Dear Friends of WJCU

It’s Radiothon time…that one week each year when we ask you to continue your generous support for WJCU Radio and the unique programming that it provides to our community.

As many of you know, our focus over the past few years has been on finding sufficient funding to undertake a total renovation of our transmission system in order to allow us to triple our signal. A construction permit for the new facility was granted last April by the Federal Communications Commission after a difficult and costly 2 year application process.

With our announcement of the FCC’s decision on our behalf, many of our dedicated staff members and listeners have been asking when our signal expansion will become a reality.

We’d like to offer you all the following progress report.

After receiving the new FCC authorization, we determined that both the scope and cost of the project were much greater than previously anticipated, as our entire transmission facility (now over 16 years old) requires replacement in order to comply with the new FCC specifications. One unpleasant surprise was that some structural modifications would be required on top of Grasselli Tower simply to accommodate the new antenna. Bids received for this work topped out at about $165,000, an amount far exceeding the funds raised over the past three years for the project.

To complicate matters, the University now indicates that major budgets cuts are needed in the FY 05/06 budget and beyond. This means that we cannot expect additional financial help with the project from the University, whose top priority must rightly remain with preserving academic programs.

With considerable effort and research, however, we have been able to drive the overall project cost down by about 40%, and now believe it is possible to proceed with the required purchases and construction in June of this year. To meet that goal, we need to receive final approvals from the University soon. But for that to happen, WJCU must demonstrate that it has funding in place to complete the project.

And this is where you can help us finish the job.

On February 19th, WJCU will kick off its annual Radiothon fund drive, which will run for a total of 8 days. Our theme this year is “The Final Countdown” - our goal is to raise $35,000 - a sum which will insure that we have enough money to complete the project. If we are successful, this project will represent by far the single largest investment ever made in WJCU, and a clear sign that our listeners and community stand behind that investment.

We hope you’ll join us in building a better WJCU!

Thanks for your continuing support.