WCVE Public Radio Outage Update
WCVE Public Radio experienced transmitter problems on Friday night (2/3/12) and was off-the-air for an extended period. Engineers were able to restore the signal, but at a greatly reduced power setting. Accordingly, many listeners are experiencing a very weak signal or in some cases, no signal at all.
The needed repair parts are custom made and have been ordered. The manufacturer is configuring them now and will ship them as soon as possible. In the meantime, our engineers are working on our current equipment trying to find a way to increase power to the signal.
Full restoration of our signal is anticipated by mid-week.
The outage was experienced in the greater Richmond market only; our Northern Neck and Chase City listeners were not affected.
If you are presently unable to receive WCVE Public Radio, we can be streamed over the web at ideastations.org/radio, or heard as a digital signal on HD radios at 88.9FM. Both online and HD provides you access to WCVE Public Radio and WCVE News/Talk.
We appreciate all of the calls and emails we have received from our listeners who have told us how important WCVE Public Radio is to them. Your continued patience as we remedy this situation is also appreciated.
To get an email alert when WCVE Public Radio returns to the air at full power, as well as weekly information about the Community Idea Stations programming and special announcements, please sign up for our e-newsletter here.
It is so good to hear this was due to equipment failure! I was wondering if the state had yanked the plug. While I have been in withdrawal from not being able to listen to all programs, I've never known anything to be perfect and am only glad the repair(s) have been done promptly. I look forward to listening again when I get back into the car. Keep the news, classical music, radio shows (including ALL weekend programs)coming. Radio IQ was an interesting find, but it had just as much static. And yes, I'll continue to listen to it.
And may there be thousands more like him ready to open their wallets!
Ah . . . at last the station is back on the air!
You might have mentioned that on the website.
You might also invest in another server, so that those of us listening online the next time there's a failure do not crash your server, or get knocked offline as more people try to listen online. I don't know what that would cost, but I know people who can tell you, and could probably be persuaded to do so _pro_bono_. Would probably be worth it for goodwill alone.
It is simply unacceptable that WCVE-FM has been off the air for nearly 120 hours. If a commercial station was off the air for five days, the station manager and engineering staff would be terminated. It is time to stop making excuses and take responsiblity. My wife and I will continue to contribute to public radio. But stations that generate their own content such as: KCRW, WAMU, WHYY and WBEZ will be given a much higher priority. Perhaps if we cannot count on you, you need to stop counting on us.
What a relief to have gone on the website and learned that the problem is temporary. I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out how my car radio could malfnction on just one station, while all the others have continued fine. I'm only getting the station sporatically, but it would have been helpful if the announcers occasionally mentioned the problem and let listeners know that it will be repaired soon. I'm worried that, without news of this from the announcers, some listeners may conclude that they are picking up permanent interference from another station and will stop trying to tune in to WCVE at all.
....of these "custom components" so that when the next outage occurs, you will have replacement parts on hand. I'm guessing there will be a few extra days of the Pledge drive this year to get some $$$ for the parts so that this single point of failure will not occur in the future.
Problems are understandable if people are kept informed. You have not keep people informed and they are getting very impacient. You are loosing good will.
People should get used to outages like this. With the state eliminating all funding for public radio, the station's financial status will be more and more precarious (two-month-long fund drives?). Maybe next time, the station won't even have the money to get a new part fabricated.
The risk WCVE is taking with this extended outage is that listeners will make a permanent "move" to stations like Radio IQ - and take their donations there too! As a contributor, I am very disappointed that this problem has not yet been fixed.
my daily life is at a loss currently, I look forward to the return of full power and all the exceptional programming WCVE provides
The daily rhythm of my life has taken a big hit, too. Thanks for expressing the essence of what so many of us are feeling! Really looking forward to a return to normalcy.
Scanning other comments... With the loss of state funds, we should all brace ourselves for more potential problems down the road -- and perhaps find ways to bring more people into the fold instead of lashing out at the station.
Out since last Friday? It's Tuesday night now. Sorry, WCVE, but this is just giving your listeners one more reason to listen to Radio IQ. I've pretty much switched over to Radio IQ at this point because I couldn't care less about classical music, Prairie Home Companion and that awful opera on the weekend. I will give a little in support of WCVE, but only because of the jazz, world music, blues and Electric Croude shows. I will give much more to Radio IQ. In my opinion, it is ridiculous -- if you are in the business of radio broadcasting -- to NOT have spare parts or a backup plan. Better set a more ambitious fund drive total this spring, and maybe the transmitter parts won't be such an issue next time...
While it's great to have another source for NPR programming while WCVE solves it's technical problems, Radio IQ is hardly a replacement. Radio IQ is a talk only station network featuring only shows devoid of musical content of any kind including Jazz as mentioned in a previous comment. While Opera may not be for everyone, it's not deserving of name calling. WCVE offers much better and diverse programing than Radio IQ and I 'm looking forward to it return to full power soon. The day public radio goes totally talk, I'm totally turing it off. The program In Your Ear, I produce for Public Radio has no home on talk only formats and it doesn't work in a commercial format either. Without WCVE, the show could not be enjoyed in the very market where it originates, think about it.
I live for Prarie Home Companion and the Opera, but I will gladly contribute to maintain all programing, especially so you can continue to enjoy the jazz
Thank goodness we now have "Radio IQ" here in Richmond now at 92.5 FM!
NPR... and... the BBC!
All news, 24-7! And without those stupid "HD" radios that don't work half the time.
:)
Hurry, please! I was listening to some UNC broadcast and was SO distressed. Bad enough the radio police want me to listen to the Norfolk feed and not the Richmond feed, but really, NC? I dont know where the roads are when the traffic report starts. I'm glad it's being fixed and not off the air forever.
Really miss the Richmond NPR. I usually listen to the news from 5AM on, and the classical music when it's on. Fortunately I can get news on a station from I believe Roanoke. The "IQ Station"? Hope you'll be back on by tomorrow.
Uh, guys, at least ONE commentator got it right. A high-powered radio transmitter requires some expensive parts, some of which are likely to be custom-made for a particular installation.
This is precisely the sort of thing that one does not buy two of, and keep around gathering dust for a few years. For all the fundraising that WCVE does, they don't really have a lot of spare cash.
well i'm glad to hear it wasn't some sort of conservative whack job conspiracy. i just moved here and was considering this as a possibility. but i agree with another commenter--why did you not have this equipment on hand?
Ha! This was my first thought, too. The station went out right after I heard the first report that Susan G. Komen had reversed direction on the Planned Parenthood thing, and I immediately thought, "Oh, Lord. Those nut-jobs just switched to Target #2."
My alarm is set to NPR in the mornings and I woke up late yesterday morning because I never heard the static that was coming in. (Thankfully, my boss was understanding.) I'm glad to hear that everything should be back up and running shortly. Thanks for the update!
I'm guessing it's an expensive part that doesn't go out very often- this has never happened, anywhere else I've ever lived. Your signal is there- but my radios are not up to making a listening experience of it... thanks for keeping us posted, and I know you are all doing your best. Can't wait to feel connected again :)
The danger in pushing people to the NPR app is that they'll discover how much better other stations are.
As A.O. mentioned I too am beddudled that a part that has to be custom made was not kept as a backup. Hurry back PBR.
I have always been a loyal contributor to WCVE and miss your programming terribly but I have recently discovered that I receive the Radio IQ signal well in my car and at home ( on some radios) and enjoy their round the clock news and talk format. Do no have HD capability so I would like to see you all add more of this programming so I could listen locally- don't worry, you will not lose my support.
Radio IQ (92.5 FM) is the bomb!
Especially with the live BBC News all night starting at 11:00. I swear, there is NOTHING else on the radio at night worth listening to.
Bad weather makes it a bit chancy at times because of all the digital switches it has to go through to make it into Richmond, but even fuzzy it's well worth it.
:)
I live in Louisa and commute to Ashland everyday - missing Morning Edition and All Things Considered is killin' me - I feel SO uninformed!
I also thought something was wrong witb my radio. I am able to get the Charlottesville station, but it goes in and out. When I couldn't get it in my home, I knew something was wrong!! Hope it gets fixed soon.
i went to the gym and everything was fine, i got out of the gym and no NPR, for h o u r s...i was in distress, where was my news, where was my information
i am glad to hear this is only a temporary problem, and since the radio in my car can't pick up much of a signal at the reduced power setting, i'm definitely going to get the app for my phone
FYI - the npr app is free. In case you need the link for the npr app:
Having the app means you can access our signal almost anywhere you can get a signal, even outside our normal listening area . . .
Glad to hear there is a reason. I was afraid NPR was off the air in Richmond. Is there any chance that more talk could be added to the HD1 channel? I don't have an HD radio and miss all the programming on 88.5 in Northern Virginia. Good luck with the repair.
Hi Karen - Even if you don't have an HD radio, you can access our 2nd HD2 stream via the internet OR smartphone using the NPR news app (download the app - then "favorite" WCVE. The HD2 channel is our news/talk channel.)
If you're using a computer, laptop or tablet to get our signal, you can access our HD2 channel here: http://ideastations.org/radio/stream/hd2
Let us know what you think.
Ami
Thank you for the update. I was afraid something was wrong with my car radio antenna when I tried to tune in on my commute home the past couple of days!
Looking forward to getting good reception at work again! I generally dislike Richmond radio and I already miss your programs.
I'm already on the outskirts of the listening area, but it is kinda scary that I am getting a West Virginia public radio station (though very weakly) where I normally get WCVE.
If the part was known to be "critical" to your ability to transmit your signal to the Richmond community, how come you did not have a back-up spare?
The resonsible party on the staff should should at lease be reprimanded, if not fired!
Thank God, I thought that you guys finally realized I haven't donated
yet and you had cut me off... good luck on the repairs and seeing how
much I miss you... I will join next time.
Thanks and keep up the good work.
Mike
Thank you for the update.
I noticed the original outage and reduced signal (I live at Robious and Salisbury roads) as I am a frequent listener. It must be pretty bad when WCVE-FM receotion is worse that RadioIQ in this part of town.
I also noticed today's outage which I assume is caused by the installation of the new equipment.
I live in western Henrico and have had poor transmission for some time. Now the station is barely heard and has a lot of static. Good luck in getting power restored as I miss WCVE!!
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