KDVS recently submitted a bill asking ASUCD for $36,000 in order to purchase the equipment needed for the KDVS tower relocation project. This new tower would eliminate the already existing threats from encroaching stations that interfere with KDVS frequencies.
This new tower would allow the station to reach the greater Sacramento area, opening up opportunities for more donors and advertisers. This could one day lead to KDVS being a zero-subsidy unit under ASUCD.
If this bill doesn’t pass, KDVS may become a strictly online radio station. The encroaching towers would limit KDVS’ broadcast to only Davis and potentially Woodland. This would be disastrous for the 13-year-long project and KDVS as a whole.
This would be extremely disappointing, as KDVS is kind of the shit. This campus radio station is not only known internationally, but it’s also quite special in our nation. They have one of the largest music collections on the West Coast and we’re the only campus in America that can say that we have a record label.
KDVS has a long history of fostering upcoming talent — they promoted Green Day and DJ Shadow got his start as a student DJ for KDVS. This station is also vital to anyone interested in radio production, event planning, marketing and business management.
The ASUCD Senate wants to allot around $25,000 to KDVS, but members of the station say that $36,000 is the lowest KDVS can afford to ask for. They’re already pulling money from their own reserves and if ASUCD doesn’t loan them this money now, KDVS will just have to go back to ASUCD for help anyway. Under the current plan, KDVS will pay back the loan in 10 years with the money that already goes toward upkeep of the existing transmitter.
This bill was presented at last week’s Senate meeting and was pushed until this Thursday for another discussion. Today it revisits the Business & Finance Commission to better inform ASUCD about how the money will be spent.
ASUCD Senate, we appreciate that you want to be fiscally responsible and are taking this matter seriously. We would like to urge you to pass KDVS’ tower bill. KDVS is your unit, and you should be proud to call them that.
