UW seeks county support for student radio tower

An effort to bring UW–Madison student radio to the airwaves has cleared nearly every hurdle, but a battle over the proposed radio tower site could end the plan.

Proponents of radio station WSUM will present their tower construction plan Tuesday (Feb. 24) before the Dane County Zoning and Natural Resources Board. The board is holding a public hearing at 7:30 p.m., in Room 2D of the City-County Building, to consider the proposed construction of a radio tower in the town of Montrose.

Montrose dairy farmer Mario Gobel has agreed to lease a portion of his land to UW–Madison for a radio tower site. But some local residents oppose the 400-foot tower planned for Montrose, arguing that it will damage the aesthetic character of the township.

A four-square-mile area in Montrose is the only broadcasting alternative for WSUM, according to LaMarr Billups, special assistant to the chancellor. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Rule 73 confines the tower location to that area, about 15 miles southwest of Madison, because it is the only location that does not interfere with other radio frequencies.

Billups said the Montrose Land Use Committee approved the tower application more than a year ago. But last summer, the town passed a resolution that would bar construction of any tower more than 175-feet tall, among other restrictions that overlap with federal, state, and county authority.

UW–Madison has addressed concerns Montrose residents have made known about the tower, he said, but the aesthetic issue remains a concern. Last year, students voluntarily paid for a private environmental impact assessment to answer the questions local citizens had raised about the tower’s impact on property values, the environment and other quality of life issues.

The assessment, done by Northern Ecological Services, concluded there would be no loss in property values because of the tower, Billups said. The tower would be visible to town residents, but nearby towers in Verona and west Madison already are visible to the town. It concluded the development poses no other environmental or safety concerns.

Billups said UW–Madison will be asking the county Zoning and Natural Resources Board for a conditional use permit for governmental use of the property, which is in an exclusive agricultural zoning district.

In the past four years, the proposal has cleared major hurdles. UW–Madison students voted by a margin of 9-1 in favor of a resolution to financially support student radio, followed by a written petition signed by about 8,000 students. The station startup will cost an estimated $400,000, all of which is being paid by students through student fees.

The FCC approved construction of a radio tower in October 1996 and a license to broadcast on 91.7 on the FM dial. The UW System Board of Regents also endorsed the plans in 1995, and will officially hold the license for the station.

“UW students have not had a campus-wide station since 1950,” said Dave Black, general manager of WSUM. “This is the only realistic chance we’ve had and this effort has been under way since 1993.”

Black said there are strong educational benefits at stake in the county’s decision. “We have more than 100 students involved with the station already, and that will expand exponentially if we are on the air,” he said. WSUM currently “netcasts” over the Internet, but has a very limited reach. Plans are to make the station available to other registered student organizations on campus for informational programming. “This is going to be non-commercial, educational radio, not just experience for deejays spinning records,” he said.

The university also is trying to create a “win-win scenario” for UW–Madison students and the Montrose community, Black said. The station is working with the Verona and Belleville school districts, which Montrose students attend, to make programming opportunities available to the students. Black said the station staff has already set up a two-week workshop with Belleville students this summer. The first week will offer radio news and sports experience, then students will write, edit, produce and perform a radio play in the second week.

Most other Big Ten universities have a student-run radio station, Black said. Other UW System campuses, including Platteville, Whitewater and Stevens Point, have been operating student-run radio for years.

James Hoyt, a UW–Madison journalism professor and faculty sponsor for WSUM, said the station will be autonomous from academic programs to maintain student authority over programming.

However, the School of Journalism and Mass Communications does plan to use the station as the outlet for newscasts produced in the school’s broadcast news sequence.