Radio station stalled again

Two years of work trying to bring student radio to the UW may now stretch to three or four.

On Friday, members of the Student Technology Fee Committee (STFC) -- able to allocate enough money to completely fund all the equipment for the Web-based radio station -- voted down the second funding proposal.

The Radio Station Task Force (RSTF), formed to explore the idea of and to implement a student-run radio station two years ago, has had no luck finding financial support this year.

During the first round of Student Tech Fee grants in January, the radio station proposal was turned down. The STFC members said the plan was not specific enough, and gave the RSTF some suggestions.

After the resubmission of the proposal, in which the changes were addressed, the STFC turned it down for entirely different reasons, according to RSTF Chair Alex Bolton.

"They brought up different issues," Bolton said, adding that some STFC members asked the RSTF to clarify whether tech money should go to educational programs or recreational ones.

Bolton described the funding process as a "domino effect." In order to get tech fee money, he said, the RSTF has to secure definite space and staff for the station. In order to get space and funding for staffing, the RSTF needs tech fee money.

"It could go either way," said Bolton Friday on how the dominoes were falling. "It started the wrong way today."

Keith Falls, STFC chair and senior business major, said he was a little confused by the decision of the committee. He did not vote, and he saw several differences of opinion within the committee.

Common concerns included the proposal's lack of space specifications and lack of other specifics. For instance, if the station were to serve only the dorms, the bandwidth required for the project would cost next to nothing. If the target audience were to include off-campus listeners, however, the UW's Computing and Communications department would be stuck with larger costs associated with other Internet service providers.

Next year, Falls said, he hopes the RSTF will resubmit.

"The radio station proposal is still in a developmental stage right now," Falls said. "I think that most people on the committee were enthusiastic about the radio station proposal itself."

On STFC enthusiasm, Bolton said he didn't see a clear consensus.

Rory McLeod, one member of the STFC who voted against the proposal, wasn't sure that the proposal could be repaired enough for resubmission.

"I wouldn't guarantee that it's going to get funding next year," said McLeod.

McCleod did say that he hopes next year's Board of Directors will pick up the project where Bolton left off.

"We all support it, as far as I know," McLeod said. "At least I do."