Ballard could be getting a low-power FM radio station, and there’s a meeting tonight to discuss details for getting it started. An application window for low-power FM licenses will be offered by the FCC starting in mid-October, and Ballard High School physics teacher Eric Muhs wants to take advantage of the opportunity to create a community radio station for our area. Low-power FM is essentially a small-scale radio station with a broadcasting radius of about three miles. Muhs wants to name the station KBFG (Ballard-Fremont-Greenwood), and envisions students and community members working together to provide music and hyperlocal news programming.
Muhs told KUOW Public Radio that it will be helpful not only for his students to learn about the physics of radio, but also the hard work that goes into developing programming and news. “I know that it can be a really powerful development opportunity for my students,” he said in an interview with KUOW. “And there’s some small minority of them that, put them in a radio station and give them a chance to do some programming, and they are off.”
Sabrina Roach from Brown Paper Tickets has helped other Seattle groups organize low-power FM applications, and will be at the meeting to help the group develop an understanding of what needs to happen next to help obtain a license for the station. The meeting is at 7 p.m. at 309 N. 36th Street (above LTD bar).
