Fans seek to rescue Hamptons' NPR station

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — Imagine the Hamptons without the ocean.

Residents of one of the world's best known playground for the haves and have-mores use the dramatic comparison when talking about a public radio station that has been a beacon for community groups, artists and entertainers.

Actor Alec Baldwin, comedian Joy Behar, publisher Jann Wenner are among the celebrities who are pushing to keep afloat the National Public Radio affiliate WLIU-FM, which is up for sale this week.

Despite ready access to cash from deep-pocketed supporters, many fear they may be outbid by well-financed religious broadcasters, who might scrap the region's only public radio station.

"It would be a very deep loss," says sculptor Dorothy Frankel. "Almost like having the beauty of the ocean taken away. It feeds our souls, feeds our intellect."

Long Island University, which has owned the radio station since it began broadcasting from the campus of Southampton College in 1963, announced in August that it could no longer sustain annual losses of about $1 million to help operate the FM station, putting it on the auction block.

The university sold Southampton College three years ago to the state-run Stony Brook University, which has no interest in the station.

Bids on the station are due by Wednesday. An announcement on a new owner could follow within days or weeks. Either way, the station has been told it needs to clear out of the Southampton campus by the end of the year.

"The Hamptons is the center of arts and culture on Long Island," adds author and Hamptons aficianado Steven Gaines, who hosts an interview program on WLIU each weekend from the American Hotel in Sag Harbor. "How can we allow the only NPR station on Long Island to go away?"

Robert Altholz, Long Island University's treasurer and vice president for finance, said his first obligation is to students and faculty at two other nearby campuses. Subsidizing a public radio station in Southampton, where it no longer has a campus, is not much of a priority for the university, said Altholz, who personally donates to station fundraisers.

Altholz has said he has a fiduciary responsibility to accept the highest bid, but those trying to save WLIU as a public radio station are hoping community goodwill will also be a factor.