The rich man wanted water….
We have a list of things we NEED. Let me start by saying we aren’t just walking around looking for things to add to our inventory list. A lot of thought goes in to each item. These items are needed to service our stations now.
-Transmitters
Would you like to make the difference? The good fight is still being fought and transmitters make or break us. One of our current transmitters was $13,000 used and has a vintage older than anyone who might be reading this. If you watched the Terminator movie with scenes from a fallout shelter it is older than that. A new replacement transmitter is $50,000 for our 88.1.
-Antennas
We use a variety of antennas and these range from under a thousand dollars to several thousand dollars. Consider replacing one of our existing antennas.
-Generator Equipment
After power outages in the last decade we are told by our power providers that even the best electric utility has down time. We have had multi day downtime at our Greenfield location and in Rush County. Since Greenfield is our hub and home location we invested in a 10 kw Gen Set that requires manual interconnect some years back. After years of wear this device needs to be replaced. Our main transmitter site in Central Indiana is in Rush County. We have outages at least once a month and some are more than just a little bit. We need to locate a commercial Generator Set with automatic switchover to allow us to have continuous electric at the WJCF transmitter site. We have priced these at $70,000 for a Diesel Gen Set with automatic switchover. As always we will accept used equipment if available and encourage those grant writing folks to help us out.
At these two sites we originate severe weather warnings for all of our Networks. The ability to service our area with weather warnings transcends music or fluff programming. We take very seriously the fact that we are the last line of defense in between a tornado and someone’s house,or, their life. If someone dies because we don’t have electric power to issue a weather warning does it seem logical we should try to make this a priority?
-Station Vehicle
Seriously, we don’t need a Hummer or a Cadillac. (No Hummer will be refused however.) We are looking for the typical Ford 350 Econoline van that we can paste our call letters on. New would be great but used is a good deal too. Our current 350 has over 100,000 miles. It uses some oil and even more gas. Rust is our biggest enemy. We have continued to service the old machine (1992) but a new one isn’t in our budget…what budget?
-Computers, Etc.
You can never have enough computers. Windows XP, memory, usb drives, battery backup. All our stuff runs on computers. If you are upgrading consider letting us remove the old one from your doorstep and give it new life.
-IFR Service Monitor
We are looking for a service monitor. This transmits and receives signals to allow us to troubleshoot equipment. Old one is now in heaven. These sell used for $4000. Fancy ones are upwards of $40,000.
-Refrigerator
Studio, sit, talk, drink carbonated or uncarbonated cold beverages. Currently using much used ice chest or the frig we bought used that keeps drinks slightly cooler than lukewarm..and they spat them out.
-Furniture
Goodwill is the official seller of office furniture to our stations. Real cool $5 metal office chair (possibly a prop in that movie too) is still holding together. Because many of us are fa…gravitationally challenged… we find the cheap plastic chairs don’t work. Office chairs, furniture, desks, sofas, classroom chairs, folding chairs, etc. We are looking for some bedding for our retreat center.
-Well Digger
Has to be a joke here somewhere. We need water at our Carthage site. Do you drill wells?
-Stripper
Please now, this isn’t craigslist. We need those who are endowed in the art of removing paint from wood. This request comes from our staff who wish to see real wood where painted wood is now.
-In Band On Channel Transmission
The FCC approved the ability of broadcasters to add multiple program services on each frequency. Cool right? Wait till you see the price. Ibiquity has been granted the ability to license (or holdup radio stations depending on point of view) for this new system. TV stations didn’t have this problem in their transition to digital but this way someone makes money off of people trying to serve their communities. The License is currently $30,000 once per station. The equipment to add digital once licensed is $200,000. Such technology would allow us to add many services that could be received directly.
