Licensed to make waves

Southeast Missouri State University wants more students to be able to tune into the campus radio station. Christian Faith Fellowship, which operates Eagle Ridge Christian School on Route K in Cape Girardeau, wants to teach students about broadcasting. A nonprofit corporation called Flat Foot Media Inc. wants to build a station in Cape Girardeau that will air both local programs and programming from the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Ill.

They are among about 65 organizations and educational institutions in Missouri that have current applications to build low-power FM radio stations. Since the Federal Communications Commission authorized LPFM stations in January 2000, an estimated 135 have begun operating nationally, with another 3,400 applications in the hopper.

LPFM was envisioned as the audio equivalent of the Internet. Where putting a full-power FM station on the air can cost $1 million, getting on the air with low power can be a matter of just a few thousand dollars.

Issue of revenue

Established broadcasters have fought against the concept, arguing LPFM would decrease their revenue and cause interference for existing stations. The National Association of Broadcasters has won some battles in Congress, including passing a provision that dramatically decreased the number of LPFM stations.

The non-commercial stations operate at 10 or 100 watts and can be received at a distance of up to 3.5 miles. The stations are available to educational institutions, religious organizations, public safety and transportation organizations. They cannot be operated for commercial purposes and cannot be owned by broadcast licensees who have interests in other media.

Campus radio station KMXQ currently is an unlicensed, closed-circuit station with a signal that can be picked up only on television sets on campus. That accounts for only about 20 to 25 percent of the total student population of 9,500, says Dr. Bruce Mims, the radio station's faculty adviser.

The station, which began operating 10 years ago, primarily programs alternative rock music with some urban music and an occasional talk show. It provides about 30 students a semester with hands-on broadcasting experience.

"It's kind of like our laboratory," says Tony Voss, the station's music director. The station produces three-to-four-minute news breaks at 5 p.m., 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. Most of the news concerns the campus.

Voss says the new station "will make a ton of difference."

Tune-in letdown

When people find out he's associated with the radio station, they often ask where they can tune in, he says. "When they find out they can't they feel let down."

The staffers hope to dramatically increase the number of listeners, including Cape Girardeau high school students.

The station just bought $6,000 worth of equipment necessary for the transition. It will use a tower already atop Kent Library.

Mims expects to put a transmission package together over the Christmas break and test the station over spring break. He estimates the new campus radio station could be on the air next summer.

The university application is further along than either of the other two.

Dr. Ken Bowles, a Union, Mo., minister associated with a consulting group called Midwest Christian Media, currently is helping nine Missouri church clients acquire LPFM licenses. He is the secretary and general manager of Flat Foot Media, the nonprofit corporation applying for the local license. Though Flat Foot Media has offices at Cape Bible Chapel on Kage Road, the other two members of its board of directors live in Tennessee.

The corporation was created to operate LPFM stations in Nashville, but those frequencies disappeared when Congress refused to allow low-power stations within three bandwidths of an existing station instead of the originally proposed two bandwidths. Because the application window only lasted a few days, Flat Foot had to act within hours to meet the deadline, Bowles says. He asked Cape Bible Chapel to step in.

Because the application was done so quickly, Flat Foot has had to file two amendments that have slowed down the process. One amendment was filed to change the location of the tower. Its construction permit has not yet been received.

Flat Foot Media must run eight hours a day of local programming. A local man in the communications business has volunteered the use of his employees to keep the station running, Bowles says. He wouldn't name the businessman.

The station plans to air contemporary Christian music aimed at younger listeners and some talk programs. One of the goals is to broadcast a local church service, Bowles says.

He expects the station could be operational sometime next year.

At the Christian Faith Fellowship, pastor Mark Carbaugh says the proposed station will broadcast some music and some discussion of Scripture, but primarily is "in the vein of being educational." Students at Eagle Ridge Christian School would have the opportunity to be involved.

The station's construction permit also has not yet been approved.

Carbaugh says the station "is designed to be a public service." He says its mission "would be ... to reach into the community."

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182