KOOP (FM) - Fires

Fires

In early 2006, KOOP's 304 E. Fifth Street studio was hit by two fires. On 6 January a fire caused significant smoke damage; the station suspended operation for just five days and sought a new home. Before a site could be found, a second fire occurred on 4 February which destroyed KOOP's building and three adjacent structures that housed artist studios and a nightclub. Both fires were declared accidental. The first was blamed on careless smoking by a neighbor; the second, on the nightclub's faulty heating and air conditioning unit.

The February fire knocked KOOP off the air for 17 days, during which time KVRX covered its sister station's hours, as it had following the original fire. KOOP resumed broadcasting on 21 February from studios at the city's classical music station KMFA. By the end of 2006, KOOP had found new quarters at 3823 Airport Boulevard, where it built two broadcast studios, two production rooms, a music library, meeting space and offices. The station began broadcasting from the facility on 9 December 2006.

KOOP had been broadcasting from its new home for less than 13 months when it suffered yet another blaze. On 5 January 2008, a fire swept through the Airport Boulevard studios, causing an estimated $300,000 damage. Austin fire officials declared the incident arson and within weeks charged a former station volunteer, Paul Webster Feinstein, with setting the blaze. According to investigators, Feinstein had quit a month earlier following a dispute over the music lineup for the station's overnight webstream. On 12 June 2009, Feinstein pleaded guilty to setting the 2008 fire, and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment; however, as part of a plea agreement, Feinstein will serve 120 days at the Texas State Prison in Huntsville, pay $134,000 restitution, serve 10 years probation upon release from prison, and undergo community service and counseling.

The station was back on the air within a few weeks, using studio space donated by Entercom Austin, which owns three of the city's commercial stations. KOOP returned to its Airport Boulevard studio in September 2008.