Despite Setback, WOFM May Double Tower Power

Published: Sunday, May 20, 1990
Section: DAILY BREAK , page G3
Source: By Jim Morrison, Staff writer

LAST WEEK, progressive rock station WOFM (FM92) lost its bid for a permit to build a tower that would boost its wattage more than eight times. But co-owner Jim Hunt hopes the station will double the power its existing tower delivers within the next few weeks.

The boost is an attempt by Hunt to get WOFM's signal into some of the dead spots in Norfolk and Virginia Beach and convince advertisers to sign on with the financially beleaguered station.

WOFM previously had been granted permission by the Federal Communications Commission to double its power to 6,000 watts at its present tower, Hunt said.

Money has been such a problem at WOFM that several employees had gone from two to six weeks without being paid. The station paid most of them Thursday, but a few are still due some back pay, Hunt said.

With the denial of the building permit for the tower, Hunt said his bank has stopped issuing loans to the station, and a sale that had been in the works is dead.

``It's basically very simple,'' he said. ``Without the permit I can't get any more money.''

Hunt didn't put a dollar figure on what would keep the station alive.

``It's a very simple matter,'' he said. ``If I can get the revenues up a few thousand and expenses down a few thousand, I can at least keep it afloat for a time.''

He has several choices.

``There are a lot of options and one of the options is to simply flip it over and do the United States weather forecast 24 hours a day. I'm not saying that's a viable option. (But) there are a lot of things that can be done,'' Hunt added. ``Just to keep it on the air, I'd have to do what I'd have to do.''

He said he wants to avoid two things:

``The least favorite thing in the world would be to turn it off,'' he said. ``The second least favorite thing would be to flip the format out.''

Meanwhile, Hunt said, he is looking for a new tower site. He had lunch Tuesday with a lawyer for residents who opposed the tower, and said a location acceptable to both sides is being sought.

The station has attracted a small but loyal following by going against the oldies and classic rock formats of mainstream radio stations, to focus on new music and the more obscure, less played tunes of older artists.

From rap to reggae, jazz, folk, blues and speed metal, the station plays a cross-section of modern music. Artists like Cowboy Junkies, Indigo Girls, Alannah Myles, Peter Murphy and Laurie Anderson were first heard locally on the Chesapeake station's 3,000 watt signal.

``WOFM is the only commercial station in the area that is covering music that is not readily available anyplace else,'' said Mike Rau, a member of the Nachel Blues Network's board. ``If this station goes off the air, you're going to have an entire range of music - not just blues which is my personal interest - go off.''

That signal, though, reaches only portions of Norfolk and Virginia Beach. Hunt contends that with a 25,000 watt signal from a new tower, he could be a major player in the highly competitive local radio market.

Nearly 15,000 people had signed petitions urging City Council to approve the tower permit, station officials said. And major label artists like Indigo Girls, Adrian Belew and Big Dipper, as well as local rockers like Antic Hay, Leftwing Fascists, the M-80s and Lewis McGehee cut ``Power to the Tower'' radio spots.