Big Moves Toward the Move: WGDR Old Antenna Comes Down & New Location Picked
Thanks to Times Argus photographer Jeb Wallace-Brodeur for capturing the removal of the old WGDR antenna on campus in late August. [Times Argus photo used with permission]. A bigger thank you to the Prescott Tower Services team of Rutland, who took the four antenna bays down so carefully that we likely can use them again for translator stations in the coming years. After 30+ years of being in the elements and pumping out 1K watts of power, that's great news! The Prescott team also installed the new, and current, WGDR antenna at our new tower location in Plainfield back in June.
What's the latest with the move? After two months of vetting dozens of locations, we found six viable, more affordable locations than campus in Montpelier, Berlin, and Barre. In late August the CVCR Board vetted three finalists picked one to secure a lease with in the next few weeks. Once that is signed, we will excitedly share the news with everyone near and far and hold a community gathering to answer questions and share more information.
For now, we can tell you this upgrades our station needs in many ways:
We will be right in a community's downtown!
We'll dramatically increase public visibility and accessibility for the station, which presents us with so many future collaboration and partnership opportunities.
It will be a safe and welcoming place for our programmers broadcast from.
We will have better utilities support and management to prevent programming outages and interruptions.
The new space is nearly move in ready already, so our up fit costs to move will mostly be the new studio, staff time, and engineering.
And, the building is filled with a rich history of the community and has a vibrancy and energy matched by its engaged, community minded management.
This location is not just mission aligned, it is mission moving and that is exactly what we'd hoped for when we started looking back in June for a new home for the station. This is a big moment to have reached in a short amount of time. Thank you to our moving committee, board, and staff for working so hard all summer to pull this off.
How can you help the station during the move?
We are still welcoming the talents of our supporters to help with key parts of this move. This includes carpentry, IT (networking, firewalls, etc), cleaning, organizing, lifting heavy thing, cheering, etc. If you have skills to lend email Llu@WGDR.org.
We've started the fundraising toward the move, to pay for a new studio, other up fit costs, staff time, engineering, and more. Individuals and businesses (as sponsors) are invited to donate, thank you!
