August 4-10, 2005

music

DRAgon DOWN: A disappointing budget has the staff at Drexel's student-run station thinking T-shirt sales and underwriting to buy a new transmitter. Photo By: James Saul

Radio Free Drexel?

Budget woes have WKDU gasping for air.

by James Saul

WKDU's transmitter is akin to your average teenager — an angsty 14-year-old who could fizzle out in sparks and a spray of noxious chemicals at any moment. A few weeks ago it failed during an electrical storm, but it's chugging along again, for now.

Drexel's student-run radio station, WKDU 91.7 FM — the city's only independent, free-format, commercial-free option on the dial — is in the midst of a major budget crisis. The university's Student Activity Fee Allocation Committee (SAFAC) allocated the station a mere $8,000 for its 2006 operating costs, its lowest total in three years. (Attempts to reach SAFAC by press time were unsuccessful.)

The members of WKDU say they need to raise over $25,000 for basic operating costs — CD players, turntables and headphones don't last long when they're being used 21 hours a day — and, of course, a new transmitter.

The $8,000 barely covers the cost of employing a required FCC-approved engineer. A new transmitter costs about $30,000.

"We can't turn it off without going on the roof," explains station general manager Adam Hendricks. "[It] just won't pass [FCC inspection] in its current state."

SAFAC, a committee of 13 students and two school administrators, is annually charged with dividing $1 million among 73 student groups. Originally, $6,275 was granted to WKDU for 2006. On appeal, this number was raised to the current $8,000.

The penny-pinching stems from the argument that the student-activities fee cannot be used for off-campus promotion (for example, free tickets from the Troc for on-air giveaways), something the radio station says it needs to do to stay on the air. SAFAC also turned down WKDU's initial request for a new transmitter because, like the current one, it would be used to broadcast off campus.

Former general manager Evan Capoferri likened the appeal hearings with SAFAC to "debating evolution with creationists." One year SAFAC ignored the pages-long WKDU budget and gave them the financial leftovers, a not-as-shabby $32,000.

Other student groups have flourished as a result of SAFAC's allocations. This year the paintball club was given $19,586, and the men's ice hockey team received $28,704. In 2005 roller hockey got $44,573. That year, WKDU was given $13,225.

"I didn't even know we had an ice hockey team!" shouts DJ and alum Scott Jacobson, a WKDU listener since high school. Without their station, the members of WKDU say they will have a gaping hole in their collegiate lives and resumés. Former DJ and general manager Jim Roman's experience with WKDU helped him get his current job at Relapse Records. "It was the first thing we talked about at the interview."

WKDU staffers are now planning a fundraising initiative. They are considering underwriting (the closest thing to advertising on a noncommercial radio station) and are not looking forward to it. "It goes against what we stand for. We've never had to do this before," says Hendricks. Other ideas include T-shirts, benefit concerts and alumni donations.