Volunteers launching radio station seek ways to serve community
The Register-Star and The Daily Mail
Jan. 19, 2009

FREEHOLD — Free103point9 Program Director Tom Roe and representatives from the organization met with residents of Greene and Columbia counties Saturday to explain how the new station will work and represent the needs of the community.

“We are trying to reach out to people like you to find out what you want,” Roe said.

The station will broadcast on 90.7 FM from a tower in Freehold and reach an estimated 78,000 people across roughly 650 square miles from West Durham to North Chatham to Kiskatom, Roe said. The organization will run studios in Catskill, Cairo and Hudson.

The organization has applied for an $85,000 grant, which will help fund equipment purchases and other expenses. Roe said he hoped an additional $40,000 to $50,000 could be raised at benefits and other fundraisers.

Free103point9 will run the station, but Roe and Executive Director Galen Joseph-Hunter will play a somewhat passive role in directing what content is aired. Programming decisions will be made by a station council, made up of community members from across the region and who represent different interests.

Dharma Dailey, a volunteer on the station work team, said the governing council was reflective of a plurality of people in the region.

“We really see ourselves as facilitators of the community process,” Dailey said.

Roe explained that he envisioned some structured news blocks that would coincide with the schedules of farmers, who rise early and would tune in for agricultural news in the morning, and students and their parents who would be interested in hearing news about education at about the time school lets out.

Saturdays, he said, would be left to radio arts, which would air experimental radio shows or live broadcasts from summer events such as the Irish and the bluegrass festivals.

No plan exists for Sundays, he said.

The group suggested programming that would feature profiles of Greene and Columbia County residents who have interesting or unique hobbies, discussions about science and religion and music blocks playing world music as well as pieces by regional musicians.

“You want to hear local artists,” said Pamela Badila of the Diata Diata International Folklore Theater in Hudson.

JoAnn Piazzi and Peter Lerner suggested a show titled “Inside Greene County,” which would feature issues facing government leaders in Greene County.

Roe said ultimately the content and program schedule would depend on when staff and volunteers were available to work. He said programs would be diverse, and his goal for the station is to get every person in the listening area on the air within two to three years of the station’s launch.

“We don’t want one voice to dominate,” he said.

Although Roe projects that the station will go live on the Internet in May and will commence broadcasting from the tower in the spring of 2010, there is still a lot of work to be done. Recording equipment needs to be purchased, studios need to be constructed and some legal and organizational issues need to be settled.

Roe said the council is still discussing the specifics of an underwriting policy. The council has reached out to area schools to see if students and teachers are interested in working with the arts organization to produce radio content. The council has also not yet chosen the station’s call letters.

Once the call letters are designated, Roe said, the organization will intensify its awareness and volunteer recruitment campaign.

Two recording equipment workshops will be held in Cairo later this spring. Roe empathized that volunteers do not need any radio or performance experience.

“We need people that can hold good conversations and are interesting,” he said.