Columbus State honors radio station’s benefactor

Columbus State University’s radio station has been on the air for nine months, thanks to a contribution from a previously anonymous local donor. Thursday, CSU publicly thanked him.

The benefactor of WCUG 88.5-FM Cougar Radio is PMB Broadcasting managing partner Jimbo Martin. A gathering of university faculty, staff and students, along with CSU supporters, PMB employees and community leaders, honored him during a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

WCUG is housed in the Carpenters Building, at the intersection of Ninth Street and Broadway, across from the CSU Schwob School of Music in the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts, on the RiverPark campus in downtown Columbus. Students operate the 22,000-watt, noncommercial station under the direction of department faculty and staff. The station broadcasts a variety of music, news sports and talk programs 24 hours per day.

“Our students have put in phenomenal effort to build it into what it is, and they already have the blueprint for what it’s going to become,” CSU Department of Communication chairwoman Danna Gibson told the crowd. “Today is a celebration of their achievement, made possible by an amazing person who has meant so much to our department.”

Gibson said Martin brought to the department’s advisory board “a passion to make a difference in this community. And, boy, you certainly have done that, and your PMB family has been there.”

Martin returned the compliment. He said Gibson’s passion for this project “has just been unbelievable. … In fact, it fires me up. When I see that kind of passion, I want people to have what they need.”

Martin’s donation consists of charging Columbus State only $1 per year on a 10-year lease for the station’s license, with an option to renew for as many as five years at a time, CSU assistant vice president for university relations John Lester told the Ledger-Enquirer. The estimated value of the deal is about $550,000, which was the quoted price when CSU explored buying a radio station, Lester said.

“It’s not about money,” said Martin, who was inducted into the Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in February. “It’s not about donations. It’s about doing things that are right and things that make sense. We really appreciate Columbus State University, and we’re really grateful that you were willing to take on this mammoth responsibility.”

Beyond helping the station financially, Martin’s also has given his expertise, and so have his PMB colleagues.

“Without fail,” Gibson said, “we have had that continual presence of support when needed.”

Gibson told Martin, “You have been that very special force. … We want to be great stewards of this gift that you have given us.”

Martin said, “It’s not really my honor we’re recognizing here today. It’s all these folks sitting back here, the staff of PMB. These folks are the ones who put it together.”

The station’s official launch is part of the growth in CSU’s Department of Communication, which has increased its number of students from approximately 170 five years ago to nearly 500 now.

WCUG also is part of the growth of the arts in downtown Columbus. CSU provost and vice president for academic affairs Tom Hackett likened the station’s location to Rockefeller Center in New York City.

“With a window on the street overlooking beautiful Broadway, right in the middle of an expanding entertainment center, maybe the fastest expansion of any entertainment center in the state of Georgia right now,” Hackett said as he spoke on behalf of CSU president Chris Markwood, who was in Texas because of a death in his family.

Hackett listed the following entities within a few blocks of each other:

▪  CSU’s Corn Center for the Visual Arts, where acclaimed artists and Columbus native Bo Bartlett is donating his archives and many of his iconic paintings and his renowned master class, attracting students from around the nation, will be offered annually.

▪  The RiverCenter for the Performing Arts, home to CSU’s Schwob School of Music, which has just been declared the only conservatory in Georgia.

▪  The Georgia Repertory Theatre, billed as America’s first professional teaching theater and formed from a partnership between CSU’s Riverside Theatre Complex and the Springer Opera House.

▪  The Loft, which attracts “cutting-edge performers from all over the world,” Hackett said.

▪  The Georgia Film Academy, one of three sites in the state.

“Everywhere I go, I hear that Uptown Columbus has become the envy of this state and region,” and WCUG is a “phenomenal addition,” Hackett said.

After thanking Martin for “your vision, for your courage and your generosity,” Hackett was so excited, he ended his remarks with a Cougar roar.

PMB owns or operates 10 radio stations in Columbus. Eight of them are FM: WRLD 95.3, WKCN 99.3, WLTC 103.7, WLTC-HD2 105.5, WKCN-HD3 106.5, WKCN-HD2 106.9, WCGQ 107.3, WLTC-HD3 107.7. Two of them are AM: WBOJ 1270 and WRCG 1420.

This story was originally published April 21, 2016 at 11:17 AM with the headline "Columbus State honors radio station’s benefactor."