Olympia’s location at the southern dregs of Puget Sound, separated from metropolises to the north and south, limits its access to some of the great community media coming out of Seattle and Portland. The city’s smaller size has left its radio airwaves relatively uncrowded by comparison; making it remarkable that fans of noncommercial radio and progressive news programs like “Democracy Now!” and “Free Speech Radio News” are already well-served by local broadcasts. Evergreen’s 1,500-watt KAOS (89.3FM) is king of noncommercial community broadcasting in the area, and the scrappy pirates at Free Radio Olympia (91.3FM), broadcast a daily schedule of public affairs and often-exciting music.
But there’s more. The South Sound area is getting two new noncommercial radio sources this year, with the fruition of (Olympia non-profit) Media Island’s efforts to win a Low-Power FM (LPFM) license, and the transformation of Bates Technical College’s classic-rock KBTC into an outpost of Seattle’s KEXP.
KOWA: Radio for the people
Media Island’s KOWA will probably be the first station in the Puget Sound area to go on the air under the relatively new LPFM standard; several dozen new stations were approved during the FCC’s first round of license applications from Washington state, and some are already broadcasting in Eastern Washington and on the radio-starved Pacific coast. LPFM stations are noncommercial and community-programmed. According to Media Island organizer Taryn Gearhart, KOWA’s programming will favor local and syndicated public affairs programming, or what she prefers to call “people’s time,” taking inspiration from the public access television model of diversity and collaboration; the station will also feature independent music from the rich local scene.
Evergreen’s established student station KAOS also features local music, of course, and has local and national public affairs programming as well. Two years ago, however, KAOS weathered a controversial struggle involving its broadcast of daily news program “Democracy Now!” Station managers stirred up a hornets’ nest of criticism when they decided to take the program off the air. The show was returned after a short absence, but the experience was a wake-up call to local media activists, who discovered that such an important community resource could be jeopardized. The incident fueled desires to create additional channels for noncommercial broadcasting.
Media Island has long been a catalyst for community media in the Olympia area—the group was the fiscal sponsor for the WTO launch of indymedia.org—and it would have been strange for them to pass up their first opportunity to apply for a radio license. Current KOWA organizers are in contact with KAOS staff, as well as with other local independent media producers at Free Radio Olympia, Thurston County TV and other outlets.
KOWA organizers are currently soliciting community input regarding ideas for programming and fundraising. Organizers have also set a goal of raising $15,000 in startup funds from the local community—money which will go towards buying equipment and erecting an antenna and transmitter shed. If all goes well, KOWA will go on the air this summer, perhaps with a “barnraising” including public workshops and celebrations.
Those interested in getting involved in programming discussions or contributing financially can find out more by visiting Media Island’s website, mediaisland.org.
KXOT: Southward EXPansion
Olympia and Tacoma listeners are being introduced to KEXP—Seattle’s modern rock, in-studio performances and weekend-morning public affairs programming, as the station has begun simulcasting its signal on 91.7FM, formerly KBCT, now dubbed KXOT. The changeover is the result of a deal two years in the making. Bates wanted to sell off its station in order to concentrate resources on its public television operation. The school found a buyer in the Denver/Seattle-based venture group Public Radio Capital, who paid $5 million for the station and are leasing it to KEXP.
Public Radio Capital, and its parent Station Resource Group, grew out of a concern shared by public radio staffers across the country in the earth 1990s, dismayed by what they identified as a growing trend: small, financially troubled public radio stations being forced to sell out to commercial or religious broadcasters. In what it describes as a “land trust” model, PRC purchases stations on behalf of educational institutions and local public broadcasters, in order to keep radio real estate in the commercial-free, public realm.
With a national board populated by current and former executives from prominent NPR affiliates, Public Radio Capital appears to represent a professional “public radio” range of ideas about what noncommercial radio should sound like, rather than placing much value on participatory community radio models. PRC has generally devoted its financial resources to helping established stations such as WBEZ Chicago expand their reach—buying up smaller noncommercial stations in neighboring communities, and rebroadcasting their own programming. At the same time, the Station Resource Group denigrated the decentralized LPFM standard, which they dourly predict is destined to “fail as a public radio service.”
KEXP/KXOT’s move into the South Sound radio market will inevitably have an impact on noncommercial radio fundraising in the area. Both KEXP and KAOS are listener-supported stations, and while many listeners will enjoy the added diversity, the stations may be competing for the same pledge drive and underwriting funds. KOWA’s financial needs will be lesser in comparison, but they too will rely on community support.
Although long-anticipated, KXOT’s displacement of KBCT is proving to be a fresh source of grief for some listeners who appreciated the student-run looseness, the Tacoma scene reports, and the commercial-free classic rock. One fan posted to an online message board, “I’ve drank more beer to KBTC playing in the background than any other station in the Seattle/Tacoma market for the past 11 years, and with not ONE SINGLE BEER SPOT to remind me to do so.”
In these times of widespread consolidation, however, it’s worth celebrating that Bates Tech was able to avoid selling out KBTC to a commercial or religious operator. Whether or not Public Radio Capital’s “land trust” model proves to be a good match for listeners who value grassroots, community-produced radio, alternate models are also on the rise: unlicensed stations like Free Radio Olympia and the low-power community programming aspirations of KOWA. Industry consolidation has made a mockery of the ideal of competition in commercial radio—but it’s definitely flourishing on Olympia’s noncommercial airwaves.
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