Community Radio to Hit East County Airwaves in August 2015

After nearly 3-years of work, the concept to bring a local community-based FM station to East Contra Costa County may soon become a reality beginning in August 2015.

Tony Van Goor presented the concept to the Oakley City Council Tuesday night of what Delta Breeze Broadcasting would be if the project continues to move forward with community support and proper funding.

On February 4, the FCC awarded a Construction Permit for operation of this low-power station at 92.9 MHz on the FM dial and designated its call letters as “KLSN-LP.”  

“It’s surprising; in the metropolitan area of Oakley, Brentwood and Discovery Bay there are about 100,000 people. There are no TV or radios broadcasts from here with the nearest one being Antioch,” explained Van Goor. “We have weekly newspapers and they do a good job but there is no emergency real time information dissemination in this area. There is no organized means of discussing organized issues in real time or broadcasting events in real time.”

He shared there was little chance for a commercial outfit to come out and do that because of the cost of roughly up to $1.2 million dollars which is prohibitive.

Federal Government and FCC realized there are locations without local media and have little chance of having a commercial outfit providing that, the President signed a Local Community Radio Act which opened up a number of radio frequencies for a specific purpose—to provide broadcast of local information.

The radio service will be a “low-power frequency modulation (LPFM)” broadcast facility under Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules as modified by the Local Community Radio Act of 2010, with an effective non-directional radiated power of 100 watts and a circular coverage pattern of roughly 10-15 miles in diameter, enough to effectively cover the communities of Oakley and Brentwood with an acceptable-strength signal for building penetration. 

“These are typically satisfied by community groups, service groups, schools for educational purposes,” explained Van Goor. “There are about 800 of these around the country right now in rural areas in urban area.”

In 2010, the FCC opened this up and Delta Breeze Broadcasting grabbed one of the frequencies.

“They granted us 92.9 in the Oakley area. This is the product of 2-years working with engineers, attorneys but we had great support from the Friends of Oakley Community Foundation, and the Liberty Union School District which provided us with antenna space (Freedom High School) and possibly studio space and student assistance as well,” said Van Goor.

Van Goor further explained how this will have a different.

LPFM Radio is a different concept than your commercial radio. Commercial radio is music, maybe news interspersed  with 30-second commercials, this is programming produced by large corporations and may not have any community contact whatsoever.

The station will be programmed as a community service resource, broadcasting community news, civic/governmental and arts events, local sports, and public service announcements, with balanced programming regarding political interests.  Multi-cultural-interest programming will be highlighted.  The station will participate in the Emergency Alert System with special accommodations made for programming interruption by local and county law enforcement, fire and emergency services.

“It gives communities their own voice,” said Van Goor. “Its real time, it’s spontaneous and it may not sound with the greatest polish or greatest skill in terms of broadcasting but it’s real.”

He explained that there is no local emergency alert system participation in this area. If there was a natural disaster, a tornado, flood, levee break, the dissemination of that information could take place very easily and continuing broadcast of that information with updates could occur.

“We have the frequency, we have the construction permit, and we assembled a steering committee for the radio station which has been assigned the call letters KLSN-LP. We have the beginnings of community awareness and support activities. We have business plan and corporation taking place, we have someone working on fundraising,” said Van Goor.

We are calling our corporation “Delta Breeze Broadcasting” and have a website at this point in time.  They are hoping to fund the station not be advertisers, but by underwriting and possible grants.

“The bottom line is that I am convinced that this community needs a voice that will showcase to everybody what is very good about living here. The art capabilities, the education, news, the exciting news and a low power FM station will help the city to redefine itself as not a stop-holder place, but as a destination for people to come because there is so much going on here and activities and value that could be showcased. This is a creative place, a place of energy and self-sufficient so let’s demonstrate that and prove that,” said Van Goor.

Timeline

• March 2014 – May 2014: Public awareness presentations, planning
• June 2014 – September 2014:  Initial fundraising, volunteer procurement, resource acquisition
• OCTOBER 2014: Feasibility and Scope Assessment (‘go or no-go’ decision)
• November 2014 – February 2015:  Initial volunteer training, studios and transmitter construction
• February 2015 – Initial Internet service target by streaming online
• August 2015 – “Go-Live’’ terrestrial service on 92.9

Anyone who has questions about this project or who wishes to volunteer may call (925) 732-9114 or (925) 978-6655.