Groups apply for FM stations

A new wave of nonprofit FM stations proposed for North Idaho could spawn locally produced arts, political and other community programming stretching from Sandpoint to Moscow.

The Federal Communications Commission accepted applications for noncommercial educational FM stations during a brief window last October. It was the first chance in seven years that community groups had to apply for an FM station. It could be the last opportunity for quite some time. Few frequencies are available for new stations.

Among last fall’s applicants were the nonprofit Sandpoint Community Radio and the Coeur d’Alene Tribe.

“We just took that opportunity and ran with it,” said Valerie Fast Horse, information technology director for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. “As a tribe we’ve thrown around the idea of having a radio station for years.”

If the tribe’s application is approved, its station would serve the entire reservation and could be transmitted as far north as the southern edges of Coeur d’Alene and to St. Maries and Rockford, Fast Horse said.

Programming might include health education, school sports, music and community news. “I’m especially excited about the language component of it. We can use it to teach our language,” Fast Horse said.

Sandpoint Community Radio has already raised $50,000 in pledges to get its station up and running if the application is approved.

“What we want to do is bring an alternative voice from mainstream media,” said Jeff Poole, a member of the group’s board of directors. “We feel there’s more out there than what is being given us.”

Poole said the station would likely offer 12 to 18 hours of programming a day at first, including community forums, locally produced news and music shows and some syndicated programs like “Democracy Now.”

Fellow Sandpoint Community Radio organizer Scott Daily said the group has arranged to have progressive commentator Jim Hightower come speak in Sandpoint on April 27.

Radio Free Moscow also applied for a station in the hopes of transforming its low-powered station into a full-powered FM station which would then be available in more homes. The station also took advantage of the October window to apply for a frequency in Pullman.

“It’s the last chance for community groups to get a foothold on the airwaves,” said Radio Free Moscow Station Manager Leigh Robartes.

Other FM applications are out from groups based in Spokane and Pullman.

Spokane-based KYRS Thin Air Community Radio is also seeking a full-powered FM station to beef-up the low-power station it already has.

“Our signal now is still pretty weak. That’s one reason we applied for this,” said KYRS Station Manager Lupito Flores. Flores noted that full-power FM stations also have more rights than low-power stations, which can be displaced by their full-power counterparts.

Some of the proposed new community FM stations face competition from other groups that also want the same frequencies. Negotiations are under way in some of those cases. If a compromise can’t be reached, the FCC will decide using a point system that rewards stations with board members and operations within the community and without any other stations.

“We feel pretty confident about our application,” Poole said of Sandpoint Community Radio.

That group was able to convince a competing applicant in Troy, Mont., to change its frequency and is now in negotiations with a group in Newport, Wash.

In Radio Free Moscow’s case, Robartes said the station would likely win on points over competitor Northwest Public Radio because that Washington State University operation has many stations already.

Northwest Public Radio applied for several stations, but only has a great shot at one in Cle Elum with a chance for two others – one in Pullman and one in Goldendale, said General Manager Dennis Haarsager.

If the Pullman application is successful, the station would like to partner with WSU’s Murrow School of Communication to develop news programming for a younger audience in its teens, 20s and 30s.

Northwest Public Radio now carries classical music and news programming from National Public Radio.

When you will be able to tune into any of these proposed stations remains to be seen. No one knows how long it will take the FCC to process the thousands of applications it received last fall, but the local groups remain hopeful that they could be up and running within a year or two.

“If we can come to an agreement with the other applicants it will happen sooner,” said Robartes. “If we wait for the FCC to analyze the points it could take years.”