Marble Falls When we talk about a “learning curve,” we sometimes forget how easy it is to careen over the edge and crash into the ravine below. Even beaten and bruised, surviving is its own token of success.
In this case, I’m talking about the process of putting a radio station on the air. It’s not our first time, obviously. In the 1980s, we built stations in Tampa (WMNF-FM), Dallas (KNON-FM), as well as KABF-FM, the big boy at 100,000-watts in Little Rock, now on the air forty years, since 1984. All good, but the last station we really put on the air was not forty years ago, but eight years ago in New Orleans, WAMF-LP. With such long breaks in time, changes in equipment and regulations, everything is different, and once again, you’re starting from scratch on the learning curve.
This merry-go-round started simply enough. I got a cold call from a radio engineer in Mountain View, Arkansas, a bit more than three years ago. I happened to be in the Little Rock studio that day, and, coincidentally, I happen to answer the phone. The voice on the other end of the phone told me he was a listener to KABF and knew where we stood in the community and state. Did I know there was a window open now, but closing soon to apply for full-power FM non-commercial radio licenses? We didn’t have much time, but if we wanted too, he would help us apply where we might have interests. Amazingly, we won seven. Labor Neighbor Research & Training Center (LNRTC) won five construction permits, and Southern United Neighhoods (SUN) won two; some were small 7000 watts and some were giant at 25,000 and 50,000-watts.
Our excitement faded somewhat as we realized our eyes were bigger than our pocketbooks. In two communities, Roswell and Cimarron, New Mexico, we downsized with applications for 100-watt low power, when that FCC window opened in 2023, because it would be cheaper to put them on the air and easier to sustain. In four cases, a couple of days ago, we forfeited the construction permits. And then, there’s Eudora, Arkansas, where we were licensed to build a 50,000-watt station, which in the flat delta of the Mississippi River would have carried the signal in southeast Arkansas, as well as deep into Mississippi, past Greenville, and in northern Louisiana. We decided to make our stand there. With our engineer’s help, the FCC allowed us to go on the air at a lower power.
On February 7th, after several months of work and more than $10,000 (and counting!), along with help from Mayor Tomeka Butler and others, volunteers, and more, we could hear the signal. On February 11th, after more stress and strain, we successfully filed the correct paperwork with the FCC to hopefully receive our permanent broadcasting license. On February 12th, I drove through Eudora on Highway 65, tuned the truck radio to 89.9 and could hear a clear, powerful signal playing music, as another Voice of the People station came on the air. Sure, we still have some pieces to finish. We have to get the streaming online and set up the emergency alert system within the next several weeks. We have to get all of the programming ready, so the station is good to go, and local hosts can begin to get their shows together to make it all real for the community of Eudora.
Once again, we learned a lot of what it will take to now move to build more of these low power, 100-watt community stations, once the FCC approves some of the additional applications we helped submit. Helena-West Helena, Arkansas, will be next, and Fayetteville, North Carolina, will come after that in the spring. We’ll watch the FCC website and our email to see who might come after that, maybe Rockford, Illinois, Antioch, California, or Worcester, Massachusetts, where the FCC has awarded us time-shares with for 12-hours per day.
Learning isn’t easy, and there’s a lot more we have to figure out. Dreams die hard, too. With Eudora on the air, can we still really be the peoples’ megaphone throughout the delta, touching our communities in all three states? Should we petition the FCC to try and get up to higher power, 10, 20, 30,000-watts, or even 50,000-watts, as allowed on our earlier construction period? LNRTC will have to debate that, as well our friends in Eudora, but regardless, once again, we’re on-the-air in a new community, and it’s time to celebrate having climbed another rung on this tall ladder.