AM Radio Station to be Shared by Scotch Plains and Fanwood

A new Scotch Plains and Fanwood-shared AM radio station was installed at the Fanwood Rescue Squad building this week. 

The station, on AM 530, will offer a looping broadcast with basic information and can be used for emergency broadcasts in the case of an event like Hurricane Sandy. 

A training session was held on Tuesday for emergency personnel in both towns. 

"We are presently in process of the final tweaks of broadcast," Mayor Kevin Glover told Patch. "There is also some coordination in terms of who will be given the responsibility to manage this joint project on a day-to-day basis."

The hardware for the station is being housed inside the Fanwood Rescue Squad building and would run on their emergency generator in the event that power fails. A 30-foot antennae for the station was installed in the back of the building.

"It will be a travel information network very much like the ones you can hear when traveling on the Parkway or Turnpike," said Glover. "After people know it’s there and it works, we'll also have the ability to broadcast other information – street closings, school closings or even township events. I think this is a real benefit to both of our communities and a terrific part of the overall communications package that Mayor Colleen Mahr and I committed to delivering to the people of Scotch Plains and Fanwood."

The station cost approximately $40,000 and the cost will be shared by the two municipalities evenly, according to Glover.