Carol Motsinger Want to help? Check out the station’s fundraiser at indiegogo/projects/power-the-tower-fund-asheville-free-media-s-lpfm-station. You can also find a link to the campaign and more information at ashevillefm.org. At the Asheville Free Media’s West Asheville studio, station managers posted a map of the world. They make marks when someone has logged onto the online radio station from a new location. Since 2009, the nonprofit community station’s content has been streamed by listeners in Belgium, Iceland, Brazil, France and Ecuador. The list extends to China, Ethiopia, Ukraine, Scotland, Japan and Thailand. But now the volunteer-based organization has taken a step forward in reaching more people on part of the map that means most: Asheville. The organization recently learned that the Federal Communication Commission approved its application for a low-powered FM station. The application was for a construction permit for a 100-watt radio station, on the airwaves at 103.3 FM, which will be beamed from a radio tower atop Hotel Indigo in downtown Asheville. The station now has 18 months to raise the funds for the equipment and building costs. On Tuesday, the organization launched an Indiegogo online crowdsourcing campaign to raise $45,000. The mission of Friends of Community Radio, Inc., the parent nonprofit for Asheville FM, has been to produce community radio for local airwaves, said Erik Mattox, board president. Kim Roney, board member and station co-manager, emphasized that the FM station will make the local programming more accessible and remove “the barrier of Internet access.” “Regardless of whether folks can afford the Internet, they can get the sound of Asheville” through the FM station, she said. “It is just amplifying our mission to provide free-form, locally produced content.” About 80 active volunteers are behind the programming, which draws an average 1.1 million hits each month, Roney said. Shows include pop, politics and poetry. News and blues. Old-school country and shows for kids still in school. The most popular features are consistently Ultimate Twang, an old-school country show, followed by an anarchist news program that is syndicated in Germany, said Greg Lyon, vice president of Friends of Community Radio. They are also developing more Spanish-language programming, Roney said. “We are excited about really representing the whole community.” The FM license adds “an incredible amount of legitimacy,” Lyon said. It will give the station more cache with record companies, for example. The station will still be available online, he added. Asheville FM’s on-air development comes at a time when “people are trying to renegotiate” how they listen to radio, Lyon noted. “People think radio is dying in some way, but I don‘t think that’s true,” he said. On a recent road trip, Lyon scanned the stations as he traveled across the country. He said he was struck by the “real time” aspect of radio, and that radio allowed him to access these communities in a deep way, even though he was just passing through. “I feel different when I am listening to the radio,” he said. “It’s live. It’s real-time and it connects me to the place that I am in.”
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 17:30:30 +0000