Western Michigan University's main campus experienced a wide-ranging power outage Thursday. The outage knocked WMUK's main channel, 102.1 FM off the air, as well as the classical service, 89.9 FM.
WMUK restored the signal for 102.1 FM in the late morning, by broadcasting directly from a "lifeboat studio" at the Station's transmitter site. However, regular programming was preempted. At 2:11 pm, the station returned to its regular schedule on 102.1 FM.
The station's classical service, 89.9 FM, went back up around the same time. HD-1 service was available in the afternoon, and HD-2 service, which took the longest to restore, was back up by early evening on Thursday.
WMUK created the lifeboat studio for emergencies. When WMUK's Gordon Evans broadcast from it Thursday morning, it was the first time the Station had officially broadcast from the lifeboat.
At 9:39 am, WMU sent an alert to the campus community that "except for essential services, all Kalamazoo campuses are closed and classes are cancelled today."
WMU has more details about what is open and closed, cancelled and proceeding here.
WMU's campus was not the only area facing an outage this morning. As of 10:35 am, Consumers Energy indicated that six percent of Kalamazoo County customers were without power. Consumers said that a third of Van Buren County Consumers customers lacked power. Northern Michigan saw major widespread outages after storms earlier this week, and some people there still do not have electricity.
The outage numbers for West Michigan had fallen dramatically by 11:30 am. Around that time, Consumers Energy spokesperson Brian Wheeler told WMUK the utility had fixed an "equipment issue" that caused a power outage in Kalamazoo. However, power was still out in Friedmann Hall, WMUK's building, at that time. WMU spokesperson Paula Davis told WMUK she was not aware of power being restored on campus at that time.
By 12:41 pm, power was back on in Friedmann Hall.
