In what may be a last-ditch effort to reclaim its AM signal, a Rockland County radio station that operated as a private business is going the route of public broadcasting, and is asking for listener donations.

WRCR Radio launched an online fundraising campaign imploring its audience to chip in $35,000 toward purchasing property with a broadcast tower in Haverstraw. As of Nov. 20 the campaign had raised $3,273 through 42 donors contributing between $10 and $500.

The station has been available through an Internet-only stream since 2017 when it lost the lease on its Nanuet transmitter.

Owner Dr. Alex Medakovich has been looking for another tower since then but has run into a variety of roadblocks, he said Monday.

"Everybody wants a local station, but not in my backyard," said Medakovich, an internist who got his start in local radio as a teenager growing up in Serbia.

He would not reveal the total cost of the site of a former communications tower off South Mountain Road near the Clarkstown border. But he said he'd be pouring his own money into the deal, as well as venture capital and bank loans.

Medakovich said he was not legally prohibited from asking his audience for donations.

According to the fundraising page, corporate sponsors contributing "over $9,999" will get naming rights to WRCR's studio for a year.

If the deal falls through, Medacovich said donors would get refunds.

The station has continued to stream its weekday morning show with Steve Possell and Jeff Lewis, regular segments with local elected officials and assorted paid programming. The remainder of the format includes a mix of music and local ads.

The Indian-language programming that once popped up on the station is gone, although the partnership still exists, Medakovitch said.

In December 2017, the station relocated its studios from Palisades Credit Union Park in Ramapo to a strip mall in Garnerville adjacent to Sparky's Diner.

A 'Hail Mary'

Allan Sniffen of Sleepy Hollow, who moderates the New York Radio Message Board, described asking for donations as "outrageously desperate. This is a 'Hail Mary,' it's a last desperate attempt to try and keep a station on the air."

Sniffen said he'd never heard of a private station owner taking handouts from listeners.

"There's no demand for this kind of radio" in a small market like Rockland County because of a plethora of options including cable TV, the internet and FM stations, Sniffen said.

But Medakovich insists he's not fighting a losing battle, claiming that AM stations in markets like New York City are doing well.

He said the station gets about 800 to 900 daily listener sessions on weekdays, peaking at 1,200 on Fridays.

"We are, of course, looking forward to getting back on the radio waves," Medakovich wrote in an email. "Radio’s ubiquitous presence and convenience still remains unmatched by internet-based program delivery, at least with our, more mature, demographics.

"Needless to say, our advertisers prefer to be on the radio too."

Medakovich is trying to keep WRCR on the AM dial at a time when other stations are going off the air. In the past few years, WPUT (1510 AM) in Brewster, WGHT (1500 AM) in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, and WKMB (1070 AM) in Stirling, New Jersey, have signed off.

Stations in larger cities aren't faring much better. The 50,000-watt WDCW-AM in Albany recently surrendered its license after being off the air for 11 months.

'A real treasure'

George Potanovic, a community activist from Stony Point and a frequent WRCR listener, chipped in $25 to the station.

"The idea of having a local talk-radio station is a real treasure to Rockland County," he said. "To be able to converse instead of texting and emailing everything, it's a very positive thing."

Potanovic said there was "great value" in having a local AM station during emergencies and power outages.

But he acknowledged it's not a good sign the station is having to ask for donations.

"It is a private business," he said. "The question is, why it can't support itself with advertising?"

Read more on this topic:

Rockland's WRCR radio station goes exclusively online

Watts up: Rockland's WRCR expands reach with new tower

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