Vashon’s first FM station goes live

Published 11:52 am Tuesday, October 14, 2014

On Monday morning there were cheers and tears as Voice of Vashon took to the airwaves on 101.9 FM, realizing what has been a dream of some in the organization for over a decade.

“It’s the ultimate community historic moment,” said Rick Wallace, a longtime Voice of Vashon volunteer who admits he cried that morning. “There aren’t that many things on Vashon that have taken so many years to come to fruition.”

The new station, KVSH, will now broadcast 24-7, offering an eclectic mix of music, homegrown programs and live talk radio on a low-power FM station that will cover the island and stream on the web.

“Sometimes you’ll hear islanders playing music, discussing topics related to Vashon that are important to people, or you’ll hear music generated by Vashon artists,” Wallace said. “In one way or another, it’s all Vashon, and you can’t get that from any station in the metropolitan area.”

Wallace and others involved with Voice of Vashon (VoV) call the effort by a large troupe of volunteers nothing short of momentous for the nonprofit. VoV actually formed 14 years ago in hopes of starting an FM radio station, but for years has been unable to get a spot on the radio dial.

Over time, VoV has grown to include everything but an FM station. Powered by dozens of volunteers and a small budget underwritten by local businesses, Voice of Vashon has started a web radio station with music and shows by islanders, a community access television station and a robust emergency alert system.

The organization, however, has held out hope that it would eventually get a place on the FM dial. And a few years ago, that vision came within reach.

In 2010, after activists lobbied in favor of small-town radio stations, Congress passed the Community Radio Act. The new law opened the door for smaller radio stations across the country by allowing for low-power FM stations with limited broadcast ranges to be closer on the dial to larger FM stations. VoV filed an application for a station in October of last year and was granted a permit by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in February.

“We’ve only been imagining it since 2000,” said Jeff Hoyt, one of the founding members of VoV. “A bunch of us, myself included, felt like this may never happen.”

On Monday, Hoyt and several of VoV’s other founders were at Snapdragon as KVSH went live for the first time, holding the first day of broadcast at the restaurant to encourage islanders to stop by. New KVSH radio hosts, including Hoyt, chattered away between songs by RedPerl, Sarah Christine and Troll’s Cottage, introducing shows that will be on the air this week and thanking volunteers who worked to see the FM station happen.

“These people have kept this thing going,” said Susan McCabe, VoV’s paid station manager. “They put their money into it. They put their time into it. They put their hearts into it, and put imagination into it.”

Current VoV volunteers have also put imagination into it as they worked this past year to craft KVSH’s lineup. VoV has been recruiting anyone with an interest in radio and training them, along with the web station volunteers, on how to broadcast live from the VoV studio at Sunrise Ridge and how to record and edit shows to be played later.

KVSH’s flagship show is the Morning Scramble, a revival of a morning talk show that years ago broadcast from a one-watt antenna in town. This time, the Morning Scramble will have two live hosts each weekday who will fill their 8 to 11 a.m. timeslots with music, discussion, interviews and calls from listeners.

Programming for the rest of the day will run the gamut, with shows based largely on the interests of those who have stepped forward to create them.

Musicians John Dally and Kat Eggleston, for instance, will host a Celtic music show. Local funnymen Chris Austin and Brian Brown will seek to entertain during their humor shows. And Bill Wood will take his long-running “Jazz Guy” show to the airwaves.

Twice a month, news and issues pertaining to Vashon will be discussed live during “Island Crossroads,” a program hosted by former Seattle Times reporter Eric Pryne and produced by Josh Weil. March Twisdale will interview authors during her show, and there will even be two children’s shows.

“It’s very eclectic,” McCabe said. “Our goal is to reflect the culture of the island and elaborate on it and amplify it.”

During times that no programs are scheduled, VoV is prepared with an eclectic mix of music related to Vashon. The lineup will include songs by local musicians, artists that frequently play on Vashon and artists with connections to Vashon, such as family on the island. Some connections are more tenuous than others, such as the band whose guitar player once drove UPS on Vashon. And listeners will hear some big names mixed in, including Macklemore and K.D. Lang, who have both played shows on Vashon. Hoyt said the music will have a largely rock, alternative rock and singer-songwriter bent.

“There are all kinds of weird connections we are trying to play with … and see what happens when we mix it all together,” he said.

KVSH will be broadcast using new equipment the group purchased after a successful fundraiser earlier this year. Through personal appeals, a collection during the Strawberry Festival and a crowdsourcing campaign, VoV raised $50,000, enough to outfit its existing studio, purchase new computers and other needed equipment and install its new low-power FM radio antenna and transmitter atop the 80-foot Water District 19 tower just outside of town.

“It’s been a push,” McCabe said. “I learned more about technology than I ever wanted to know.”

Recent testing has shown that the station’s signal will cover most of the island, though there will be poor reception at many waterfront neighborhoods and at the two ferry docks — low-elevation places that fall out of the antenna’s range. Some spots that are inland but also low-elevation and blocked by hills could also see a weak signal.

To make up for coverage that’s spotty in areas, VoV has also created an app for smartphones and tablets that will allow users to play KVSH live anywhere, as well as play previously recorded shows on-demand.

VoV will also use the new app as a way to collect feedback, something organizers call vital to KVSH’s success. VoV also plans to survey the 2,000 people on its email list and may do a mail-in survey as well.

Organizers emphasized that with dozens of volunteers who are new to radio or new to live broadcasting, and more expected to come on, listeners should expect some bumps. But the station also wants to know what people like and don’t like, and what would make them tune in to KVSH.

“This is the only place people are going to get Vashon Island information from their neighbors about their home,” McCabe said. “We hope it will be a forum for community issues and opinions, and certainly a showcase for the arts that are happening here.”

KVSH is at 101.9 FM. The free KVSH app for smartphones and tablets is available at VoiceOfVashon.org/KVSH or by searching for KVSH in the app store.