Community Corner
Fledgling Radio Station WEER to Go Off-Air
Hamptons Community Radio reports an imminent shutdown unless a last-minute benefactor saves the noncommercial radio station.
Not finding the underwriters and financial supporters necessary to afford its $4,000-a-month tower and transmitter costs, WEER 88.7 FM, Hamptons Community Radio, has announced plans to go off air.
In a message on WEER's website, the radio station that launched Memorial Day weekend of 2010 says, "unless there is a last-minute benefactor, WEER must say goodbye."
The radio station's model includes morning programming of music, public service announcements for local nonprofits, and mentions of WEER's underwriters and evening programming of talk radio regarding East End issues.
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"WEER has told you over the last several months that WEER has been struggling," the station states on its website. "We finally found a grant writer to work with but it’s too late. We’ve tried to explain that the only way WEER could survive was with community support especially in the way of benefactors. We have been unsuccessful in getting that kind of support."
The last underwriter to step in was Island Group Administration in East Hampton, which covered a month's expenses, according to WEER. Hopes that 11 other businesses would follow suit, to keep WEER on the air for a full year, were not fulfilled.
