Long Island’s WLIU up for sale

Long Island University is looking to sell WLIU, an NPR News and jazz station broadcasting from its campus in Southhampton, N.Y. The station “currently runs at a deficit that the university can no longer afford to subsidize,” said Robert Altholz, Long Island University’s vice president for finance and treasurer, in a news release. The Southhampton Press reports that LIU covers roughly 54 percent of the station’s $2.4 million budget. Under orders of the university’s trustees, all subsidies for the station are to end on October 3. Wally Smith, WLIU manager, learned about the university’s plan in April; efforts to find another public institution to take over the license and preserve the service have failed. Smith hopes to establish a new non-profit that can raise enough money to buy the WLIU’s broadcast licenses and equipment.