by Kirby Lindsay, posted 19 September 2014
Do you want to hear a radio station created and broadcast in Fremont? Do you want to contribute to content for Fremont Radio? If so, now is prime time to get involved. “This is an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Eric Muhs observed, “to build a radio station from the ground up.”
Muhs, by day a physics teacher with 30 years of experience, has given hours and hours of his limited free time – along with other volunteers – working to create a low-power FM radio station for the Greenwood, Fremont, Ballard community.
“We are waiting now, day by day,” Muhs explained. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) passed the grassroots, non-profit Fulcrum Community Communications from the application phase and will, soon, issue a construction permit. This will give our neighbors one-year in which to get quality programming into the airwaves of North Seattle.
A Year In…
This effort all started last year when the FCC opened an application process to allow for thousands of new, low-power, non-commercial community radio stations across the country. “I think I learned about it through ‘The Stranger’,” Muhs recalled.
About 15 different groups around our region, with the help of Brown Paper Tickets’ Doer Sabrina Roach, started the application process – which was neither easy nor cheap. The only group to attempt this effort from our neighborhood, Fulcrum CC now needs a permit and we are all one step closer to hearing KBFG (think ‘Ballard, Fremont, Greenwood’) on-the-air.
An Antennae Location Acquired
The call letters actually belong to a family in the mid-west, and remain to be purchased, but Fulcrum CC does have a location secured for their antennae – atop Norse Home on Phinney Ridge. “They are thrilled,” Muhs reported about staff, and residents, at the senior assisted living facility – many of whom have connections, and history, with radio.
Now, they need volunteers – a whole heaping lot of them. For one thing, in early 2015 (provided the permit is issued,) Fulcrum CC wants to organize a series of big public meetings around our area, “to reach out to as many organizations as we can think of,” Muhs said.
They want to know what we want. ‘What do you want to hear?’ and ‘You are on-the-air!’ are messages Fulcrum has for every non-profit, community organization and neighbor living and working within a five-mile radius (the rough coverage area for low-power FM,) of Norse Home.
Volunteers, And Donors, Being Sought
In addition to getting input, Fulcrum will also need help with the heavy lifting of creating a radio station. “We will probably need $25,000 to build out our studio,” Muhs said, “barebones.” He also anticipates an annual operating budget of $25,000, depending on rent. “We’ve already spent on the application,” to the FCC, he explained, “and the 501(c)3 filing.” Even with a generous Waste Management neighborhood grant, the non-profit will not have nearly enough, and raising money is going to be a big matter. “When you run a public radio station,” Muhs acknowledged, “it all goes back to fundraising.”
They need donors, and they need help organizing fundraisers to find more donors. They need help with content, and getting that content on the air. They also need help finding a location for the station.
“People still expect a radio station to be located under the antennae,” Muhs observed, “in this time of internet and phones, it isn’t so.” The actual radio station location hasn’t been selected – they have neither budget nor permit – but “we want to have a real studio,” Muhs said, “or even a storefront,” to have a place where they can engage the community.
Get Involved Now!
Years ago, while teaching in rural California, Muhs saw an ad for building an FM radio transformer. He and his students did it and created, for a brief time, a pirate radio station. To this day, Muhs finds the physics of it engaging, for he and his students.
Muhs currently teaches at Ballard High School, where “we’re going to play that game here too.” The students have gotten involved on the radio effort, including the Ballard High DECA club, but it will take much more volunteer effort than the students, and the other Fulcrum members, can give.
The first meeting for Fulcrum had about 40 people at it, Muhs recalled, and “it was kind of unwieldy.” However, now is the time for those people to come back and take action. “One of the things we are struggling with, going in to our second year,” Muhs acknowledged, “is that people are tired.” Fulcrum CC meets weekly, on Mondays at 7p, where they’ve covered a lot of the same ground while waiting for the permit. They need new blood, and some new energy, particularly once the countdown clock begins with the issuance of the permit to build.
If you can help, either with sweat equity or a financial donation, visit the Fulcrum website or the Fulcrum Facebook page. Find out the location of the next weekly meeting, or just the plans for the public meetings in January – and help spread the word! Fremont Radio is coming – what do you want it to sound like?
Related Articles
- The ‘National Make Radio Challenge’ Reaches Fremont
- by Kirby Lindsay, October 23, 2013
- To Save The Culture Of Fremont
- by Kirby Lindsay, June 20, 2014
- Get Actively Engaged With Seattle Works
- by Kirby Lindsay, September 28, 2011
- Fun With Facial Hair, And Fundraising
- by Kirby Lindsay, March 2, 2011
©2014 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.