WFCR has signed a purchase-and-sale agreement giving it a year to raise the money and close the deal. After that, it’ll take a year to renovate and add equipment at a cost of $2.275 million.
Public radio station WFCR-FM, which has been broadcasting from the University of Massachusetts campus, has announced plans to purchase the first floor of the Fuller Building, seen here..SPRINGFIELD – Public radio station WFCR-FM plans to buy the first floor of the historic Fuller Block at 1537 Main St. and move the bulk of its operations to downtown Springfield.
The station, which celebrated its 50th anniversary Wednesday night, will keep studios and a news bureau in the Hampshire House building on the University of Massachusetts at Amherst campus and it will keep the Peggy & David Starr Broadcast Center in the WGBY building on Hampden Street in Springfield, said Martin C. Miller, WFCR’s CEO and general manager.
But once the Fuller Block studios open in 2013, 23 of WFCR's 30-or-so employees will work tin Springfield, Miller said.
“We’ve been working out of an old dormitory on the UMass campus,” Miller said. “We’re grateful, but it is not adequate, the university knows it is not adequate. After this, we’ll still be able to do everything we can do at Hampshire House now, just in a smaller space.”
He sees the move as part of the Greater Springfield-UMass partnership that seeks to build ties between this, the region’s largest city and the flagship campus.
“There will be visibility from the street of our studios. We felt access was important,” Miller said. “People will be able to look in and see radio being made.”
Francis J. Cataldo Jr., owner C & W Realty and chairman of the Springfield Business Improvement District, said WFCR’s commitment is a symbolic boost to Springfield. The studios will also mean more workers and more activity downtown to go with the Baystate Health and School Department offices across the street in the old federal building.
“Those people go out for lunch,” he said. Miller said WFCR Foundation has already raised $900,000 toward its $7-million capital goal.
Of that, $625,000 will go to purchase the 12,000-square foot first floor in a condominium agreement with building owner The Dennis Group and its president Thomas P. Dennis Jr.
Dennis is also donating to the project and will donate mechanical services, Miller said. The Dennis Group, an engineering firm, occupies the upper floors of the building.
WFCR, located at 88.5 on the FM dial, has signed a purchase-and-sale agreement giving it a year to raise the money and close the deal. After that, it’ll take a year to renovate and add equipment at a cost of $2.275 million.
The remaining $7 million will go to various uses. There will be $200,000 for renovations at Hampshire House. WFCR will put $600,000 in a technology fund to upgrade transmitters and finish paying for WNNZ-AM in Westfield which it bought last fall after leasing for years. There will be $1 million set aside in a building endowment fund for upkeep of the Springfield facility; $500,000 for news talk, a new youth radio program focused on the inner city and a new performance series called “Street Sounds”. WNNZ is located at 640 on the AM dial.
Miller said the station will also set $500,000 set aside for classical and jazz programming.
About 170,000 people listen to WFCR or sister news/talk WNNZ at least once a week according to the station’s Arbitron data.
The station is also getting a new name: New England Public Radio. Call letter will remain the same.