Civic Media Center receives radio license

Civic Media Center receives radio license
Barry Sawicki
July/August 2005

The Federal Communications Commission has finally approved the Civic Media Center's low power FM broadcasting license! That's right; 94.7 FM, Gainesville Community Radio, is about to become a reality.

Soon you will be able to hear locally produced programming from punk to big band to Cambodian music, locally produce news, radio theater, special features and call-in talk shows. You may even be on the radio in just a few months producing programming none of us have thought of yet.

Like everything else the Civic Media Center does, this project is being handled by a committee that you can feel free to join on the first and third Sunday of each month. The committee itself is broken down into Station Management and Development, Programming and Construction subcommittees. This is a big job so each person is working on the areas that suit them best.

Right now the goal is to get the transmitter up and running as fast as possible. Our FCC assigned partners, Faith Presbyterian Church and Calvary Chapel want to be on the air right away and advocate doing it on the cheap utilizing mostly inexpensive and used equipment. Though not initially part of our plan, getting on the air cheap allows us to begin broadcasting soon, maybe even as soon as our twelfth anniversary in October.

Our goal is to raise roughly $12,000 over the next 18 months to build a quality studio and begin upgrading the transmitter equipment right away. The cost to get on the air is closer to $3,000. We are going to need solid community support, especially in these early stages, to get off the ground. We want to start quick and upgrade fast!

Many community stations with very low wattage like ours create professional programming, and we intend to do the same. We want volunteers to produce local news and opinion spots as well as music shows; people have suggested a lot of great show ideas in the past few weeks. We want the studio to be equipped to create good quality sound and editing so that the efforts of these volunteers result in a final product that is comparable to anything else out there.

Though the majority of the programming you hear will be locally produced, there will also be popular national shows like Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman. Maybe we can even give the local public radio a little encouragement by carrying popular NPR shows they don't currently air.

We know you'll want to help. For more information contact Barry at bswcki@yahoo.com or call the CMC at 373-0010.