Photo: Wagner Previato at WDIY station

WDIY-FM SECURES FUNDING FOR SIGNAL UPGRADE; STATION TARGETS END OF 2015 FOR PROJECT COMPLETION

WDIY, the Lehigh Valley’s public radio station, has secured commitments for the funding needed to triple its signal strength to 300 watts from 100 watts, enabling the station’s largest potential audience expansion since hitting the airwaves 20 years ago.

Station management anticipates completing the upgrade by the end of 2015 – less than a year after the January 2015 public announcement of the station’s intent to pursue the power increase.

“This is a pivotal moment in the history of our station,” said WDIY Executive Director Wagner Previato. “The station’s leadership has talked about doing this for years. Now we’re only five months away from reaching more than 130,000 additional listeners.. We couldn’t be more pleased with how quickly everything came together.”

Previato said the station has received a number of generous grants from local and national philanthropic organizations and an important gift from one of WDIY’s major donors. With pledges from other foundations and funding sources likely in the coming months, Previato said WDIY’s membership will not need to contribute to support the upgrade.

“We rely heavily on our members to support over one-third of our $560,000 operating budget,” said Previato. “Securing outside sources to fund the power increase allows us to continue dedicating our members’ contributions to the programming and services they cherish.

“This is something that the station management and board of directors wanted to do for our listeners and the entire community. We will have a stronger station – and the Lehigh Valley will have a more robust asset by the end of this year.”

WDIY received approval in June 2014 from the Federal Communications Commission to triple the station’s power by replacing the station’s existing antenna and transmitter with more powerful equipment. The increase will expand the station’s reach to an additional 135,000 people and help fulfill WDIY’s mission of fully reaching the entire Lehigh Valley and surrounding areas.

The station’s signal currently is limited to sections of Lehigh and Northampton counties with marginal spill-over into adjacent counties. To fill in gaps within its primary coverage area, WDIY has been transmitting on two additional frequencies: 93.9 FM in the Easton-Phillipsburg area and 93.7 in Fogelsville-Trexlertown.

Board Chairman Michael Kraynak indicated that besides improving reception in western and northern Lehigh County, the station’s improved signal will now reach beyond Macungie into Kutztown and Berks County and possibly south beyond Quakertown and into Upper Bucks County.

“We won’t know the precise limits of the new signal until we implement the increase, but we do know that the improvement will mean reaching a substantial number of additional listeners,” he said.

WDIY’s current service area includes a population of about 407,000. The increase is expected to boost this to about 545,000 – an increase of more than 30 percent. According to Kraynak, the coverage area could go beyond this, but the exact impact then depends on the terrain, since hills can block weaker, more distant FM signals.

“The return on investment is virtually guaranteed, given that nearly two-thirds of our budget is directly tied to how many people we reach,” he said. The station’s leading source of revenue is listener contributions, while its second is underwriting support from local businesses and institutions. Kraynak said that in both cases, the station’s finances cannot help but improve as a result of having a stronger signal.

WDIY currently has a staff of five full-time employees and a budget of $560,000. About one-third of its revenues, $190,000, come from listeners and $165,000, from underwriting. The remainder is generated by public and private grants, as well as general fundraising activities. More than 100 volunteers dedicate over 19,000 hours per year to help operate the station and provide vital programming.

“We are a public radio station in the truest sense of the word,” said Kraynak.