UPDATE ON LOWELL’S 100.3 OUTAGE

As many of you know, the Lowell frequency for WION Radio has been off the air since Saturday afternoon of this previous weekend.   I was out of town when the notification came to me by a longtime listener.

Our equipment is set to automatically shut down the 100.3 transmitter if it loses the audio being sent from our Ionia studios, and as I have said on the air many times, we are at the mercy of not one, but TWO different internet service providers.   There was nothing I could do until returning late on Saturday night, and at that time, a trip to Lowell’s tranmitter site was made to check things out.

Keeping in mind it’s well past “late” now, the fiber modem was restarted.  Our own router was restarted.  No results.  It appeared that our modem was functioning, but was talking to nobody.  Nothing could be done on Saturday evening.

Sunday.  No automatic startup.  No “fix” by Point Broadband.  Still no audio so no signal.  I called and got a very “Asian” sounding female. Tough to understand,  very NON cooperative to basic questions, and I had to repeat back to her what I THOUGHT I understood she said, including the fact it was “Our equipment” which failed.  Imposible when it’s THEIR modem, right?  A half hour later I gave up….after she couldn’t find us through billing address, then couldn’t find the service address, then couldn’t “see” that we even had a modem.

Monday. Today.  Called after the midday show.  Transferred from main tech support to “business” tech support since they do not have a dedicated “business” tech line.  (which they should.)….The nice lady FINALLY verified we had a ticket from Sunday…..and she could not “see” our modem from her end, and said she’d contact their dispatch to get us on a repair ticket, and would call me back….One hour.  Two hours.  Three Hours….Four hours.  no call.

Still Monday.  now it’s near the end of the business day.  Went through the same BS to get TO tech support for business.  Got a very coherent man, had to give him my info AGAIN, just like I did with the previous call (that’s twice per call)…and he was able to confirm our suspicions, that Point Broadband was having issues with the “addressing” of their customers’ equipment…and he then added WION’s Lowell broadcasting location to an existing ticket for someone else with similar issues….but no ETA on repair…..

Please understand that due to the terrain between Ionia and Lowell, it is physically impossible to send a signal from point to point, even if we sent it from the top of our 199 foot towers and aimed it at the Lowell site…so we ARE reliant on two internet companies to carry our audio between sites, in digital encrypted form so we can turn it BACK to audio for you in Lowell.  That’s how it works.

We’re waiting.  As owner, I’m very unhappy….two days off the air is not anything to laugh at.  The helpless feeling is worse, and the reason I share this with you is so that you, our listener KNOWS that we are aware, we care, andn we’re doing all we can.  We’re NOT a “walk away and never monitor” station like the big guys, we CARE about what you get sent to enjoy between your ears.

As I said, we WAIT.  Sorry, Lowell.   On a purely “judgemental” note, I cannot with a good feeling recommend Point Broadband to anyone.  The people with boots on the ground are fine, but two out of three phone support people were clueless, one was obviously outsourced, and being told there’s no repair service on Sundays is disappointing to ANY business.

Once again….Corporate America demonstrates its lack of caring for its clients…so WHY …oh WHY….do we choose them as a society?  We’re forced-to when they buy up the little guy or put them out of business….and this applies in ALL cases of corporate buyouts.  CHOICE IS KING and, day by day it is removed from us.  Businesses today, like WION have to be cost-aware. We cannot take just “any” service and pay higher prices.  Fiber is supposed to be more reliable than anything else.  Well, THINK AGAIN.   We took it for “fiber” reliability.  It’s a fail. We took it for lesser cost so we can AFFORD to provide Lowell with our great programming.  So…please….

GO TO OUR LOWELL ADVERTISERS…..tell them you hear them on the radio. KEEP THOSE SMALL BUSINESSES operating with your patronage….so that your choices in OTHER things aside from internet don’t slowly fade away to Walmart and Meijer only.  It’s well on it’s way in our nation and locally.  

WE WAIT….and not patiently but now you know that we CARE and are AWARE of what’s happening.  We’re not just turning our heads and hoping for the best.  We’re trying hard to do all we can for the great town of Lowell and Eastern Kent County.

Jim Carlyle, Owner, Manager, Midday Co-Host,  WION