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Articles about Prometheus New Hampshire: N.H. groups receiving low power radio approval
Articles about Prometheus New Hampshire: N.H. groups receiving low power radio approval 
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| New Hampshire: N.H. groups receiving low power radio approval |
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All Rights Reserved The Associated Press State & Local Wire October 25, 2001, Thursday, BC cycle SECTION: State and Regional LENGTH: 841 words HEADLINE: N.H. groups receiving low-power radio approval BYLINE: By DAVID TIRRELL-WYSOCKI, Associated Press Writer DATELINE: DUBLIN, N.H. BODY: You've probably seen community access television. Now get ready for community access radio. The government has granted construction permits to two groups proposing low-power FM radio stations in New Hampshire. Three others have won preliminary approval and are waiting for permits as part of a new national program opening the airwaves to community groups, churches, schools or other organizations with a message they want to share. The Lakes Region Conservation Trust in Meredith will run one station, but Operations Director Colleen Conway said it will not broadcast all conservation, all the time. "It will be a community resource station," she said. Volunteers are brainstorming programming ideas that will involve other nonprofit, community or school groups. Conservation programs might explain easements or explore the benefits of preserving open space, or broadcast discussions on issues such as how developers and conservationists can work together, she said. The construction permit gives the groups 18 months to install station equipment and file for a broadcasting license. Another group awarded a construction permit is the Christian Fellowship of New England in North Conway, where the Rev. Sanford Kravette has a team working on programming and logistics. The station will concentrate on bible teaching, with local programming, music and satellite feeds. "We use the bible as a tool for answering questions in life," he said. The fellowship has a studio, but no broadcast equipment or tower yet. Members are raising $25,000 for equipment. The Rev. Neil Sandford still is waiting for his construction permit at Fairwood Bible Institute in Dublin. He plans to broadcast locally produced programs and satellite feeds from the Bible Broadcast Network. Sandford said he filed for a license so students at the small, college-level bible program can train in broadcasting while providing a service. "I would love to take the taped church services of various churches in the Monadnock Region and air them so people can get an idea of what's going on in a larger sense in the community," he said. In Bartlett, Frank Pingree has an antenna up, transmitter installed and some studio equipment ready for his Jackson Ski Community Radio Association. Pingree recently retired from a 45-year career in broadcasting that ended at ESPN and began at WKXL-AM in Concord, a station that built a reputation for community oriented programming. That's Pingree's goal. "It's going to be the way AM radio used to be years ago, when licenses were given out by the FCC for the station to serve the community it's licensed to," he said. He plans to broadcast weather and local events such as Town Council meetings in Jackson and Bartlett "or any other kind of meeting that deals with public opinion." Pingree will encourage local organizations to tape programs. "The ski people are very interested," he said. A station at Franklin Pierce College in Rindge will be part of the college's new Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication. Center Director John Soares said it will be run by students, for the campus and for the surrounding communities of Rindge, Jaffrey and Fitzwilliam. "It will be a teaching space as well as a space that serves the community," he said. He said students will get broadcast experience usually available only in big cities. "If I can't bring the students to the internships, let me bring the internship opportunities to the students," he said. He envisions music from the region, and perhaps programs for each town - The Jaffrey Hour, The Fitzwillam Hour - to give communities a voice, and to allow students to hear viewpoints they otherwise might miss. The station will work with the existing community access television station and campus newspaper and The Keene Sentinel, he said. He also would like to broadcast on the Internet. The low-power signals generally will reach about three miles, but the controversy over allowing them reached Congress. Advocates said the stations would give nonprofit groups a voice without the hundreds of thousands of dollars necessary for a full-service station. Broadcasters complained the stations could disrupt their signals. Congress responded by reducing the power output of the new stations and barring the FCC from encroaching on buffer zones around commercial signals. B. Allan Sprague, president of the New Hampshire Association of Broadcasters, said those steps erased much of the concern. "I don't see it as a problem any more," he said. The stations cannot sell ads, and Sprague doubts there will be a major shift in audience. "There may be some loss of listeners," he said, "but it will be more like a sharing of listeners." On the Net: www.fcc.gov www.microradio.org David Tirrell-Wysocki, broadcast editor for The Associated Press in New Hampshire, is a member of the board of the New Hampshire Association of Broadcasters. His career included a stint at WKXL during the 1970s. GRAPHIC: AP Photo LOAD-DATE: October 30, 2001 |
