Providence's Latino Public Radio Faces Funding Crisis As It Tries To Buy WRNI

In Peril?

LATINO PUBLIC RADIO, which leases WRNI-A/PROVIDENCE, RI, from RHODE ISLAND PUBLIC RADIO, is trying to raise funds to buy the station after its five-year lease on the station expired in SEPTEMBER and LPR's option to buy the station runs out, reports the PROVIDENCE JOURNAL. 

LPR is on a six-month lease extension, but LPR President/CEO/Chairman Dr. PABLO RODRIGUEZ told the JOURNAL that his company "is in peril" and must raise "an enormous amount of money in order to buy the frequency... If we can't raise funds, then the frequency, 1290 AM, will be for sale and we will likely be off the air." 

RODRIGUEZ estimated that LPR needs between $500,000 and $800,000 to buy the station, but that last year's intake was about $230,000 and the company is in cash-in, cash-out mode.  LPR has gone to the state and Congress for help.

RIPR Executive Director TOREY MALATIA, estimating the signal's value at $500,000, said that RIPR had paid $1.8 million for the station and has to sell at a loss, and is "clearing the field of potential offers to give LATINO PUBLIC RADIO an exclusive opportunity to negotiate to purchase 1290 -- should they choose to do so."

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