Article by Rayna Bailey
Media – April 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
THEIR GOALS may not be as lofty as the behemoth AM radio station to the north, Denver’s “50,000-watt voice of the Rocky Mountain West,” but developers of the 100-watt radio station KWMV 95.9 FM hope to eventually be the voice of the Wet Mountain Valley.
While not officially on the air, in mid January KWMV began broadcasting a five-watt test signal from its tower in Westcliffe using a 100-disc CD player located in the Custer County Search and Rescue building adjoining the tower. That signal reached radios approximately six blocks away. When it’s finally operating at its full 100 watts later this spring, radios within a 15- to 25-mile radius around the town of Westcliffe should be able to pick up the signal.
Westcliffe businessman Lou Kravitz, the driving force behind KWMV-LPFM, said that to be in compliance with the Federal Communications Commission license the station must be fully operational and broadcasting by May 20, 2004.
“That meant getting everything ready to broadcast in only 18 months,” Kravitz said, referring to the time allowed by the FCC for developers to get the station on the air once the license was granted. Providing a radio station to the Wet Mountain Valley, however, has taken much longer than that.
The process began in 2000, Kravitz said, after he read a news brief about owning a radio station in the Jan. 31, 2000, issue of “U.S. News & World Report.”
“I read that the FCC had a special program for licenses primarily in rural communities for 501(c)3s, so I jumped on it,” Kravitz explained.
His original intention was to partner with Custer County School to establish a radio station, but during his research he discovered that it would integrate better with the Jones Theater.
“I spoke to Anne (Relph, the theater owner) and asked if we could use their 501(c)3 and she agreed so the license is under the Westcliffe Center for the Performing Arts,” Kravitz said.
The license application was submitted in 2000 and the FCC granted the approval in December 2002. With the license in place, the 18 months of work to get the station ready for broadcasting began.
“Getting the license comes first,” Kravitz said. “The FCC doesn’t give you a lot of time after that. A radio station has to have a tower, transmitter, broadcast equipment, and people who know how to use it.” Buying the equipment is expensive, Kravitz added, but “one large anonymous donation has paid for everything.”
Finding people with the talent and know-how to pull everything together can also be a challenge but Kravitz said, “I’m good at finding people and we have a lot of media people coming out of the woodwork. It’s fortuitous that we have three radio tower engineers living in Westcliffe.”
The station’s 60-foot tower is located off Seventh Street in Westcliffe behind the Custer County Search and Rescue building. It was engineered by local engineer Bob Gilchrist, and other community members prepared the foundation and installed the tower. Custer Search and Rescue, besides sharing its property with KWMV for the tower, will also share use of the tower with the radio station.
KRAVITZ ALSO FOUND Local people to serve as KWMV’s chief of operations and general manager. Bob Thomason, a technical guru who owns a Westcliffe-based web development and Internet consulting company, was named the station’s chief of operations. Connie McBurney was named KWMV’s general manager. She has an extensive background in both radio and television, including working for KRNT in Des Moines, Iowa, and as an on-air news anchor with a CBS affiliate, also in Iowa.
KWMV’s tower is in place, the key people have tackled their jobs, and the station is now test broadcasting an eclectic mix of non-stop music in preparation for the FCC’s May 20 deadline, but there are still obstacles facing the new radio station’s developers.
“There are a lot of simultaneous processes going on,” Kravitz said. Included is requesting a zoning variance from the town of Westcliffe that will allow the station to broadcast from its planned studio at the Jones Theater. Westcliffe town clerk Lela Cravens said the town’s zoning ordinance currently prohibits radio stations.
After the town board approves of the zoning variance, a booth for the broadcast equipment, which is now stored in boxes in Kravitz’s downtown Westcliffe office, will be built at KWMV’s office in the Jones Theater Studio 2 annex on west Main Street.
“We have until May 20 to be on the air with hourly announcements identifying the station” to meet FCC regulations, Kravitz said, and achieving that goal doesn’t appear to be a problem. There are no FCC stipulated time requirements for when live broadcasts must begin. After May 20, the station will continue its all-music programming and will “take baby steps, slowly adding live broadcasts,” he said.
McBURNEY REITERATED Kravitz’s comments. “The FCC is very loose about what the programming must be,” she said. “In the beginning we will only play music and give our identification, hourly. As we get into the studio and get our equipment online we will get into programming. We will try to create a format based on what people want.”
To help facilitate the programming process, McBurney said a survey will be distributed to the community asking respondents what type of music they would like to hear; what local, national and world news should be reported; and what other types of programming are of interest, from local church services to political and opinion talk shows.
“Our program format is going to evolve. We want a careful balance between people who would like to have the opportunity of broadcasting. On the other hand, we have to consider what people want to hear,” McBurney said. “We are only one station so we will try to serve everybody, but we won’t be a platform for every opinion.”
McBurney said KHEN 106.9 FM, a 100-watt, non-profit radio station that serves Salida — much as KWMV plans to serve the Wet Mountain Valley — has provided advice about how to approach live broadcasts. “We went to KHEN, it is a community radio station,” McBurney said, noting that the information they provided was helpful.
Jane Carpenter, KHEN’s general manager, said the station has been on the air for about one year and has two paid part-time staffers who oversee operations. Volunteers take to the airwaves and enable KHEN to broadcast from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., daily.
“We have about 100 trained volunteers on the air,” Carpenter said. “We have a patchwork quilt of programming with about 82 percent of the programming done by local volunteers. It has worked out very well.”
Kravitz said that unlike KHEN, Westcliffe’s station isn’t planning to hire any paid employees; rather, it’s operations and broadcasting will depend entirely on volunteers. “Everyone has been just great about helping to get this station on the air,” he said. “It’s amazing how long we got by without it; but now that it’s here everyone wants to be on the air.”
McBurney agreed that finding volunteers to work on the air doesn’t appear to be a problem. “People have a lot of enthusiasm” for the radio station, she said. “We are working with the Westcliffe Center for the Performing Arts as a talent pool and eventually we hope to feature local cultural groups and to coordinate with the school.”
KWMV-LPFM is a low power, not-for-profit community broadcasting facility. Once the station is fully operational, funding to keep it on the air will be provided by grants, donations, fund-raising events, program underwriters, and sponsors for different time slots.
“This is not radio that makes you rich and famous. We are doing it for pleasure and for the community,” McBurney concluded.
Rayna Bailey lives in Custer County. A former school board member and reporter, she is free-lancing until something else turns up.
