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Valley entities apply for low-power broadcast licenses By JOHN DARLING The city of Shady Cove, the Applegate Community Development Corporation and Rogue Community College in Grants Pass have applied for low-power, noncommercial FM radio licenses, which will allow them to broadcast information, discussions, bulletins and music within a three-mile radius. The city of Ashland and Southern Oregon University decided not to file their proposed joint application for low-power FM (LPFM) because the required location near Emigrant Lake would be too far from town for the signal to reach, said Pete Belcastro, director of Rogue Valley Community TV at SOU. The Federal Communications Commission opened parts of the FM radio band to such groups as nonprofit organizations, governments and schools, with a June 18-22 filing window for 100-watt LPFM licenses in Southwestern Oregon. Applicants had to be in locations that didn't interfere with existing FM broadcasters. Jacksonville radio consultant Dave Aikins helped to determine eligibility and meet the filing deadline for these groups, as well as for Klamath Community College, Southwestern Oregon Community College in Coos Bay, Lost River High School south of Klamath Falls, Gilchrist High School, Paisley High School and North Lake County High School, he said. Low-power FM is economical and can be set up for a few hundred dollars if the operators use donated, second-hand transmitters, antennas, microphones, computers, modems and software, said Aikins. "It's intended to be community radio," he said. "If you spend $30,000 to $40,000 on state-of-the-art equipment, that just guts the whole idea." LPFM was pioneered by community access media groups all over the United States and by "people who may feel increasingly locked out of the corporate media system," said Suzi Aufderheid, of Media Eye, a community access media group in Ashland. LPFM has been opposed by public radio nationally, Belcastro said. Shady Cove plans to broadcast information on public safety, road and river conditions, tourism, city notices and perhaps share the signal with community groups, nonprofits, public agencies and maybe even music of local performers, said City Administrator Elise Smurzynski. It can be programmed with automatic broadcasts, such as weather reports. RCC's station will broadcast from its Redwood campus and serve as training for the school's electronics program, said Dean Tom Bradbeer. It will broadcast public affairs, discussion, music and education programs and likely will be shared with community groups, he said. The signal will reach the entire campus and about halfway into downtown Grants Pass. RCC's Medford campus was not available for a low-power license because there already are too many signals in the area. The Applegate station will broadcast community information in Ruch, the town of Applegate and down the Applegate Valley as far as the Grange hall, said Aikins. The high-school transmitters in Central Oregon "fit right in" to small town life there, said Aikins, a native of Paisley. "The kids can boot it up and read almanac stuff, music, the community calendar and have call-in talk shows. It'll be a tremendous feeling of empowerment for them." Applicants should know about approval in about six months, he said, and the next round of licensing opportunities, for much less powerful 10-watt stations, will be announced in a year or two. The Ashland City Council gave approval for SOU to apply for the Emigrant Lake area license in the city's name, with SOU students in charge of operations, said Belcastro. SOU learned it would have to mount expensive equipment at high elevation to reach Ashland, he said, and both Ashland and SOU owned other media, which made them ineligible to operate LPFM. On the net: www.fcc.gov/lpfm John Darling is a free-lance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.