Camden Maine station off the air due to storm damage

[Aaron Read]

Dan Billings wrote:
> Camden was added, IMO, because it is an area with lots of well-off 
> retirees who will/can contribute to Public Radio.  Northwestern Maine 
> could use a signal lots more than one was needed in the midcoast area.
> 

I'm not going to pretend to understand the Maine market all THAT 
well...but I'd like to know your reasoning for why NW ME "could use" a 
signal MORE than the midcoast.  As far as I can see, until the Camden 
xmitter was brought on-line, neither area had much of a viable public 
radio signal.

> Also, due to budget problems, MPBN announced that they were going to 
> drop the Calais radio station, as well as TV signals in Calais and 
> Aroostook County.  Only political reaction that could have threatened 
> their state appropriation caused the network to reverse those decisions.
> 

I suspect it was the other way around: MPBN played chicken with the 
state appropriations board, and won.  In fairness, I have to think it 
was a desperation move, though...shutting down a transmitter doesn't 
really save all THAT much money, not compared to the earning power most 
stations have.   So it speaks to how unprofitable those markets 
(probably) are.


> Contributions top the need for a statewide network in terms of 
> importance to MPBN.
> 

Well, I did say "as much of the state's residents AS IS FEASIBLE" 
(emphasis mine).  If you know you're going to get more money and get it 
faster in Camden than in, say Moosehead Lake, then it's smart ROI to 
built in Camden first.  I would also opine that you'd have to build 
either one huge facility...or more likely, several quite-large 
facilities...to adequately cover NW ME thanks to the terrain issues and 
extremely low population density.  So maybe it's just not economically 
feasible to build out facilities in those regions at all?  Honestly I 
don't know; I'm just wildly speculating.

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------
Aaron Read                  |  Finger Lakes Public Radio
friedbagels@gmail.com       |  General Manager (WEOS & WHWS-LP)
Geneva, NY 14456            |  www.weos.org / www.whws.fm