By Nolan Cleary
Purchase College’s student-run radio station, WPSR, is on indefinite hiatus after a flood forced staff out of their usual studio.
The flood occurred on Friday, March 4 just before 2 p.m. in the station’s location on the top floor of the dining hall.
The flood began just before the beginning of “Spores, Moles, and Fungus," a daily show on the network. The show was about to go on air when the series’ two hosts, Aidan Kushner, and Matt Forletti, both juniors majoring in playwriting and screenwriting, noticed water dripping from the walls and ceiling.
“Me and Aidan were starting the show. We were sitting in the booth and we saw on the other side, there was water coming out. We thought, ‘Ok. That’s not good,'" Forletti said. "We went out and covered the computers with our jackets and we got a garbage bin and we got bins from the Free Store. We put them out in there to catch water and we just tried to stop as much water as we could."
Kushner recalled first noticing water dripping into the studio. “It’s like it was raining inside," he said.
Alyssa Rodriguez, a senior studying arts management and studio composition is the manager at WPSR. Rodriguez was called to the studio by Kushner as the studio began to flood. Upon arriving, she attempted to salvage as much of the equipment from the studio as she could.
Rodriguez said that an unrelated water leakage occurred at the station a week earlier and that the damage was more minor than the more recent flood.
Initially, Rodriguez didn’t believe the damage was extremely significant but found more water leaking throughout the outside of the studio.
“I didn’t think it was going to be this big," Rodriguez said. "There was a leak last week. It was just a couple of drops. There was one specific crack. I checked it out, everything else was just fine. I was not expecting the whole studio to be flooded.
“I wasn’t expecting this big of a deal," she continued. "Once I got here, I just got into ‘got to save the equipment mode’. Now we’re here, underwater.”
Rodriguez said that most of the equipment from the flood was able to be salvaged. All shows on WPSR have been delayed indefinitely as the station’s 24/7 online stream has gone off the air for the foreseeable future. WPSR’s Open Mic night will go on as planned on Thursday, March 10.
Rodriguez remains unsure when and if WPSR will be able to resume production in their usual location above D-Hall.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen. I honestly don’t know if we can use this spot anymore," she said. "I don’t know how extensive that water damage is. I don’t know what they’re going to do to fix it. Right now, I’m trying to figure out if this is still manageable if we can still do stuff there. We’re still going to do events and stuff, but right now, I’m not concerned about radio shows. We just can’t do it."