The Associated Press State & Local Wire

December 19, 2003, Friday, BC cycle

Group trying to start radio station in Bellows Falls

A group is trying to start a community radio station at low power.

Nancy Stefanik said she wants to give the town a voice through the station. A public forum on the idea is planned this weekend to introduce the public to her group's progress on its application for a low-power FM license, and also to gather the people who worked to get the application together.

"We knew it would be a long process, and we didn't want to get ahead of ourselves," Stefanik said. "But now we have reason to believe that the FCC may grant us a license soon and it is time to regroup and get new people involved."

Stefanik - who had been involved with radio free brattleboro in 1997 when that station was just getting off the ground - said the Bellows Falls group put in an application with the FCC in June 2001.

A station in the Springfield area also submitted an application at that time, and the two stations were competing for a frequency at 100.1 on the FM dial. But the Springfield station withdrew its application and recent contact with the FCC has led Stefanik to believe that her license might be coming within the next few months.

The application was filed by Falls Area Community Television. Stefanik said the tower for the proposed 10-watt station would be on Mount Kilburn and she expects the station will be heard in Bellows Falls, and in parts of Rockingham, Walpole, N.H., and Charlestown, N.H.

At meetings held in 2000, community interest led Stefanik to believe that Bellows Falls could support community radio - more than 50 people attended one of those meetings - but she has other reasons to throw her weight behind the project.

"It would be wonderful for young people to have the opportunity to express their perspectives on issues," she said. "Young people feel empowered by having their voices amplified. The community would benefit by their involvement."

She said youth involvement has been an important ingredient in Brattleboro's station. And while music and art venues have opened up in Bellows Falls recently, they do not give juveniles in town a place to go.

"The town needs a space for teenagers," she said.

In her research, Stefanik found out the first radio show in Vermont was broadcast from Bellows Falls in 1922.

"We are going to bring it back," she said.