Government Shut-Down; Radio and the FCC

Of all the agencies and offices impacted by the US government shutdown, here's one that you probably haven't even thought about: The Federal Communications Commission.

Despite the FCC shutdown, the people on the air at KSER still aren't going to use any of George Carlin's 'Seven Dirty Words', even though some of us might have a few choice words for congress

The Federal Communications Commission has reportedly told 98% of it's staff to stay home and most of the tools and resources on the FCC website have been deactivated. For most Americans, the FCC shutdown is not exactly a big deal..or of any concern at all. But for those of us in the radio business, it's a concern.

For example, every radio station in the state of Washington is in the process of FCC license renewal. You may have heard the announcements on KSER and other stations. Current licenses don't expire until February of 2014 and the government shutdown, hopefully, will be long over by then. But even if the shutdown should drag on for months, radio stations will continue to operate.

And, fortunately, the KSER Foundation already has an FCC Construction Permit for another station - a brand new station in the north Puget Sound. In fact, it may be the very last full-power FM signal that will be available in this part of the country for a long time. For the past couple of months we've been hard at work on this project that will allow us to provide more community service, culture, music, entertainment and news and information to even more people in the region.  The new station, KXIR-FM will broadcast at 89.9 from a tower we're building in Greenbank on Whidbey Island.

Crew Preparing Tower Pad

Our project team has cleared a very small section of land for a 180' tower that will be barely visible in the area - It's only about 30 feet above most of the surrounding trees and will not have any beacon lights - but it will enable us to reach more people in the North Puget Sound. In fact, the KXIR signal, combined with our existing KSER signal at 90.7 FM, will reach more than 1.3 million residents in the North Puget Sound. You can learn more about our new station at KXIR.org where you can also learn how to contribute to our three-year campaign to raise funds to build and operate the station.

The FCC might not be working during the government shutdown, but, thanks to your financial support, we're moving forward with this important project and will be on the air and broadcasting sometime in November.  It will be one more rare independent voice owned by the community, not by an out-of-town corporation.