Brown Student Radio received a check from a group of alums on Monday to either offset office costs or help with development.
The donation came from funds raised by a reunion thrown last summer for Brown alums who worked on BSR during the mid '60s and early '70s.
The reunion spanned two days and featured a cocktail party at the Providence Marriott Downtown, tours of BSR and WBRU and a concluding banquet at the Sharpe Refectory. The event attracted almost 50 alums from as far away as Sweden and Seattle, according to John Leistritz '65, the organizer of the event.
Each alum was charged a fee for attending the event, and the leftover money - almost $1,200 - was donated to BSR. Leistritz said he made it clear that extra money from the reunion would be donated to BSR, which might explain why several alums sent in registration forms but did not come to the actual event.
Monday's donation will play a large part in offsetting recent cuts to BSR's budget. The station annually receives approximately $24,000 from the University Finance Board, but, according to BSR General Manager Shauna Duffy '04, the station received almost $1,000 less than it was given last year. Duffy said BSR pays almost $19,000 for airtime and for transporting its signal to the broadcast tower, which means the cut was almost one-fifth of BSR's operating budget.
Duffy said BSR's supplies budget was the hardest hit. The station received $500 less for supplies than it did last year, and almost $1,000 less for supplies than it had requested.
Duffy said the amount of money UFB has allotted BSR is insufficient to do many of the things required to run the station's office, like purchasing basic supplies such as minidisks for reporting, paper and ink.
In contrast to what Duffy said, UFB Chair Swathi Bojedla '07 said BSR is the fourth highest UFB-funded student group and incurred an $800 - not $1,000 - cut, which totaled only 3 percent of the station's budget.
Bojedla said the cut occurred because more student groups had to share the same amount of total money this year, which caused every group's funding to be cut a little.
Duffy is looking into appealing to UFB as well as seeking supplemental funding. Bojedla said the funding decision is "welcome to appeal," but the station received a relatively small cut and she can't tell what the outcome of an appeal would be until she hears what BSR has to say.
Duffy said she would like to put the donated money towards development and growth and believes the alumni would appreciate this as well.
If additional money is found elsewhere, the donation would partially be put towards studies of different licensing options. As previously reported by The Herald, BSR applied for a low power FM signal in 2000, but the Federal Communications Commission has yet to reach a final decision on the application.
As of now, BSR rents airtime from WELH 88.1 FM and is on the air between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m. BSR recently added three extra hours of airtime - between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., six days a week, which WELH gave BSR for no extra charge.
BSR is also interested in collaborating more with the University and the community as well as expanding its already large Web presence and training more new volunteers, Duffy said.
This summer's reunion was only a small part of the large presence that alums have maintained in Brown radio, as well as radio elsewhere. Leistritz said that some of the alums have continued working on the radio at Cox Communications in Canada and Bridgeport as well as in commercial work. Peter Tannenwald '64 is on the Board of Directors of the Brown Broadcasting Service and has done pro bono work helping BSR collaborate with the FCC to obtain the LPFM license.
A combination of both past and present influences at BSR can be found in an audio documentary currently being produced by the station, according to Duffy. The documentary, which should be completed this fall, features old tapes as well as interviews with BSR alums. The oldest of these is Jean Cummings '40, one of the first women involved with radio at Brown. The documentary will be available to alums who have donated or who came to the reunion, and it will also be played on BSR.
