University of Rhode Island student radio stations, RIU2 and WRIU, were without power after a January snowstorm caused a power outage, RIU2 has not returned to air as of Feb. 17.
The power surge from the outage caused the transmission equipment for WRIU to fail, according to Lawrence-Mark Cubbabe and Taylor Fairchild, two student engineers at the stations. Cubbabe and Fairchild could not identify the technical aspects of the outage when it occurred.
WRIU was back up and running right before the semester started on Jan. 28, according to Kaylee Good, the general manager of RIU2.
WRIU is the URI non-commercial broadcasting FM radio station, while RIU2 is a broadcasting service run out of URI and hosted on the internet. RIU2 is still not back on the air.
The power supply cable needed to fix RIU2 hasn’t been ordered yet, but when it comes, RIU2 should be back to its normal operation, according to Cubbabe and Fairchild.
“I had thought we had ordered the part already, but it turns out [it] wasn’t ordered and I am not exactly sure what the timeline is on it yet,” Cubbabe said. “I don’t know if someone from [Information Technology] services or our business manager was able to order the part yet, somebody just needs to order it.”
The equipment that runs WRIU and RIU2 is outdated and may have contributed to the outages, according to Cubbabe and Fairchild. The two student engineers agreed that many of the inner workings and infrastructure of RIU2 have been lost over the years due to the passing of a community engineer Bill Parker, who set up much of the station.
“I love the older feel of things but I find it so unfortunate that because the equipment is older, it makes it more difficult to do our job,” Fairchild said. “I hope that people interact with the station more so that we can get more funding and more fun stuff.”
Although the fix for RIU2 should be an order away, Fairchild and Cubbabe both said that the technology used at the station and the communication with stakeholders and the URI community could be improved.
“We have to figure out RIU2 and we need to fix the problems with WURI,” Fairchild said.
The stations rely on both students and community members for maintenance and programming, according to Good.
Students who participate in the station gain valuable skills in communication and genre specific experience in sports broadcasting and DJing, according to Good. Once RIU2 is running again, Good hopes to get more students involved.`
“Things are running [at WRIU], morale seems to be pretty high and people are excited to get back on the air,” Good said.
