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(Not) over-the-air FM KSKQ's Carson Bench and other voices on the station can be heard only on the Web after the station�s propane generator for its antenna ran out of fuel. The station hopes to hear soon from cellphone company US Cellular, which has been asked to share its antenna with KSKQ. Bob Pennell / Mail Tribune Bob Pennell Tuesday Nov 15, 2011 at 12:01 AM Nov 15, 2011 at 2:45 AM The power is out to the antenna that transmits community radio station KSKQ's 89.5 FM broadcast across the Rogue Valley. By Sam Wheeler The power is out to the antenna that transmits community radio station KSKQ's 89.5 FM broadcast across the Rogue Valley. The result is every radio station's worst fear — dead air. A propane generator, which has been providing power to the KSKQ antenna on Table Mountain near Hyatt Lake since June, ran out of gas Monday morning. Representatives at the radio station say they have been waiting months for a response from US Cellular, which owns an antenna on the same mountain, to a request that KSKQ be granted permission to connect its antenna to a transformer US Cellular uses there. Since the landowner of the two-antenna site told US Cellular last week to allow KSKQ to use the transformer, the radio station has been waiting for a response from the cell-service company, said Connie Saldana, treasurer for the radio station and its operator, the Multicultural Association of Southern Oregon. "We're hoping to hear from them today, or tomorrow," Saldana said, Monday, "but nothing yet." The past few months, volunteers with the radio station have been racing to beat the snow at the antenna site. The group installed all of the necessary electrical components for the hookup, and jack-hammered a 168-foot trench through the near solid-rock mountaintop to house an underground electrical line running from the station's antenna to the transformer. "It pretty much just needs to be plugged in," Saldana said. Last Friday, with no word from US Cellular, the radio station decided to send a propane truck to refill its 200-gallon tank, but the truck became stuck in the snow and could not make it to the top of the mountain. The propane ran out at about 6:40 a.m., Monday, killing the station's FM broadcast. The radio station broadcast is still streaming live online, available at www.KSKQ.org. The program manager for the radio station, Carson Bench, said the station would continue its online broadcast until power can be restored to the station's full-power FM antenna, which sits atop an old fire lookout at the summit of the 6,000-foot-plus mountain. "There was about six inches of snow up there last Thursday," said Saldana, "but we might have to find a way to deliver the propane." The road, she said, is rough and very rutted, passable with a standard-sized four-wheel drive vehicle but not in the oversized propane tanker. "The more time goes on, the more complicated things get," she said. She said if the US Cellular doesn't respond by today, the station would once again try to send the propane truck up the mountain to refill the tank. If the station fails to restore power to its antenna within the next few days, it would have to file for a special temporary authority license from the Federal Communications Commission, allowing it to stay off the air, but maintain its broadcasting license for 30 days at a time. After 30 days, the station would have to restore power to the antenna, but only momentarily, and the 30-day cycle would restart. "We don't want to have to do that," she said. Saldana said the station's propane tank, once filled, lasts for about three weeks before running dry. "We'd probably need a snowmobile or Snowcat for someone to get up there by then," she said. Phone messages left with the media office of US Cellular were not returned Monday. The station is hosting an open house and emergency fundraiser, Saturday, Nov. 19, at its station, 330 East Hersey Street, Lot 2, to raise funds to pay for the expenses it hopes to incur from hooking up to the transformer. The station needs at least $2,000 as soon as possible, said Bench. "Right now we're just sitting in the dark," he said, "waiting." Reach Ashland Daily Tidings reporter Sam Wheeler at 541-499-1470 or email [email protected].