Station manager Scot Bertram said he doesn’t know why the power supply unit stopped working properly, but said he had ruled out sabotage. The broken device was supposed to provide electricity to the station’s hardware.
“The unit was only distributing enough power to run a fan,” Bertram said.
Bringing the station’s regularly scheduled programming back on the air took longer than expected, Bertram said. Hillsdale College’s information technology services misdiagnosed the issue as a problem with the station’s motherboard, but after replacing it Sept. 8, the station still wasn’t operational. After ruling out the motherboard, ITS then decided to troubleshoot the power supply unit, Bertram said.
Although limited in its programming options for 11 days, the station wasn’t silent except for the two hours when the unit stopped functioning Sept. 1. It played music from an iPod along with recorded legal identifications every hour to comply with Federal Communications Commission regulations.
Bertram is working with ITS to develop contingency plans for potential problems with the station, including unexpected failure of parts like the power supply unit. Predicting and preparing for trouble should decrease the time it takes to fix glitches in the future, Bertram said.
“It’s unfortunate it happened at the start of the term when students were excited to begin producing content,” Bertram said. “At this point, we’re on firm footing.”
