Peconic Public Broadcasting to keep operating 88.3 FM

Peconic Public Broadcasting, the group that runs Long Island’s only NPR affiliate, has raised the money needed to purchase the radio station’s license and equipment from Long Island University.
The group will make the final $637,000 payment through a combination of grants, donations and a loan from Bridgehampton National Bank, the station and the university announced in a statement Tuesday afternoon. The money to pay the loan will be raised through the station’s capital campaign.
The university, which has owned 88.3 FM for more than 20 years, had given the group until Sept. 28 as the final deadline to make the payment. The previous deadline was June 30, which was then extended three more times.
The deal is pending the approval of the Federal Communications Commission.
“We are pleased that this transaction may now be completed and are heartened to know that the rich tradition of community-based public radio on Long Island’s East End, which the University has proudly cultivated for decades, will continue to flourish,” said LIU president David J. Steinberg.
“We have reached an important milestone in the community’s effort to save local public radio,” said station manager Wally Smith.  “This is one more example of the East End community working together at every level to preserve an important community resource.”
LIU had run the radio station from its Southampton campus, which it sold to SUNY Stony Brook in 2006, for more than two decades. The school announced its intention to sell the station last year, citing $1 million in annual losses, including rent the school has been paying to Stony Brook.
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