Short answer? “Technical problems.”

We called up Phil Wilke, general manager of both KHSU and North State Public Radio, both of which are now operated by Sacramento-based Capital Public Radio. He explained in a bit more detail.

“We think it is a failure of a piece of equipment at the main transmitter site,” he said, referring to one of the big radio towers atop Barry Ridge near Kneeland.

This failure took down KHSU’s over-the-air network last Thursday, though the online stream remains up and running. 

“We have ordered the parts and I believe we have those in our possession,” Wilke said in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon. “We have an engineer that should be arriving in Arcata tomorrow. His job is to go to the transmitter site and an additional site in McKinleyville for the Radio Bilingüe tower, which is also out.”

In another statement posted to social media Wilke said, “Unfortunately, we have two issues simultaneously. A clock issue that is firing local files 5-15 seconds before they are supposed to, talking over the top of national shows, and now an equipment failure that has taken the signal completely off air.”

When can listeners expect the station to return to the airwaves?

“I’ve learned when it comes to engineering not to put too optimistic a timeline on it,” Wilke said, adding, “We have what we think we need to fix it.”

He said that whenever he speaks with listeners about the matter he makes a point to thank them for their patience and “ask them to stick with us.”

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