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PLAINFIELD – WGDR received approval from the FCC in early March to move its antenna to a Plainfield tower on a ridgeline 1,000 feet higher than the 30-year old antenna now located on the former Goddard College Campus.
“The FCC just did something right!” said Central Vermont Community Radio Executive Director Llu Mulvaney-Stanek. “WGDR’s new antenna and tower move is approved. It’s game on for putting it up in May and adding so many more Vermonters to our broadcast reach.”
The new antenna’s signal will expand the station’s coverage well beyond the 88 square miles it currently reaches.
“We will be loud and clear in downtown Montpelier and Barre for the first time in 53 years and ‘fill in’ spots that have been spotty or just dead air throughout the county, said Mulvaney-Stanek. “This will add another 20,000 households to our coverage area, increasing our radio reach by more than half. The future success of the station has been reliant on having more listeners, which results in more supporters. This is a huge step in that direction.”
The current tower has been in use for 53 years and is in bad shape, they said. “It is on the Goddard campus, behind our building, sort of in a pine forest too.”
The antenna on the tower is about 30 years old. Both the antenna and the tower will be sent to the junk yard, said Mulvaney-Stanek.
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WGDR was able to arrange to remain on the Goddard College campus following its sale to Execusuite, but not before the threat of having to move with little preparation. “The antenna move also gives us strategic flexibility for future station decisions,” they said.
“A higher, better, safer, location for the antenna protects us from impacts from future floods and the dangers of our current tower location: the forest and falling trees and the failing tower structure on campus.”
More information about the project is at wgdr.org/wgdr-antenna-tower-project
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
