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Carrboro calling

Posted on June 3, 2010June 3, 2010 by Staff

BY KIRK ROSS
Staff Writer

Carrboro — It ain’t much, but they call it home – at last.
WCOM-FM, 103.5 on your radio dial, will go live again this weekend after more than a week on auto-pilot while an intrepid band of volunteers unhooked the station from its Greensboro Street location and reassembled it in a concrete-block building just down from Cat’s Cradle.

Leo Reynolds, head of the station’s steering committee, said the plan is to restart live broadcasting with the Saturday Morning Music Hall.

On the air for five years, WCOM’s old spot in a former drive-up window was less than ideal, with a leaky roof in the control room, not much office space and a porta-john out back.

A tour of the new, freshly painted digs includes a snug but functional production studio, an office lobby, a more-open and much-drier on-air studio and – one of the more exciting features of the new facility – indoor plumbing. Pointing to the modest half-bath, Reynolds smiled. “We’re all happy to see that,” he said.

And then there’s the train. From the station’s back door, you could hit the tracks with a well-thrown dinner roll.

“If you’re on the air when the train goes by, people will hear it,” Reynolds said. John Paul McClellan and David Minter, two other volunteers reassembling the station, agreed that the train would play a bigger role in the new location. Maybe a horn blast at the top of the hour.

There’s also the prospect that being so close to The ArtsCenter and the Cradle means more chances for interviews with artists and musicians passing through town.

For now, the tasks are a little less glamorous – soldering session, shelf construction and equipment checks.

For a complete schedule of broadcasts and to learn how to volunteer, donate and listen online, visit wcomfm.org

PHOTO BY KIRK ROSS. John Paul McClellan, who hosts John Paul’s Truth Quest and Variety Hour, solders a connection at WCOM’s new broadcast studio as Leo Reynolds celebrates the station’s move.

1 thought on “Carrboro calling”

  1. Famous Jonny Mambo says:
    June 5, 2010 at 11:29 am

    I am thoroughly proud to be associated with WCOM whose existence is an outcome of living in this deeply talented, cooperative, diverse, multi-cultural, free-thinking and generous community. If you have not listened to WCOM, it is an absolute gem of a radio station which could only flourish in a free society. Viva WCOM and Thank-you Carrboro Citizen for helping to promote the station!!

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