LAKE COUNTY — Lake County Community Radio (LCCR) launched as an official station Sunday, and despite a rocky two week “trial start,” founder and General Manager Andy Weiss says since mid-April, “everything has been going swimmingly” at the station.
“We had to go off the air for a few days in that testing period, but that wasn”t much of a surprise ? we were working out the kinks, and that was what we expected,” Weiss said.
KPFZ 88.1 has been a 12-year-long effort ? previously the station broadcast on low-power to limited pockets of the community between 2001 and 2005.
Now, it”s a full-power FM station reaching the entire county and beyond. Programs have so far featured county supervisors, Sen. Pat Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa), music, and talk shows featuring such wide-ranging topics as racial tensions in the county to genetically-modified organisms [GMOs].
Weiss said there are three components to a fully-functioning radio station: solid transmission, smoothly operating studio gear and steady programmers.
“It”s going excellently. The evidence for this is the amount of calls we”ve been getting ? the lines are pretty full,” Weiss said.
The station features 50 different programs, about half music and half talk shows and news. Seventy-five percent of the content is new, with the remaining 25 percent comprised of re-runs. There are no commercials.
Weiss said launching a new community radio station is a rare event in the country, and establishing one in Lake County meant competing with bigger, Bay Area stations for air space.
“Without going into the politics, the Federal Communications Commission stopped issuing licenses in 2000, and four or five groups usually apply for the same area. We had to wait seven years to get a go-ahead. The bottom line is there are more organizations that want stations than there is frequency on the dial. Because of that it”s very rare to see a station to go on,” Weiss said.
He said despite being the only community radio with a home base in Lake County, it”s “just as hard here as anywhere” to get established because of Bay Area competition.
During the station”s launch period, a program titled “Both Sides Now, One Side at a Time,” hosted by husband-and-wife Steve Elias and Catherine Elias-Jermany, featured an anti-GMO conversation. Elias-Jermany said they plan to host a follow-up show with differing viewpoints.
“What we don”t like is fighting. We want a person to get their full side out, and to avoid having a debate,” Elias-Jermany said.
Lake County Farm Bureau Executive Director Chuck March said he listened to the program, and was disappointed the farm bureau was not contacted for information. “There were some inaccuracies that were put across. Under the history [of GMOs] they were inferring the county farm bureau was mandated by the state farm bureau to uphold the state”s policies, which is not true. We do support the state”s policies, but there is a process that we can dissent from the state policy if the board of directors decide to do so. The way the radio show came across was that that didn”t exist ? that we must follow [state policies] or we would be thrown out,” March said.
Other information in the program was misleading or incorrect, March said.
“Everyone on the panel seemed surprised that a company could have a patent on a seed, but that is extremely common. Most tomatoes have patents, there”s even a local gladiola farmer that collects patents,” March said. Elias-Jermany said in addition to a follow-up GMO program, Both Sides Now plans to host talks about home foreclosures and race, including “the whole situation with Obama and what”s being said about the black church.”
Anyone interested in becoming a programmer or otherwise involved in the radio station can call LCCR at 263-3640. The station is located above Ashley”s restaurant at 149 North Main Street, Suites 220-240. Contact Elizabeth Wilson at ewilson@record-bee.com
