Brant Zwicker has made the trek up to the peak — three of them, to be exact — and he’s confident one of them will soon house the transmission tower for the campus radio station.
It has been a goal for those who run CFBX/92.5 FM out of one of the houses at Thompson Rivers University to find higher ground for their transmitter.
Station manager Zwicker has been in talks with Telus for months now about using its building and location at the top of Summit Drive, discussions he said have been positive and which have seen the idea start to move up the chain of decision-making.
In recent weeks, he’s also had talks with management at Radio NL, which has a transmitter in Rose Hill and had talks in the past with CBC, which is one of many using the hill in Dufferin.
Moving the transmitter would improve the quality of service, Zwicker said.
“With FM radio, one watt on a mountain is better than 100 in a gulley,” he said, explaining FM frequencies rely on line of sight to transmit, unlike their AM counterparts that
have waves that can follow geographical contours.
Zwicker estimates the project will cost at least $20,000 — and possibly more — a price tag that doesn’t include the annual maintenance costs involved.
To help fund the move, the station has a raffle with a prize package valued at about $750, Zwicker said, including dinner for eight, as well as tickets to the Danko Jones concert on April 17.
Tickets are available at the station.
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