New stations to keep it local

(This is the second in a series of two articles about a pair of low-power FM stations that aim to serve Bonner County with live music, local programs and community events.)

HOPE — The mountain of Federal Communications Commission paperwork has been completed.

Call letters have been approved and a license has been granted to broadcast KZRP-FM from atop Carl’s Ridge in Hope.

Formerly moribund broadcasting equipment has been repaired and pressed into service.

Now the man behind this low-power, community radio station has one more item on his to-do list before he can turn on the transmitter and send his 400-watt signal to Hope, Clark Fork and parts of Sandpoint.

He needs to hold a public meeting to find out if anyone cares.

One-man show

When the FCC shifted gears and announced broader support for new community radio stations back in 2007 — and subsequently opened the applications window for a limited number of those licenses — local interest bloomed in Sandpoint and Hope.

Sandpoint, for its part, had a contingent of several potential volunteers and donors, all of whom were willing to either pony up for the cause or help shepherd the logistical aspects to completion. Their mutual efforts resulted in KRFY-FM, which will begin broadcasting at 88.5 later this summer (see Saturday’s Bee).

In Hope, meanwhile, another community radio license was granted after one man ran the FCC gauntlet as a solo act. Bruce Bishop, a self-professed lover of all things radio-oriented, began researching the idea after a dinner conversation with a local couple who fed his curiosity and encouraged his desire to get a station going.

But it was the discovery of a key piece of broadcast equipment that had been left for dead that really got the ball rolling for Bishop.

“Somebody gave me an old radio board that had been found in a dump in Alaska,” he said. “It just made sense to get it running again and build a station around it.”

Once the mixing board was operational, Bishop took the same track toward his other gear, right up to and including the radio tower that will be used to mount his broadcast antennae. In the original iterations of the license application, he threw FCC engineers for a loop when he told them he planned to use a limbless tree on the mountaintop overlooking Hope as his “stick.”  The tower has since become somewhat — but not entirely — more high-tech, swapping the standing tree for a cedar pole that will have its bark stripped before being tipped into place.

“I built my station for pennies on the dollar,” Bishop said.

Frugality aside, the community radio licensee said his fondness for older radio equipment helped chart the course for how KZRP came together. Modern mixing boards have a couple of sliding volume faders surrounded by multi-function switches that are worlds away from the row of big, black knobs and classic window meters of yesteryear.  Sure, Bishop saved a bundle on studio accoutrement, but his station is retro for another reason.

“I would have built it this way anyway,” he said. “I like knobs that only do one thing.”

On-the-air

Both KZRP in Hope and KRFY in Sandpoint were granted licenses based on an FCC points system that takes several things into account. Successful applicants were located in regions that were deemed to be underserved by other, non-commercial broadcasters and found particular favor if they were in areas that did not have a strong Emergency Alert System presence — one of the commission’s main criteria for creating new license opportunities.

Other than requiring that community radio stations be “non-commercial and educational,” the FCC has maintained a mostly hands-off approach to regulating content, according to Bishop.

“It’s very broad — most of the licenses have been secured by religious groups and old hippies,” he said, his grey ponytail and goatee lending credence to the statement.

The two local stations, which will cast a net that covers Cocollala to the south and Bonners Ferry to the north, with a listening core that includes Sandpoint, Ponderay, Kootenai, Hope and Clark Fork, each plan to serve a healthy portion of live, local music. Most times, the players will perform in the respective studio settings but, in some cases, might be broadcast from other musical venues.

“Those are the nimble things a community radio station can do versus a larger station,” said Dylan Benefield, general manager for Sandpoint-based Blue Sky Broadcasting, which operates a total of six FM and AM stations with signals that cover North Idaho and Spokane. “From our standpoint, I think any time you can get local radio, it’s good.”

As going on-the-air gets closer to becoming reality, Benefield noted, the community stations might be surprised by how many people it takes to keep programs running throughout the broadcast day.

“What they might not be fully aware of is how hard it is to staff that,” he said. “Radio doesn’t just happen — it’s a lot of work.”

Leveraging the Web

In a speech she made last month to peers in the broadcasting industry, former head of the New York Times online media and current National Public Radio CEO Vivian Schiller made a bold prediction: Internet-delivered radio will replace “terrestrial” radio stations and their towers within 5-10 years. At the same time, two Bonner County community radio stations will launch into a medium that, in Bishops words, appears to be “going the way of the dodo.” 

Certainly, the advent of streaming audio — albeit highly compressed and considerably lower in quality than the FM signal — that can be found at free online music portals such as Pandora and Jango has chipped away at the traditional radio audience. Listeners not only avoid long commercial breaks, they also have the ability to customize their playlist to the point that virtually every song suits their musical tastes.

What some industry experts say threatens to become a potentially cataclysmic event for commercial radio could very well be the new dawn for alternative broadcasters, including community stations at the local level. In their case, the Internet will be used to allow listeners to customize programming in much the same way music portals allow them to do with favorite tunes. Beyond that, having a Web presence takes what will begin as a low-wattage, limited broadcast area signal and propels it to virtually anyone with a computer and an Internet connection.

“The radio stations that are going to survive — both FM and non-commercial radio — are the ones that have a strong Web presence,” said Jeff Poole of Sandpoint Community Radio’s KRFY.

“The survival of FM radio itself is very questionable right now,” agreed Bishop. “The only thing community radio can offer that’s different is local programming.”

Over the past year, the Hope man has gone back-and-forth about whether or not to push the button and put KZRP on-the-air. On Saturday, Aug. 28 at 2 p.m. in the Hope Community Center, Bishop will leave the final decision in the hands of local residents when he hosts a public meeting to ascertain interest in the concept. By that time, Sandpoint’s community station might already be live. If folks in and around Hope embrace having their own version of community radio, their station could be broadcasting within a year, Bishop estimated.

At the meeting, he plans to show those attending a coverage map and explain how his programming will be made up of local music, history shows, community news and events as a base point, with the rest of the content reflecting what listeners want to hear.

“I’m calling it the ‘First-ever, Fairly Annual KZRP Burger Fest,’” Bishop said. “I’ll give them a hamburger if they’ll give me their thoughts about what they want a local radio station to look like.” 

“I’m hoping to see some enthusiasm,” he added. “It would help, because it’s a lot of work to do in a vacuum.”

For information on Hope’s KZRP-FM, contact Brice Bishop by visiting: www.brucebishopmusic.com

For information on Sandpoint’s KRFY-FM, e-mail Jeff Poole at: jpoole@sandpointcommunityradio.com