 88.9 is mostly for paying off the debt. Needs to be determined how much would be left in the kitty to buy a new frequency. Most likely some large scale funding would still be needed to complete the purchase of a new signal. Programming could then be discussed once income sources are reasonably estimated.

By: Aaron Read

Aaron Read — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 16:38:50 +0000

FYI, if by “Santa Cruz signal footprint” this plan refers to K207CN, the 89.3 “FM Translator” repeater signal in Santa Cruz proper? Translators cannot originate programming. So KUSP could not continue to broadcast on 89.3FM without somehow obtaining access to a “primary” station that can originate the programming, and then K207CN could repeat it.

This is not impossible to do, but it likely will neither be easy nor cheap…mostly because it is impossible for KUSP to apply for and get a new, smaller, FM signal. The FCC only accepts applications for such things during “filing windows” that typically happen once a decade (the last was in 2007, but there’s no guarantee another will happen anytime near 2017).

One option would be to purchase an existing AM or FM signal, but the cost would largely offset any revenue obtained from selling KUSP’s main 88.9 license.

Another option would be to lease the HD2 channel from another license in or around Santa Cruz, assuming one is available to be leased. WMVY does this with Rhode Island Public Radio. Again, this might be reasonably inexpensive, or it might be very expensive, but it likely won’t be free.

http://ripr.org/post/theec-ripr-mvyradio-leverage-hd-radio-fm-translators

By: Jean Brocklebank

Jean Brocklebank — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 03:02:30 +0000

About Fig.

Limiting content to “peace and justice” issues ignores environmental issues. Poor idea. It also ignores other issues that are important throughout the neighborhoods of Santa Cruz County — traffic and the noise it generates, drugs, crime, growth, lack of maintenance of parks…for starters.

By: Jeff Rudisill

Jeff Rudisill — Thu, 28 May 2015 16:23:41 +0000

From what I understand, it is highly improbable that another license would be available, in any practical sense, in the non-commercial FM band in the Santa Cruz service area. This is one of the reasons that the existing license is so valuable, and a major reason NOT to sell or lease the license.

Further, it seems to me that limiting the content to primarily peace and justice issues would ignore other voices of the Central Coast, and work against the stated KUSP vision of “…presenting a broad range of programming reflecting a multitude of perspectives.”