Amanda's update on her conversation with UCFV

I had a chat with Doug Maclean at UCFV, they're trying to start up a radio station as well. He was saying that we need to figure out where we want to broadcast to, which will tell us how many watts we need, which in turn will help us out with the transmitter. He also gave me the name of a radio engineering firm in Winnipeg that we could talk to , and he's sending a rough budget as well. Very helpful! He also suggested that we focus on funding-where are we gonna get the money. Figure out how big a levy we want to charge. Um, he also gave me a couple figures...he was saying the eng. report we be two stages, figuring out the frequency (about $12-$1800), and then the technical documents (CRTC and IC forms) which would be about 6000. He was suggesting we get the senior administration on board, so we can get some space. He said renovations for them were costing in the area of $18-$25,000. That was our 10 minute conversation, I wasn't too sure what to talk to him about, but he was eager to help, so if you guys have more questions, please, send them my way! Amanda

NCRA List Serve responses by Feb 2

Hi Cam - as Melissa suggests, check out the Free Resources on our website, then feel free to write or call with specific questions. Kelowna is my home town, and I have been waiting a long time for this to get off the ground - you folks are the fourth group that I know of who has tried to get a station started. Keep me posted. Barry http://www.community-media.com

Dearest Cam,
Hey how are you? Looks like things are moving along in K town. Give me a call and I will be happy to see if I can dig up some stuff for you. I am not so good at the email thing...Sad I know.
In a nutshell I would say go for the over 50watt transmission if you can. I can get you engineering contacts and rough budgets to get you going...
Talk to you soon,
Chad CJSW

Hi Cameron,

We're doing a transmitter feasibility study right now and am waiting for numbers for the capital costs to come back. We use DEM Allen and Associates in Winnipeg for the technical brief. As we're looking at a increase in power, the brief would cost ~$5,000. If you need to do a frequency search, you'd be looking more in the $7,500 range.

Char @ CJSR in Edmonton
780-492-2577 x.230

Hey, Cameron! Good to hear from you via the NCRA list, and congratulations on gettingthe ball rolling with a campus station in Kelowna! In the coming days and weeks, I should be able to provide you with someinfo about gear, contacts, regulations and such. Things are pretty hectic right now, as we are now under the gun as the result of a predatory radio company that is after our frequency. You may have seen this on the NCRAlist. Long story, and if you need more details, I can provide them later. In the meantime, while I was a total supporter of the CRTC's developmental(low power for low regulation) process for campus and community radio when it first came out, now I would not necessarily suggest you go this route.The low power thing is great (lower transmitter and equipment costs, anengineering report that can be done almost for free), the Commission seemsto throw developmental stations to the wolves once they upgrade to the full licence (required after three years). I would suggest that you proceed with this plan ONLY if you can raise another $10,000-15,000 within that three-year timeframe - that's money that is totally separate from all operating costs and would be earmarked exclusively for your next engineering report (estimate around $6,000), higher powered transmitterand other equipment and installation costs. You would want to boost your power as soon as absolutely possible, especially in a market like Kelowna,where a predatory company such as the Evanov Radio Group may already be eyeing the situation. Proceed with caution. The flip side is to go for 51 watts or more - 100 is reasonable - rightout of the gate. Your extra costs will be, as indicated, things such as the engineering report and bigger, more expensive gear. but if you can raise the money, it might save you a lot of grief in a few years. That's my main advice for the moment. I'll have lots more for you, if you want it, down the road. You might consider making a quick trip here to Kamloops to actually see our project, get some ideas and chat face to face. Good luck! Brant Brant ZwickerStation ManagerCFBX 92.5 FMKamloops, BC
www.theX.cawww.savethex.com

Hello, Cam. Good to hear from you! I'm not sure if you are aware of this resource, but there is some really great info at http://www.community-media.com. The people who run that have been doing the radio shtick for years. their contact info is up there as well, and I'm pretty sure they would answer any questions you have.

It's always a risk when you are unprotected. If you find you have the resources available, you should be protected if you can. I personally do not the costs involved, but I do know that while it may be cheaper to be low power, you will most likely want to do a power increase at some point, and I'm sure many of our stations can attest to how much work that is.

Feel free to hit me back with an email if you want to chat more, or you can also call toll free (888) 890-9910. I can also put you in touch with some of our board members that could be more help, if they have not already responded to your initial email.

Take care
Melissa

Melissa Kaestner, NCRA/ANREC National Coordinatormelissa@ncra.caNational Campus and Community Radio Associationl’Association nationale des radios étudiantes et communautaires2053, rue Jeanne-d'Arc, Bureau 220Montréal (Québec) H1W 3V3http://www.ncra.cahttp://www.earshot-online.comhttp://www.WomensHandsAndVoices.caDig Your Roots. Discover Your Culture. Grow A Consciousness.http://www.DigYourRoots.ca

Rough Feb 2 Meeting notes

Here are some rough notes from the meeting we had. It was just Amanda, Rob and me (Cam).

The three of us went through the whole agenda.

Amanda's letter was held back until we have CIRO Internet streaming.

There were 5 responses from the NCRA list serve that I can make available on the blog. The crew out of Kamloops identified concerns over a low power station. They also invited us to come and visit.

Rob identified the budget as being a major focus. Without it we cannot apply for any CRTC license.

Action Items

Amanda (while holding down a job and going to school!) will try and do radio research as well as phone the Kamloops crew to ween off some info on budgeting and process in general. She will ask and see when would be a good time for a CIRO road trip down to Kamloops.

Cam will phone the Calgary and Edmonton stations that responded and said they would help. Cam will also see if another night might be best for people and schedule the next meeting.

As you can assume Rob is very busy with the Internet station.

Proposed Action Items

Ryan can you keep looking into prices on equipment? This will give us an idea on budget and let us know what second hand equipment is costing. Basically anything to do with radio that you think might be useful it would be nice to know in terms of price and availablity.

Rob C will be focused on Industry Canada info.

Wolf and Mary if you want to keep busy you can look at http://ouc-radio-crtc.blogspot.com/ for some of the links I have posted. You can also check out http://www.prometheusradio.org/background.shtml and on the left hand side they have organizing your station which gives a good low down on some possible station set ups. Knowledge is power.

Next Meeting

If we follow tradition it would be Wed, March 2nd. Especially Mary,what days are best for you to meet in Kelowna? Please let me know in the next week or so and I can see if everyone can make another night than Wednesday. Cool. Cam

Agenda for Feb 2 Meeting Bean Scene 6:30

Action items from last time
1. Cam send out draft of NCRA posting and then place edited posting on list serve. Rob made some valuable comments and they were added and the message was posted. The bilingual posting asks for information on the differences between low and over 50 watt stations (focused on budgets) and asks for info on getting cheap equipment. The list serve responses should come into the oucradio hotmail account and information can be dispersed by Rob (or myself as I have the password as well).
2. Draft letter by Amanda to bodies in the Valley that we feel may want information on the station or may want to contribute. Amanda rocked out a fine looking letter that I hope everyone had a chance to peruse. I believe Amanda hits all the key issues we would like people to know about.
Rough Agenda and Things to Do before meeting
(These are rough in the sense that we don't have structured meetings.) 1. Review responses (if any) from NCRA list serve.
2. Discuss Amanda's lovely draft letter. Make additions if warranted maybe focusing on including history of radio project, include web address and definitely giving name of who should be contacted. Raise issue of letterhead. Definitely talk about who to send it too.
*Before the meeting please consider groups that you know that you think would be interested in either using the station to promote their activities or better yet actually coming in and participating. There will be no dumb ideas and the more we hit, the better it will look to the community and for our CRTC application. The lists can be mental but writing them down doesn't hurt. I'll bring mine.*
3. Review last month's agenda and discuss direction of online station.
4. Create action items from discussion.