Open house: KSKQ hosts an open house from 5 to 8 p.m. today at its studio, 258 A St., Suite 14, Ashland. To learn more, visit kskq.org or call 482-3999.

By ANITA BURKE
Mail Tribune

Volunteer media activists creating a low-power FM radio station in the Rogue Valley expect to send local programming streaming across the Internet by the end of the month and across the airwaves by the end of the year.

They want to share their music collections and their comments on local issues via KSKQ, a station licensed in December by the Federal Communications Commission to broadcast at 94.9 FM and have a signal strength of no more than 100 watts.

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"We aren’t professional radio station builders," said Terrence Hill, co-founder of the station. "We are just a bunch of good-hearted people who want to do something for the community."

Since the Multicultural Association of Southern Oregon, in cooperation with other nonprofit groups, received the license for the station last year, a core group of volunteers has raised money, gathered equipment, and created an organization to guide the young station, said Suzi Aufderheide, president of the station’s interim steering committee.

The station needs to raise $35,000 to start broadcasting, she said. So far, it’s garnered $8,000 and has pledges on tap for more. It has donated studio and computer equipment to start streaming programs over the Internet and has set up the gear in donated office space at 258 A St., Suite 14, Ashland.

Volunteers have evaluated two transmission sites in the hills outside Ashland and plan to build a transmission tower on the site that will be least expensive to develop, Hill said. Although the FCC’s Web site says low-power stations limited to less than 100 watts usually reach listeners within a range of 3.5 miles, Hill said a KSKQ broadcast test this spring with a 55-watt transmitter showed that the station could reach from Ashland to Gold Hill.

"We wanted people to be clear that we serve the whole valley," Aufderheide said.

The online programming will be available at www.kskq.org, which also features general information about the station.

Station organizers want to offer 12 hours of programming a day to start, repeating it to fill the entire day, Hill said. The FCC requires at least eight of every 12 programming hours to be locally produced. Any station members can learn how to create programming and submit proposals for shows to the steering committee, Aufderheide said.

Hill plans a talk show to discuss local issues, such as conflict between Ashland Police Chief Mike Bianca and his officers, and wants to share his collection of movie soundtracks. Laura Jones, with the Ashland office of Defenders of Wildlife, envisions a call-in show that could link wildlife experts in the field with Rogue Valley listeners.

The station is a member of the alternative Pacifica Radio Network and plans to broadcast the popular progressive "Democracy Now" show.

Organizers said KSKQ won’t have the corporate oversight of a public radio station, so it can include additional community voices.

Ashland-based Jefferson Public Radio isn’t concerned about the competition.

"We believe in diversity in media," said Paul Westhelle, JPR’s associate director. He noted, however, that public radio stations around the nation worry that the FCC hasn’t done an authoritative analysis of potential interference on the airwaves from low-power broadcasts.

Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485, or e-mail aburke@mailtribune.com.