This week, community radio station WMNF is celebrating their 37th anniversary. It’s also marking another occasion: the end of Tropical Heatwave…for now.
General manager Craig Kopp told CL that the station would find something to hang the “Tropical Heatwave” moniker on; it just wouldn’t be the usual summertime Ybor City bacchanal the station’s listeners and staff have celebrated over the last 35 years. He reiterated that this is a suspension and not the end.
In a story in the Tampa Bay Times, Kopp, 64, described $40,000 losses and profits that would be "enough to buy a crappy used car." He said the festival market is “just too competitive” with some bands that would cost a couple thousand dollars now calling for anywhere between $10,000-$20,000.
He told CL that Tropical Heatwave “costs about $100,000” to put on. The radio station’s new budget— without Tropical Heatwave as a line item — already passed a first reading from the station’s board of directors and is up for a second reading on September 19.
He says there are still about 20 events in the new budget and that the station’s staff and regular volunteers — who gathered at the station last night for an all-staff meeting — are brainstorming on ways to reinvent the concept of Tropical Heatwave, which he says started out as a reason to get together and celebrate a bunch of great bands nobody really knew about.
During our 20-minute chat this afternoon, Kopp mentioned WMNF’s mission to “give voice to the voiceless,” saying that it could be applied to bands who are relative unknowns, too. He said it was a difficult decision to make, and that the station’s finances overall are in good shape.
“Last night I told the room, ‘look you did it — you made this happen.’” He doesn’t doubt that they’ll eventually find something new and truly progressive to hang the Tropical Heatwave hat on. He just doesn’t know what that looks like right now.
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This article appears in Sep 8-15, 2016.