Dorman, a volunteer, smiled and went straight to his first item of
business, a plug for Colville Pet Rescue.

''Now we're going to change the pace of things," Dorman said. ''Get on
your dancing shoes because now we're going to rock."

On other occasions, the retired defense-industry engineer plays
international music, punctuated by a monotone identification of each song and,
occasionally, of the station.

More than a half-dozen volunteers, including Dorman, are giving the
2-month-old, low-power radio Radio station an eclectic voice in Kettle Falls,
Colville and everywhere else you can go with 100 watts. At least as far as
Arden, 6 miles south of Colville.

''We're a light bulb, but we get a pretty good signal around the local
area," said Benson, who lives next door to the station and tends it around
the clock.

Benson has a disability income that allows him to be the station's
backbone. Other radio workers include a pharmacist, a nurse, teachers and - as
program director Terry Cunningham put it - hippies.

Cunningham is a member of the Veterans for Peace group that presents what
he says is a ''pretty boring" radio show on Friday nights. Plans for a
call-in segment may spice things up.

So could a show proposed by a group of constitutionalists. Cunningham wants
to hear a sample before he agrees to put them on the air, but is inclined to
do so. The radio board leans left but wants to serve as many segments of the
community as possible.

KITR, at 101.5 MHz, and the similarly formatted KRYS in Spokane, at 95.3
MHz, are among more than a dozen low-power stations springing up around the
Inland Northwest. They're the first fruit of a Federal Communications
Commission decision two years ago to resume licensing the kind of 100-watt
community radio stations that were driven off the air by high-power stations.

Radio Free Moscow (KRFP, 92.5 MHz) is scheduled to go on the air May 1 in
Idaho, with a format similar to KITR and KRYS.

A more mainstream community radio station is planned in Chewelah, Wash.,
under the auspices of Community Celebrations, a civic group that sponsors
various festivals.

City Councilman Gene DuCharme, the project director, said Chewelah
Community Radio will involve local students and broadcast school sports. About
three-fourths of the station's programming probably will be music, said
DuCharme, whose group needs to raise about $7,500 to get KCHW on the air.

The low-power stations are limited to nonprofit organizations; paid
advertisements are banned. Licensees have to live in their broadcast areas and
cannot have an interest in any other media.

The FCC authorized the stations after unlicensed ''pirate" broadcasters
gained public support and the sympathy of courts. One of those unlicensed
stations was Republic Community Radio in Ferry County, which operated for
three years.

The 10-watt station used castoff equipment and a lot of ingenuity to
deliver news, high school sports and advertisements. But the station shut down
under FCC pressure in October 1998.

A new station has been authorized in Republic, operated by a group of local
Seventh-day Adventists. Bill Pellow, an optometrist who is heading the effort,
said supporters have only about 15 percent of what's needed - $15,000 to
$20,000 - to build the station.

''We might have a little music, but we want to have community news,
programs on self-help things and children's stories," Pellow said. ''We want
to have many things that we think might elevate the community, rather than
just entertainment."

The old Republic Community Radio's live broadcasts of high school football
games were popular. But they're unlikely to be part of the new station's
programming. Most games are on Saturdays, which is the Sabbath for Adventists.

The FCC has approved construction permits for other Seventh-day Adventist
groups to build stations in Colville and three Idaho communities: Sandpoint,
Lewiston and Kamiah. In addition, three ''translator" stations have been
approved to rebroadcast programs from the planned Kamiah station in
Grangeville, Orofino and the Kooskia-Clearwater area.

Another Seventh-day Adventist group in Hayden, Idaho, is competing with
Calvary Chapel Lake City in Coeur d'Alene for the only frequency the FCC so
far has offered in those neighboring communities.

A similar conflict has stalled plans for a low-power station in Oroville,
Wash., where a religious group and a school-oriented group both want the only
frequency available.

An FCC staff attorney who asked not to be identified said the agency is
working on resolving conflicts among groups that can't settle things on their
own. Some may be allowed to seek different frequencies if they show with
engineering data that another frequency is clear.

Otherwise, conflicts may be resolved with a system that gives points for an
organization's longevity and its willingness to broadcast at least 12 hours a
day. An eight-year license may even be split so that each group takes a turn
at running the station.

Across the country, most low-power construction permits and licenses are
going to religious groups, the FCC attorney said.

Seventh-day Adventist groups in the Inland Northwest would draw programs
from the denomination's national broadcast network. A nondenominational
congregation called The Church in Pullman is permitted to build a station that
would feature well-known evangelical programs such as Dr. James Dobson's
''Focus on the Family."

Daniel Everett, vice president of the Pullman church's radio board, said
it's struggling to get the station in operation before its 18-month
construction permit expires in mid-July.

''We're trying our best, but finances are getting difficult to chase
down," Everett said, noting the cost could be as much as $40,000.

And operating expenses for stations are significant even when the staff
isn't paid. Lupito Flores, manager of KRYS in Spokane, has a $35,000 budget
this year for things such as utilities, satellite service, studio rent and
fees to play copyrighted music.

Lack of money already has dashed Northport School District's plans to build
a community station in the isolated Stevens County community, according to
project coordinator Hilary Ohm.