 "Photo: Meg Gaillard")
WUSC is adding some muscle to its broadcasts.
The campus radio station officially switches over to a new digital hi- definition transmitter Wednesday, June 14.
At 60 years old, the station had used the same transmitter for the past third of its existence.
The 22-year-old transmitter was replaced as the first phase of a three-phase overhaul of the station.
The old transmitter lasted seven years past its expected lifespan, Scott Lindenberg, Director of Student Media, said. "If it were to fail, we would have been without a transmitter."
With the new transmitter, WUSC is "ahead of the curve," said Lindenberg.
WUSC will become only the seventh HD radio station in the state and the fifth in Columbia, according to Ibiquity Digital, a leading provider of HD radio technology.
The $70 thousand transmitter was paid for by proceeds from WUSC's bi-annual fundraisers, supplemented by a $60 thousand allotment given by Student Government.
The new antennae will enhance the station's sound quality, improve reception and allow the station's airwaves to be transmitted through obstructions that would have impeded the signal in the past, reducing static and fades.
The station will now have the ability to provide CD-quality digital audio signals as well as analogue data that will provide the listener with station name, song and artist information and any of a wide range of other information.
Despite its upgrades, the station will "carry on as per the norm," remaining a free format, non top-40 station, while providing "an alternative outlet for listeners to access," said Blake Arambula, WUSC music director.
The transmitter also allows for the possibility of WUSC broadcasting several channels from the same frequency in the future, allowing the station to host several shows simultaneously.
The second phase of the station's facelift is to replace and convert all of the fiber optics in the station in order to remain compatible with the rest of campus, Lindenberg said.
Following that, the station plans on replacing their current equipment with state-of-the-art digital equipment in order to provide "realistic training opportunities on modern radio equipment," Lindenberg said.
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