Idaho Radio News Etc.

The former Boise Community Radio Project, which later morphed into Boise Community Radio – then Radio Boise — has decided on call letters: KRBX.

The group, which hopes to launch a Boise-area radio station, is eyeing those calls, and has unveiled a new logo:

The group will also be the beneficiary of a Built to Spill show set for Monday at the Visual Arts Collective.

If you wander up Main St. between 10th and 11th, you might think you hear the sound of a ticking clock. What is it? Well, it’s probably a figment of your imagination – but a figurative clock is ticking in the Alaska Center, home of the Boise Community Radio project (little p these days).

The group was given 36 months by the Federal Communications Commission to raise enough money to start broadcasting from a tower site over the border in Oregon.

That clock started in April – meaning we have roughly 27 months left for the group to raise roughly $250,000 to put the station on the air. There’s still much debate over whether the station – to be located at 89.9 FM – would even reach Boise. The consensus seems to land on the need for a translator to serve Boise (BCR’s station would have a Caldwell city of license) – on 93.5 FM.

With a terrible economy, I can’t imagine many dollars are flowing to BCR – and as I’ve said a number of times, those dollars are probably better in the coffers of Boise State Radio, IPTV, KTSY or a charity that meets a basic human need – like the Boise Rescue Mission, Salvation Army or others. The hill for BCR to climb continues to be steep – and Jeff Abrams is putting everything he’s got on the line to get the pet project on the air.

Idaho Daily Statesman entertainer Mike Deeds says that BCRP will cover Boise. So there… it’s solved then.

He quotes the BCRP engineer – Michael Brown with Brown Broadcast Services – and says that if you can get KQTA/Ke Buena 106.3 in Boise – you’ll get BCRP’s forthcoming station.

If you can tune in 106.3 FM right now, you’ll most likely be able to hear BCR, according to Brown, who’s performed radio engineering since 1974 and FCC application work since 1987. Brown says that comparing a 100,000-watt station and a 7,900-watt station isn’t “apples and apples, but it’s apples and green apples.” The biggest factor for FM stations, by far, is intervening terrain. “The power is important,” Brown says, “but it’s not nearly as important as the terrain.”

Brown favors this map – which he says is more accurate. Also – remember how IRN was the first to note that BCRP would probably have to use a translator to get good Boise coverage? That translator has been secured – and would broadcast at 93.5 FM. Here’s the map of the translator’s signal pattern, according to Brown again.

Our “own” RDS echoes what Brown says in a previous comment

KQTA is 100 kw, and BCRP is only 7.9 kw. More important than power with FM signals is height and line of site. BCRP will do better than you think.

Then there’s this:

“My point is, why would we have spent all this time and effort working on this thing if we didn’t have damn good reasonable assurance that this thing was going to send a beautiful signal into town here?” Abrams says. “I wouldn’t have tried to bring the entire community along if I thought there was going to be marginal reception here.”

The Boise Community Radio Project has the FCC’s go ahead to light up a transmitter in Oregon – with Caldwell as a city of license.

The big question in many minds: This is the Boise Community Radio station… right?

Here’s the service area plot for the proposed station – which will share the tower used by KQTA/Ke Buena 106.3:

You’ll notice Boise is not on this map.

BCRP executive director Jeff Abrams seemed to dance around the subject with the Boise Weekly.

“We fully intend to have our studios remain downtown,” he said.

Not only will the station not have the City of Trees in its service area — the station is hemmed in by KAWZ in Twin Falls, KBSK in McCall and a pending FM application in Baker City. All of those stations are operating on 89.9 FM – which would make an expansion of the proposed BCRP station’s signal area difficult. Plus – they have to protect next door neighbor KBSU at 90.3 FM.

So how is this dog going to hunt without coverage in the Valley’s major population center?

Our resident FCC expert thinks that getting the 89.9 FM station on the air is just a first step — and that the Boise/Meridian/Nampa et al area could actually be served by translators. There are five translators licensed in the Boise area – with two more pending. Since BCRP is a non-comm, it would have the opportunity to buy or lease a translator to rebroadcast the Malheur Co. signal.

Tax dollars to fund BCRP?
The project’s news release says it is seeking $400,000 in construction funds from the Department of Commerce for the Oregon-based station. The organization is also planning to launch a capital campaign to raise an additional $250,000. By contrast, that $250k figure is exactly the same as the Log Cabin Literary Center’s annual budget. The Boise Weekly says the project has applied for a federal grant as well.

Past coverage
- BCRP’s FCC application
- Why BCRP is going after an already well-served niche
- BCRP launches webcast

UPDATE: Boise Weekly readers: more here

The Boise Community Radio Project has been given its big chance by the FCC. In a public notice filed on April 16th, BCRP was granted the construction permit for 89.9 FM – with a city of license in Caldwell (Caldwell Community Radio?). The period for petitions to deny runs through May 15th. The permit itself is valid for 36 months.

BCRP, headed by Jeff Abrams, has been grinding toward its goal of a community-based radio station for more than six years. If the station successfully builds a transmitter and gets on the air – it would be sandwiched between KTSY at 89.5 FM and KBSU at 90.3 FM.

Here’s the original application.

The BCRP tower would have a non-directional antenna in Malheur Co., OR – map here. The signal pattern would reach Caldwell — but it’s hard to tell if Boise would be served by the transmitter.

The Boise Community Radio Project has submitted its FCC application as previously noted, to broadcast on 89.9 FM. The city of license for the Boise project would be… Caldwell. Ahh the FCC.

BCRP was the only NCE application made in the Boise valley – though scores of applications were filed statewide (more on that later).

The 89.9 location would be very close to KTSY (89.5 FM) and KBSU (90.3 FM).

BCRP’s supporting documents (view here – PDF) say that current radio programming “fails to reflect the educational needs of our community,” and says there isn’t a whole lot on the air that can “assist citizens in discussing the implications of demographic transition.” Also, BCRP feels Boise’s radio programming “generally fails to examine issues affecting souther Idahoans.”

Currently, the Boise area offers a whopping 150.5 hours of locally produced public affairs, talk or music programming – that is an average of 21.5 hours per day. (See chart below).

Currently, BCRP’s online stream features 6.93 hours of local talk (of which more than half is repeats, boiling down to less than three hours of content), and about 61 hours of locally produced music shows (including about 50% repeated content, most shows do not feature local artists). This averages out to about nine hours per day. The amount of original content is about 30 hours – or 4 hours per day. It stands to reason that if BCRP were granted a license it would increase local content – if the group can find funding.

BCRP takes a stance that BSU Radio provides very little local content:

Community radio is not the same as National Public Radio (NPR). As an NPR affiliate, Boise State University offers syndicated national news, talk and classical music programs. Less than 5% of their [sic] schedule is locally programmed.

BSU Radio produces 47.5 hours of local programming per week (NOT including news), or 6.7 hours per day across its three Boise stations. Almost none of this is repeated. This totals 9.5% of total programming.

Edit: The list below shows the total number of hours per week that a local station airs (not including news updates, remotes or normal music-driven shifts).

KIDO: 33 (mornings, Monday sports show, weekend shows)
KFXD: 20 (mornings)
KBOI: 27 (mornings, Saturday morning shows)
KBSX: 2.5 (City Club, Dialogue, New Horizons [X2])
KBSU-FM: 15 (Laz Spectrum, Private Idaho, Jazz Straight Ahead, Arthur Balinger programming)
KBSU-AM: 30 (Saturday Spanish-language programs, Sunday University Pulse)
KRVB-FM: 1 (The Other Studio)
KQXR-FM: 1 (Xclusive)
KTMB-FM: 5 (Dzuback sports show)
KTIK: 15 (Caves & Prater)
KAYN: 1 (Divas for a Difference)

The folks at Idaho Community Radio say they didn’t file a non-comm. application with the FCC, even after having engineers and prominent DC FCC lawyers take a crack at the notion. ICR’s experts all said there was nothing to apply for here in the Boise valley.

ICR says they are still working on other solutions.

The Boise Community Radio Project says they applied for a non-comm. license during the window that closed October 22nd. They want 89.9 FM.

The Boise Community Radio Project hopes it will one day occupy 89.9 on the FM dial across the Treasure Valley. Project organizers jumped on an application window that just closed, and feel confident they have a good shot at securing an allotment: “Boise Community Radio has focused, successfully, we hope, on recognizing the FCC’s new evaluation criteria and using it to our advantage as a community-based organization”, BCRP Jeff Abrams said in a prepared statement.

No word will come from the FCC for quite a while, but the filings will show up on fcc.gov sometime soon, according to BCRP.

BCRP is the latest entrant into the want-to-be-community-radio space. The Idaho Community Radio folks banded together in the 1990s, and have since reignited their efforts to start a community-based radio station, and is not related to Abrams’ project. I’m checking with ICR to see if they filed.