The Good, the Bad and The Scary

We were also the only department of Upsala College to survive the school's bankruptcy. Thanks to the support of thousands of listeners, we moved off campus into our own home last August, and our $200,000 down payment has increased 20% in value since our purchase. We'll never again find ourselves in the situation we were in a few years ago - on the brink of eviction with no money whatsoever for housing. The money we've put into our new building will always be available to us to keep a roof over our heads. And hopefully, our down payment will continue to go up in value.

Now the bad. When we took possession of our new building last April, we had only four months to build and move into our new studios and offices, and install new computer, satellite, telephone and broadcast systems. Most of those four months were spent fixing an unforeseen structural problem in our new house. With the little time remaining, we did our best, but when the time came to move in, we were nowhere near ready. Not even close. On our first day of broadcasting from Jersey City, our DJs had exactly one microphone and one cassette deck with which to broadcast. Once moved in, it became impossible to maintain the construction project's momentum. And then the money ran out.

In the last year, the station has had trouble with the most basic operations as we continue to try to rebuild our office and studio systems. Out of necessity, we've borrowed short term money to stay on the air while we desperately try to finish our studios. Our annual cash flow crisis has grown to dreadful and dangerous proportions. Just as we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on all of our recent problems, we're also staring into the kind of debt that could crush us.

A successful fundraising year in 1999 could wash this problem away and help us finish our new home. But if we fall short, then we will have to consider the types of fundraising compromises that we so successfully avoided for the last ten years. Our decade of tribulation is over. But now it's as if Upsala College's financial problems have come back to haunt us.

For the solution to these problems, click here.