On Friday, Aug. 25, Colorado State University’s student-run radio station, KCSU, was shut down for a planned power outage. However, when the power returned and the station was booted back up the following day, not all the equipment was able to be turned back on.

“The equipment that failed is directly tied to our main system, which we use to broadcast,” Broadcast Engineer Patrick Mathews said. “Due to this, we were initially off air for an extended amount of time. Myself and our professional engineer contact were able to get the station back on air. However, we had to bypass some of our main systems to do this, which are used in much of our supplementary content.”

“Thankfully, we have been able to find workarounds to many of our issues; our live in-studio shows are back on the air, and our sports broadcasts have found workarounds that allow them to still do play-by-plays, only with a hefty delay,” Mathews said.

Due to only some of the station’s equipment functioning, KCSU’s app, radio stream and streaming on their website are not all available at this time, Station Manager Brighid Bandel said. 

“(This) means you can only really listen to past shows on our app … and the radio in your car,” Bandel said. “That really takes away about half of our listenership, and it’s been really difficult to keep our listeners happy.” 

In an attempt to get things back up and running, KCSU is actively fundraising to buy new equipment. Their current goal is $6,000, according to their website. 

“We are just trying to get our listeners to donate through promotion of this on our social media,” Bandel said. “We have our big semi-annual fundraiser DJ-athon coming up, but we usually spend that money on a special gift for our volunteers, staff and DJs. So it would be really sad if we couldn’t celebrate their hard work and have to spend it on new equipment.”

“Unfortunately, the equipment that failed during the lapse in power is some of the most expensive equipment we own and use in the studio,” Mathews said. “Broadcasting equipment can range from a few thousand dollars for single pieces to tens of thousands of dollars for more than one piece and even more expensive for full systems. This is the cost for old equipment, not new equipment.”

Buying new equipment was not the only issue the station faced after the power outage.

“I think just for a while, morale was super low,” Bandel said. “For me personally, I was working about 10-hour days, which was really rough on my mental health, but the station really needed to be back on air. Everyone was disappointed that we had broken equipment, and people missed their shows.” 

Bandel said KCSU has been an important platform for her to share her thoughts and struggles and express herself. It is a place for her to share her voice as a young person, and she said it’s very important to her that it stays up and running. 

“I love the environment we have created and the community I have now,” Bandel said. “I feel like I’ve really grown as a person while working here, and I don’t know what I would do without it. If we went off air completely, I would feel like I’m missing a piece of my identity.”

Reach Samy Gentle at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @samy_gentle_.