Salt Lake's KCPW doubles its pledge goal to keep station on the air

Salt Lake City pubradio station KCPW 88.3 is facing an Oct. 31 deadline to raise $250,000 to pay off one of two loans it took out in 2008 to purchase the station, reports the local City Weekly. If the station misses the deadline, the loan goes into default and the bank will accelerate the second loan, worth $1.8 million. “That will effectively put us out of business,” KCPW General Manager Ed Sweeney told the alt weekly. “We’ve never been in default on the loan, and we’ve been able to reduce the principle amount by $100,000 since 2008. There’s no way I can come up with $1.8 million.” Its current pledge drive began Sept. 28 and ends Thursday (Oct. 6). KCPW generally sets a goal for each of its twice-a-year fundraisers of about $200,000; this time, it's aiming for $450,000.

UPDATE: Sweeney tells Current that as of Tuesday morning (Oct. 4), "we are hanging in there," with just over one-third of the goal raised. "We go until Friday with the on-air portion, take a couple of days to rest and start all over again with eblasts, letters and possibly another on-air drive at the end of October," Sweeney says.