Days plays the Hollow Earth studio in simpler times (Image: @lou.creative)
CHS reported here on the plans for nonprofit Photographic Center Northwest to be part of the mixed-use redevelopment of the property it owns at 12th and Marion in a rare example of a Capitol Hill arts organization owning and controlling its own real estate destiny.
On the other end of that dial, Seattle’s community-run Hollow Earth online and Low Power FM radio station has left is Central District birthplace to start 2022 and is searching for a new home.
“After a conversation with the landlord about the lease, their needs, and what they were looking for, it was not going to work out,” spokesperson Genevieve Green told CHS about leaving E Union last month. Continue reading →
Friday, Capitol Hill will get a new option on the FM radio dial. KXSU, a station operated by Seattle University and part of a small wave of tiny, low-power FM stations planned for the city, will be live on the air at 102.1 FM starting at 10:21 A.M.
“Starting Friday, you’ll be able to listen in your car,” John Carter, faculty advisor for the station, said. The new signal will also give area merchants with old school radio set-ups another option beyond KEXP and will add a new hyperlocal voice to the area’s media options.
The school has operated a radio station since 1994 but it has only been available in the school’s dorms and online at ksubseattle.org.
UPDATE 2/26/16 10:30 AM: Here’s what the first 10 seconds sounded like, complete with dramatic silence before the call letters cracked to life:
The plan started in 2012, when the station had to get permission internally from the university. In 2014, the Federal Communications Commission granted 15 licenses for low-power FM stations in Washington, seven of which are in Seattle. Only one of the 15, Voice of Vashon, is on the air. Seattle University is poised to be the first of the seven Seattle stations to put its license to use.
Another nearby low-power station, the Central District-based Hollow Earth Radio has had a more difficult time raising funding for the low-power endeavor. The station, KHUH 100.3 FM, recently completed an Indiegogo campaign and was able to raise more than $27,000 to help cover startup costs such as putting up a radio tower and complete engineering studies. Continue reading →
Hollow Earth Radio — the budding nonprofit, community radio station based in the Central District — has launched an Indiegogo fundraising campaign to raise money for the transition from online-only to a fully fledged, licensed, low power FM radio station, broadcasting underrepresented music and voices across much of Central and South Seattle.
So, why should you consider throwing your money into the $25,000 campaign? 61 people have so far, donating just over $3,800 and putting the nonprofit on pace for just barely making its goal.
Having obtained its low power FM license from the Federal Communications Commission back in 2014 (the official broadcast license is for 100.3 KHUH), Hollow Earth is now hoping to raise $25,000 or more by February to purchase equipment and pay permitting and licensing fees crucial to meeting their March deadline for getting on the air. Among the items needed are an antenna and transmitter (to be placed on a different roof somewhere in the Central District — other airwaves would interfere with an antenna located on the Hollow Earth Radio building), leasing the roof, city permit fees for the antenna, a studio-to-transmitter link, and music royalty fees. Continue reading →
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. Continue reading →
In-Studio performance at KSUB (Image: KSUB with permission to CHS)
Nestled under the concrete of the Seattle University campus, the student-run radio station KSUB is about to expand its presence to a radio wavelength covering most of Capitol Hill
A low powered FM license issued recently by the Federal Communications Commission will allow KSUB volunteers to turn their focus towards adding new equipment, raising funds, as well as grabbing permits to get the operation running.
“We don’t know when the station will become operational. Probably a year,” said KSUB advisor and mathematics instructor John Carter. KSUB will look to add new in-studio equipment to buoy the frequency created by a radio tower and transmitter slated for the SU campus. Continue reading →
