A Class A noncommercial FM serving Grand Rapids recently encountered severe damage to their transmitter site, as powerful storms battered Western Michigan.
“One of the 1kW transmitters that we use for our station in downtown Grand Rapids went down,” said Klay Woodworth, Director of Broadcasting for Blue Lake Public Radio. Helping them return to the air: Broadcast Electronics.
The Elenos Group transmitter manufacturer received a call from Woodworth after WBLU-FM was faced with a difficult decision. “Our choices were to bundle up the old unit and send it in for repair, or purchase a new unit,” Woodworth said.
BLPR elected to purchase a new unit and then get the older one overhauled for use as a back-up.
Broadcast Electronics Sales Manager Ben Marth acted swiftly upon talking with Woodworth, getting the BE team to move forward with building, testing, and delivering a new STX-1kW transmitter within 48 hours of hearing about the station’s issue.
BE’s STX series of transmitters are known for high energy efficiency, audio performance, integrated RDS, HTML web interface, and their ability to be upgraded to HD Radio when the time is right.
Woodworth noted, “We were only operating at reduced power for a few days. Once we got the new transmitter on the air, BE was also efficient in getting our old unit overhauled and back to us promptly to provide a much needed back up.”
With 650 watts of power, WBLU is the main Grand Rapids signal for the Classical non-commercial service licensed to Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. It is designed to give better metro-area coverage, accompanying 100kw WBLV-FM 90.3 in Twin Lake, which serves Muskegon, and areas north to Cadillac.
— With reports from RBR+TVBR in Northville, Mich.
