As many of you know, the Gavitt Wire & Cable Company complex in Brookfield where Apple Country Radio is located is now for sale. Company officials gave us plenty of advance notice and we immediately began to look for a new home. With no suitable locations available in town, we asked the Brookfield Select Board about mounting our antenna on the Town Hall clock tower, and renting a decades-unused second floor room for our studio and the tiny “mezzanine” above it to house our transmitter array. The Board reacted favorably, and in September 2022 drew up a non-binding “letter of reasonable assurance“ for Apple Country Radio, an FCC requirement for any antenna move. We then asked our engineer to conduct a technical study to confirm the location’s feasibility, and secured the Town Hall Improvement Committee’s endorsement of our plans in March 2023.

On September 20, 2023, after more meetings with the Town Administrator and consultations with Town Counsel, the Select Board unanimously voted to issue a letter of approval and to start negotiations for a formal rental agreement. We also agreed to pay for insurance coverage and a stipend for our estimated electricity use for the antenna and studio spaces.

On January 18, 2024, the Select Board approved a one-year contract to mount our antenna on the Town Hall Clock Tower, pending FCC approval. Volunteers began cleaning out decades of discarded items from the second floor space and mezzanine, and with the expert help of the Tantasqua Tech Electrical Engineering class, we installed new lighting fixtures, electrical outlets, a circuit board, and Internet cabling.

In March 2024, we filed a formal application with the FCC for a “minor modification” of our antenna site from Gavitt to the Brookfield Town Hall, which was granted in April. We were now ready to negotiate a final contract draft for the studio spaces and begin the move-in.

After the May 2024 Town Election, a brand-new Select Board member and Town Administrator imposed additional conditions—first, that the Brookfield Historical Commission ask their state counterpart to confirm that our antenna installation wouldn’t endanger grant eligibility; and second, that we expand our insurance coverage. The Board also unanimously voted to allow the Select Board Chair and the Town Administrator to negotiate the final draft contracts with us, subject to review and approval by the full Board.

It was now August 2024. It took multiple phone and emails from three town officials to get a response from the Massachusetts Historical Commission. In January 2025, the MHC finally sent an official letter allowing our antenna on the clock tower, and the Brookfield Historical Commission unanimously voted to endorse the installation. In the meantime, we contacted our insurer and began working on a new policy that met Town Counsel’s guidelines. We expect that quote will arrive soon, replacing the former policy, which expires late next month. Once that happens, we will have met all the Town’s requirements to finalize a rental agreement.

We hope that the Town Administrator and Select Board Chair will meet with us before the end of next month and approve the final rental contract draft for full Select Board signatures. 

Fortunately, our landlords at Gavitt have been incredibly patient with us, and they assured us that the station would not be “put out on the street,” as one company official put it. But until the contracts for the antenna relocation and studio build-out at the Town Hall are finalized, WACF’s studio status is “on hold.”

Once we have a signed rental contract in hand, we can finally finish renovations to the rooms, including cleaning, painting and refinishing the floors, set up a proper studio, and begin live programming of music, local news and information to Brookfield and surrounding towns.

The remaining cost of these upgrades and moving our antenna to the Town Hall Clock Tower will be an estimated $6,000 to $10,000. If you’d like to help us with this expense, go to our Donations page to contribute securely and safely via PayPal, or let us know if you would like to volunteer for hands-on help with the renovation (or both). 

Watch this space for further updates!