By: Laura Marble

They call it a village square on the air.

Area radio buffs are working hard to give Catalina an FM station — the kind that job hunters can go to for news about who’s hiring, bargain hunters can consult when they want to buy a couch, and children can tune into for story time.

They have the talent — 38 volunteers ready to broadcast — and they have the antenna. All they need now is $25,000 and a spot on the dial.

Catalina Worthwhile Radio is waiting for a five-day window when the Federal Communications Commission will accept applications for low-power FM radio frequencies and call signs. If they get their dibs on the airwaves, they intend to create content to fill eight hours a day, seven days a week.

“I have no doubt we’ll get it,” said Anne Leonard, an organizer. “It’s just a matter of when.”

In the meantime, they’re focusing on their Web site, www.catalina-radio.org, where they will post some community news and broadcast radio shows.

The Catalina radio project began to take shape in the spring of last year. Leonard, who had experienced the difficulty of spreading news in the community during her time on the Catalina Community Services board, started asking people what they thought about Catalina taking to the airwaves.

Her background was in community studies — in examining how communities work together — and she could see a weakness in Catalina’s layout.

The area had no courthouse, auditorium or central plaza. And unlike SaddleBrooke, her home, it had no TV station or community newsletter, either. When people wanted to announce events, they sometimes resorted to posting notices on telephone poles.

Luckily, what the area did have was SaddleBrooke — a community of retired people looking for meaningful hobbies.

“When I finished with Catalina Community Services, I said if I had any strength left at age 75, I was going to start a radio station,” Leonard said.

In December, she helped to organize a car show and a full day of mock-radio to raise money for a community station.

Oro Valley resident Gus Dibiasi was one person who saw an advertisement for the event and offered to help. He’d started a doo-wop radio show on Hilton Head Island, S.C., after retiring from his job as a trader on Wall Street, and he enjoyed acting as a deejay.

“Everywhere I live, I help the community,” he said.

Stan Hustad, a SaddleBrooke resident who once worked for Trans World Radio and received his training through British Broadcasting Corporation, offered to teach volunteers how to produce their own radio show.

More than 30 took him up.

If the Federal Communications Commission grants Catalina Worthwhile Radio its frequency and call sign, the station will use a radio antenna behind Basha’s that sits on property owned by a Catalina resident. Catalina Community Services will act as the station’s sponsoring organization because it is one of few in the area — if not the only one — that meet the requirements set out by FCC.

The station will offer news every five minutes at the top of the hour, Leonard said.

“If the news is that the Girl Scouts are outside the Basha’s or there’s an upcoming taco feed, we’ll report that,” she said. “And if there’s no news, you say, ‘There’s no news. You better get on the phone and tell us some.’”

Plans are in the works also for broadcast lessons in English as a second language and a talk show that promotes the idea of “paying it forward,” or paying back a good deed by helping out a third party.

As for Leonard, she wants to use her airtime to promote small-town values.

“I want to encourage courtesy,” she said. “When I’m on the air, I’m going to encourage people to speak to their neighbors, thank the clerk in the grocery store and show good manners.”

To promote community radio, Catalina Worthwhile Radio will give a free live radio theater performance from 3 to 5 p.m. July 21 at the Road Runner Grill in SaddleBrooke, 64500 E. SaddleBrooke Blvd. The performance will be broadcast on the Web at www.catalina-radio.org.