Station will use efficient antenna design and translator facility to reach Boise
April 29, 2008 – Boise Community Radio (BCR) announced more details today of their plan to broadcast an independent, community-based, noncommercial radio station in the Treasure Valley.
Seeking to elaborate on their successful efforts to secure a license from the FCC, Executive Director Jeff Abrams explained some of the technical details of their broadcast plan. “Finding a compelling solution to the technical aspects of our application was one of most challenging and rewarding aspects of Boise Community Radio’s progress. Our engineer has honed this framework for six years to arrive at an elegant solution that we are really excited to implement.”
Abrams said that the site “not only provides a high elevation location with unobstructed sightlines into Boise but we won’t have to purchase and construct and transmission tower. This facility already exists, which also means we won’t have the costly process of stringing power out to a remote transmitting site.”
As added insurance, Boise Community Radio has acquired lease rights to a translator signal in Boise at 93.5 MHz that will rebroadcast the station on a secondary frequency. This will ensure better signal penetration into large buildings and to low-lying areas of the city with marginal lines-of-sight to the Owyhee Mountains. Thus, listeners will be able to hear the station almost anywhere in the Treasure Valley on a least one of the two different frequencies.
About Michael Brown, Brown Broadcast Services
Mr. Brown has worked for some of the largest broadcast groups in the U.S. and is the site supervisor for the largest combined FM tower site in Oregon, with nine stations under one roof. In recent years he has been a key technical resource for several community radio organizations, including the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, Prometheus Radio, Public Radio Capital, and Native Public Media. In the years leading up to the October FCC application window, his firm worked directly with over 150 community and native groups and ultimately filed 88 applications for new noncommercial stations – believed to be the largest number filed on behalf of secular community groups in the filing window by any single engineering firm.
I stumbled into this frequency just days ago- I’m ashamed to say that I had no idea Boise had such a progressive & ‘out of the box’ station until now. I’m extremely grateful that the power went out at my house & I was forced to re-scan for radio stations. I got warped into the 93.5 wavelength and I haven’t left yet! I LOVE IT!!!! Keep up the amazing work!!! BTW, love love love Guilty Pleasures~ it’s an absolute delight!!!!