Hi Everyone!
Hi Everyone!
It's been quite a while since I posted. In the meantime we have been working on getting a license for a community radio station. I'm happy to say that we were granted a construction permit for a non-commercial station and plan to be on the air sometime in January. Approximately 96,000 people should be capable of receiving our signal, including fringe reception. Our primary coverage area will include about 34,000.
We set up our group originally to connect several rural towns using part 15 stations and relaying the programs through wifi links. Terrain turned out to be our biggest enemy. It made linking transmitters very expensive. On the plus side it was surprising to find people in just about every town willing to donate space for a part 15 transmitter. There is huge demand for alternative broadcasting.
In early 2007 we learned about a future application window for full power non-commercial stations. We decided to try for one. In our state, Missouri, there were 49 applications for new stations during the application window. All but 7 were for religious repeater type stations, we were the only community radio applicant. We've been working with some other groups from across the country and I'm happy to say that there will be new community radio stations in Montana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Mississippi, Illinois, and others. Some others had competing applications so their applications are still pending.
I know a lot of you produce some great shows for your own stations. If you have a program you would be willing to share with us, please let me know. We're looking for quality music, talk, opinion, news, features, how-to, etc. We may also have some programming of interest to you.