LIU, broadcast group reach deal on WLIU radio license

After five months of negotiations, Long Island University and Peconic Public Broadcasting Inc. have reached a deal over the WLIU/88.3 FM radio license.

The announcement of the deal signed Friday, is a key step in a process that could see the not-for-profit broadcaster housed at a new off-campus location within two weeks.

Under the deal, the broadcast group must pay Long Island University $850,000 for the PBS affiliate that currently serves the Hamptons from a base at Stony Brook Southampton.

There is still more than a half-million dollars owed, which must be paid in full by the end of June. But with the agreement to buy the station license now behind them, the not-for-profit group expects fundraising efforts will now move into high gear.

Sources familiar with the station's fundraising efforts said that while several significant pledges had been made to pay for the license, actual collection had been held up because - until Friday - there was no legal entity that held a license that could receive the funds.

Peconic Public Broadcasting has made a $150,000 down payment, which is not refundable.

The agreement's signing has already boosted morale at the station. "Now we have an asset that we can purchase. All we have to do is pay for it . . . it's no longer a dream," Wallace Smith, the station's general manager, said Tuesday.

Porter Bibb, a trustee of WLIU-FM, said while the station must raise a significant amount of money, "we expect to close [on the license] a lot sooner" than the end of June.

Rob Altholz, vice president for finance at Long Island University, said the purchase agreement for the license was "substantially the same" as the one discussed when both sides entered negotiations.

While the license fee is unchanged, Peconic Public Broadcasting saved some money involved with ongoing station operations.

Altholz said the station expects to make an initial move into about 2,000 square feet of space in the old redbrick Rogers Memorial Library building on Jobs Lane in Southampton village, about half the space it now occupies on the SUNY campus.

But Smith said he is also in talks with at least one other potential landlord for temporary space. Meanwhile, the station remains on the hunt for a permanent home.