Circle Community Radio Station Update
May 2008
In October of 2007, we filed an application with the FCC to move forward on a construction permit to officially upgrade and start a fully-powered non-commercial radio station in the area. Since that time, after some interesting twists and turns we are waiting on the FCC for approval of our license. After filing, somehow the application was dismissed by the FCC, then reinstated, then accepted for filing, then filed. Once an application is filed, there is a very high chance that it will be accepted. All we have to do now is wait on the FCC to go through the paperwork and approve the license. This is easier said than done because the FCC has thousands of licenses to go through and they are not known for their speed in getting these things done.
In the meantime, we are still plugging along. We have been broadcasting games for the public as well as having students broadcast live various programming every day through a class at the school. We have automated programming that goes out every day as well and the students are learning to run that, too.
As much as we are doing, we still have much to do to get the station ready for our future vision for this area. If our broadcast application is approved, we will boost our power significantly so as to reach more people in the area. We are going to need to buy a lot more equipment. The FCC will require that we have certain net assets and equipment for our radio station after they grant us the license. We will have some time to do this, but it is in our best interest to begin getting all of that ready now so it doesn’t hit us all at once. Here are some of our needs with estimated costs afterwards.
Equipment: Upgraded main transmitter ($3000-$4000), studio equipment ($2000), sports broadcasting equipment ($1500),
Annual costs: Music licensing fees ($750/year), Purchasing of new music ($250), maintenance and repairs ($100), internet live sports feeds ($250)
I’m sure there are other unforeseen costs I didn’t include, but this gives a rough idea of where we are at. My best guess right now based on these figures and unforeseen costs is that we are needing to raise somewhere between $8000-$10,000 dollars for this station. We won’t need it all at once. But there is a need for probably around $2000 within the next year, not including future equipment we will need to purchase.
I am including some pictures of the students running the station to show how what we have so far is being utilized.
Jerrod
This has been a pretty big step started by Horizons in a county with the only media coverage being the Circle Banner, that was featured on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show headlines with their tagline “Today’s News- Next Thursday.”
