OSWEGO -- The latest major fundraising effort from NPR affiliate WRVO generated close to $182,000 in pledges, and "donations are still coming in" following the mid-October event. Also inside: a new frequency for WRVO's Norwich translator.
In the latest edition of its newsletter, Listen!, station officials say they received pledges from close to 1,400 members across the WRVO service area. Headquartered on the SUNY Oswego campus, the station has full-power repeaters or translators in Syracuse, Utica, Watertown, Hamilton, Cortland, Geneva, and Norwich.
The publication, which you can read in its entirety online (PDF file), also includes a recap of WRVO's accomplishments over the past year, and a look at future plans provided by GM John Krauss.
Also in the newsletter, listeners on the extreme southeastern fringe of the WRVO Stations' service area may have noticed a recent flip-flop on the FM dial. The newsletter explains how SUNY and Family Life Ministries came to an agreement to trade translators in the Chenango County city.
WRVO programming, which was formerly heard at 106.5 FM (W293BE), is now being carried on 89.9 FM (W210BL). Aside from the asthetic benefit of having the same frequency as the parent station in Oswego, the newsletter says this change "opens up signal delivery options that were previously unavailable."
Namely, a new satellite downlink will bring programming directly from Oswego to Norwich, improving the audio quality. According to FCC records, the Norwich translator has been simply retransmitting one of WRVO's other nearby signals.