The owner of the Willow Creek FM broadcast license offered to assist Blue Ox radio 97.7 in finding a new home if it becomes collateral damage in his bid to assume the spot on the dial currently held by KJNY in Ferndale.

“I’d be glad to do the work for them and I’ll do it for free,” said Darryl DeLawder, president of Miriam Media Inc. “We’ll run some studies. Community service stations are important. We’d like to find them a new home, without a doubt.”

“Wow,” said Viviana Hollenbeck, co-owner of Blue Ox Historic Park and Blue Ox Community School. She and her husband are the driving forces behind the low-power FM youth and community radio station that could be bumped if DeLawder’s company receives a construction permit approving a tower placement on Horse Mountain.

“I don’t even know if there’s room on the dial or how to find out. I don’t even know what the costs would be. It’d be nicer not to be bumped.”

DeLawder, however, does not believe that’s a realistic look at the ever-changing FM market and the secondary status that the Federal Communications Commission grants low-power stations.

“If we didn’t move KJNY, the next guy would,” DeLawder said.

He said he considered secondary markets before pursuing his construction permit, but was surprised to hear that the Blue Ox group was unaware of the change.

“I don’t have a lot of low-power FM clients because there’s just not a lot of opportunity on the East Coast,” DeLawder said. “I do some low-power TV work and they always have an attorney watching, somebody paying attention to what’s happening.”


If he’s successful in his application, his signal will cover Eureka to Trinidad.

“Horse Mountain is where we want to be,” he said. “We want to serve Willow Creek and make it as powerful a station as possible. We can achieve a larger listening audience, a larger footprint. I’m not sure an FM business could survive if it was just Willow Creek.”

Pattison J. Christensen, managing director of Redwood Broadcasting, is fighting the move. He said he “resents” having to spend the time and energy when he “could put the resources elsewhere, especially after the energy and resources we put into redesigning Jenny (KJNY).”

“The commission allows us to (move) as long as you make whole the frequency you are moving,” DeLawder said. “Things don’t happen overnight and KJNY will have some time to tell listeners where they will be on the dial.”

After six years of work and 10 months on the air, Hollenbeck learned Friday that DeLawder requested a “minor amendment” to move up one channel, change classification and appear at 98.7 on the dial.

To remove interference, Ferndale’s KJNY is being asked by the FCC to show cause why it shouldn’t have to shift on the dial from 99.1 to 97.7 — the spot currently occupied by Blue Ox radio.

“For application purposes, they didn’t need to be mentioned,” DeLawder said of Blue Ox radio. “The goal of FCC auctions are to raise money and to create a better primary FM environment for areas. The public is served better by allowing primary stations to move.”

“The FCC views anyone having a license as a privilege. You never own it. You use it in the public interest,” said Rick Edwards, president of CityScape Consultants. He has 35 years of experience in telecommunications and is an expert in the management, placement, pitfalls and ordinances that govern broadcasting towers and infrastructure.

“Dial position is the most important thing a station has. Call letters mean nothing.

“But dial position means nothing to the FCC. The secondary service is not a consideration. The FCC’s main consideration is not losing ground.”

DeLawder’s company, Miriam Media Inc., purchased five licenses in Auction 70. He took the Willow Creek license with a $41,000 bid, but paid only $26,650 after receiving the 35 percent bidding credit awarded by the FCC to encourage diversity in ownership.

His other acquisitions were small markets in Texas.

“We entered out Texas markets with no objections, but there may have to be a fight here,” he said. “It’s early in the process. We’re still in the pleading cycle. There are other channels out there that may open and allow us to improve and not have to displace KJNY.”