Reporter Volume 25, No.26 April 28, 1994

By MARK WALLACE
Reporter Staff

These days, UB is reaching out, through radio, to more of the Southern
Tier than ever before.
	Thanks to many dedicated public radio listeners who lived too
far away from Buffalo to hear WBFO, the only full service national
public radio affiliate in Western New York is now reaching people far
outside the boundaries of its original broadcast signal. With the help
of repeater stations that pick up the original station signal and
rebroadcast it, thus extending its range, WBFO now reaches as far as
northwestern Pennsylvania.
	When the new repeater station WUBJ, 88.1 FM, located in the
Jamestown area, comes on line in the next few months, WBFO will have
three repeater stations that enable its broadcasts to reach a larger
and much more widely dispersed population. The other two are WOLN
(91.3 FM) in Olean and 96.1 FM on the All Band FM of Adelphia Cable in
Pennsylvania.
	Requests received by WBFO from many individuals who wanted
access to public radio are directly responsible for extending the
station's signal, says Jennifer Roth, general manager of WBFO.
	"Most of the requests came from persons familiar with standard
NPR fare available in larger markets, such as 'All Things Considered'
and 'Morning Edition,'" Roth says. "Many others also expressed
interest in the jazz and ethnic music programming broadcast on WBFO."
	Doug Carr, assistant professor of journalism and mass
communications at St. Bonaventure and a member of the WBFO/WOLN
advisory board, was instrumental in working with WBFO to establish
WOLN and bring public radio to the Olean area. Like other repeater
stations, WOLN has no employees, Carr says. It's nothing more than an
electronic box on an antenna that picks up the original signal and
repeats it instantly.
	"At 70 miles south of Buffalo, we are too far away to get the
original broadcast signal clearly," Carr says.
	Carr calls the reach of WOLN "amazing in terms of geography."
The signal reaches 30 or 40 miles to the east of Olean, about 25 miles
south into a region that extends below Bradford, Pennsylvania, 20-25
miles west to the edge of Allegany State Park, and north to the town
of Ashford Hollow, Carr says.
	"WOLN serves approximately 75,000 people in an area that
includes three New York State counties and two Pennsylvania counties,"
Carr says.
	Repeater stations need different call letters and a different
frequency from WBFO because if the repeater signal was rebroadcast at
88.7, the signals would cancel each other out, Carr says. The FCC
requires a new call letter for every different frequency, he says.
	"This is the only way we could have had access to the best
news and information service in the country," Carr says, adding that
WOLN also reaches the faculty and staff of St. Bonaventure. "It's also
the only jazz station that we have in the region," he says.
	Another major benefit for Olean is that, with WOLN as a
repeater station, WBFO now has to pay close attention to things that
happen in Olean, including school closing reports and St. Bonaventure
sports, Carr says. "Stories for Olean now reach everybody who listens
to WBFO, which in terms of exposure is tremendous," Carr says.
"Buffalo is a primary market for St. Bonaventure. But a lot of people
in Buffalo may not know where Olean is, despite the fact that we're
the market center for a number of counties."
	As a member of the WBFO/WOLN advisory board, Carr's function
is to keep the board aware of issues regarding WOLN, he says. "We talk
about WOLN as a separate station," Carr says. "Our listeners think of
it that way, and may have some special concerns.
	"When I came here in 1987, we couldn't listen to 'All Things
Considered' and the 'Morning Edition,'" Carr says. "Not having public
radio was a defining feature of how remote we were. So we began
working on ways to get a signal down here. Jennifer Roth of WBFO
wanted to extend the station's range, and we wanted it extended. She
did much of the leg workQgetting grants, working with the FCC and with
engineers.
	"Now that we have WOLN, we're reminded of the many pleasures
of public radio," Carr says. "We don't take it for grantedQit's one of
only four stations in Olean, and we really hustle during our
membership drive."
	Jamie O'Brian, a freelance writer in the town of Coudersport,
Pennslyvania, was instrumental in bringing to Pennsylvania the WBFO
repeater station on the All Band FM of Adelphia Cable. Primarily a
cable television broadcasting company, Adelphia also broadcasts
through radio, O'Brian says.
	"We're in the Allegheny mountains, where radio reception isn't
very good," O'Brian says. "Until recently, we were the largest area
east of the Mississippi that didn't receive public radio."
	"Our connection in this part of Pennsylvania is very much with
New York State," O'Brian says. "Most people around here do their
shopping in Olean."
	The towns of Coudersport, Austin, Port Allegany, and Roulette,
with a total population of around 10,00 people, as well as surrounding
areas, receive WBFO through a signal broadcast by Coudersport Cable
Company, a subsidiary of Adelphia Cable, O'Brian says. Subscribers to
Adelphia cable get hooked into Adelphia's radio services by having an
extra cable hooked up for radio, O'Brian says. There's no extra cost
for subscribing to Adelphia's radio services, he says.
	"When I first moved here 18 months ago, I was frustrated that
we had no access to public radio," O'Brian says. "An earlier movement
to bring public radio here had died." After an attempt to get a
repeater station from Penn State University failed, O'Brian approached
WBFO, and began working with Adelphia Cable, he says.
	"We get contemporary rock, oldies, and religious programming
over radio," O'Brian says. "But now we can get jazz, reggae, and Irish
music, too. And, of course, we get 'Morning Edition,' 'All Things
Considered' and 'Weekend Edition,' things that television news doesn't
give you."
	The $32,000 cost of installation for the new repeater station
WUBJ in Jamestown is being privately funded by four Jamestown
foundations, the Gebbie foundation, the Sheldon foundation, the
Carnahan-Jackson foundation and the Hulquist foundation.
	Miles Lasser, a State University of New York trustee and
resident of Jamestown, says that WUBJ will further emphasize the
historic, economic, and cultural importance of the Chautauqua region
to Buffalo and New York State, and will help focus attention on new
commercial development around the Route 17 expressway. "This will be
of great benefit not only to the region, but to New York State in
general," Lasser says.
	Jennifer Roth points out that WBFO's location on the UB campus
is part of what makes the station attractive to listeners. "Through
our connection with UB, we're able to draw on excellent resources in
areas like news and public affairs programming," Roth says. "Being
located at UB has a pervasive influence on everything WBFO does.
"It's also important to remember that having these repeater stations
helps us get word out to places like Jamestown about what's happening
at UB," Roth says.