New — much smaller — towers are coming to E Union and 12th Ave (Image: Jeanine Anderson via Flickr)
We’re broadcasting this story via the Internet to tell you that two Capitol Hill area radio stations are making progress toward broadcasting via the air above Capitol Hill and the Central District — and about 3.5 miles in all directions as the crow flies.
Earlier this spring, CHS reported on efforts at Seattle University’s student station KSUB and Central District online broadcaster Hollow Earth Radio to secure low power FM broadcast permission from the FCC and deploy new meatspace broadcasting towers and equipment.
Both Hollow Earth and Seattle U’s station announced this week that they have secured construction permits from the FCC.
Inside HER (Image: Hollow Earth Radio)
Faculty advisor John Carter tells CHS that the Seattle University effort will be broadcasting at 102.1 FM as KXSU.
Meanwhile, Hollow Earth announced its plans to take to the Central Seattle airwaves at 100.3 and hopes to broadcast as KHER.
Carter said the next step for KXSU will be working with the City of Seattle to obtain the necessary building permits to install the equipment. The SU station currently broadcasts online and via a carrier signal fed into the electrical wiring of the 12th Ave campus. KSUB began broadcasting online in 2003.
Hollow Earth was born in 2010 and currently delivers an eclectic, homegrown style of music, etc. from its E Union studio. You can listen online at hollowearthradio.org. You’ll find KSUB at ksubseattle.org.
HER’s Garrett Kelly said he plans the station to be broadcasting “much sooner” than the 18 month window allowed by the FCC. He also said that a station in Rainier Valley is also able to move forward with construction.
Carter said he expects the city permit process to take “a couple of months.”
It’s difficult to gauge the potential community value of the FCC decision to open a window for organizations to grab unused bandwidth from the radio spectrum. On one hand, people regularly turn to online streaming to listen to music and local stations. On the other, the infrastructure and accessibility will give even small, non-commercial organizations a more solid connection to the communities where they broadcast from. There’s no saying if the symbolic presence on the airwaves will increase a local audience but, at least to start, the investment of effort and money will definitely give the stations an increased local emphasis. And, in a pinch, you’ll always have the FM signal to turn to even if the cable our power is out where you live or you’re in the car or your workplace doesn’t have a state-of-the-art streaming set-up. It should be an interesting experiment.
