Sandpoint Community Radio is a non-profit partnership with the Academy of Northwest Writers and Publishers, established to provide Sandpoint with non-commercial, educational radio that will inform, inspire, and deepen listeners’ understanding of their community and the world.
In July 2009, the FCC approved Sandpoint Community Radio’s long awaited construction permit. Our studio on Sandpoint’s First Avenue, above Dan Hall’s Gallery, is bustling with activity. In November we began renovating the studio while putting the finishing touches on our engineering plan that will place our antenna on Blue Sky Broadcasting’s tower in Ponderay.
In October of 2007, as we anticipated the brief FCC application window, we held a pledge drive, which accumulated over $55,000 in pledges from within the Sandpoint community. We needed to demonstrate to the FCC that the community was behind us with enough financial resources to get the studio built, our antenna mounted, and on the air if they awarded us the permit.
The competition was heavy, but due to the generous contributions of a handful of early donors, we hired one of the country’s top broadcasting engineers and a broadcast attorney. Together we produced a polished engineering plan and application that was ready for submission when the ten-day application window opened. The competition was fierce for the few remaining frequencies available in the broadcast spectrum. At times we thought our efforts would surely lead to failure, but we prevailed and proudly bring to our community the only full-power, non-commercial radio station in Sandpoint: KRFY 88.5 FM.
With that exciting success comes the next hurdle: Raising the funds to buy the equipment, further coordinate the ongoing effort, and begin paying monthly studio-related bills.
Thus far we have secured $24,000 from two very generous future listeners as well as a few thousand dollars additionally. We need $100,000 total to get the basic needs met to begin broadcasting. We hope to be on the air by spring 2010, so time is of the essence.
Since our inception in 2007, the Sandpoint Community Radio team brought two highly respected, national voices of Indy Media to Sandpoint: Jim Hightower in 2008 and Amy Goodman in 2009. These two early events can be seen as indicators of the nationally syndicated cornerstone programming we will air. A sizable portion of our other programming will be produced locally. For us, it’s all about airing the highest quality alternative music, news and viewpoints—local, regional, and multicultural—for you, our listeners. It’s about providing opportunities for networking and connecting people locally to the myriad goings-on around town and in the region. It’s about hearing a band playing live at the pub or at the Panida. And it’s about providing volunteer opportunities and training to our listeners on how to produce a show.
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