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Announcement :: Media |
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Become the Media with Urbana's Newest Community Radio Station: Radio Free Urbana -- Find Out More Tuesday June 8, 8 PM at the IMC |
Current rating: 0 |
by Paul Riismandel
Email: paul (nospam) mediageek.org (unverified!)
Address: P.O. Box 2102, Champaign, IL 61825-2102 |
05 Jun 2004
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Radio Free Urbana, WRFU, is scheduled to go on air as Urbana's newest noncommercial community radio station in June 2005. Learn how to get involved and help get this new independent media resource on the air at WRFU's first public information meeting:
Tuesday, June 8, 8 PM
at the IMC
218 W. Main St., Downtown Urbana
Everyone is invited. |
A new non-commercial community radio station is organizing to go on the air within the next year. Radio Free Urbana, WRFU, is an FCC-licensed low-power FM radio station that will broadcast with 100 watts at 103.5 FM.
WRFU is holding its first public information meeting on Tuesday, June 8, 8 PM, at the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center, 218 W. Main St. At this meeting there will be presentations on how the station will be run and the types of volunteer opportunities that will be available, including roles on-air and off.
WRFU is a joint project between the Socialist Forum, a non-sectarian discussion and advocacy group, and the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center (U-C IMC). It will be a volunteer-run station, with a wide range of programming that reflects the diversity of our local community.
According to founding member Mike Lehman, WRFU is intended to complement the noncommercial stations already on the air in Champaign-Urbana. âThere are only 168 hours in a week that every station has to fill,âLehman said. âOnly so much programming can be put on in that many hours. WRFU hopes to add another 168 hours of community-focused programming to the FM dial.â
WRFU does not yet have a studio, however station volunteers plan to locate the studio inside the U-C IMC, which plans to buy a new building within the next year. There will be discussions on the necessary fundraising and organizing efforts at the public information meeting. |
Related stories on this site:
Frequently Asked Questions about WRFU-LP, Radio Free Urbana
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This work is in the public domain. |
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A Good Start |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
08 Jun 2004
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About two dozen people interested in expanding community radio in our area attended this initial public information meeting on Radio Free Urbana. The station welcomes all those who attended and anyone else interested in getting involved in building a new radio station to attend our regular meetings on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of the month at 8pm at the IMC. The next regular WRFU meeting will be Tuesday, June 15th. All WRFU meetings are open to the public. We hope to have the airconditioning working for the next meeting!
Those who signed up for the WRFU email list at this evening's meeting have been subscribed to the list. If you are interested in finding out how you can get involved with Radio Free Urbana, can't make Tuesday night meetings for some reason, or just want to stay in touch with what's happening with the progress of the station can sign up for the RFU email list at:
http://lists.cu.groogroo.com/cgi-bin/listinfo/rfu |
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Re: Become the Media with Urbana's Newest Community Radio Station: Radio Free Urbana -- Find Out More Tuesday June 8, 8 PM at the IMC |
by Michelle
kat681 (nospam) aol.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
10 Jun 2004
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I think it's exciting that we will be getting a new community radio station and I'm sure Radio Free Urbana will be a great station. But I'm worried about one thing: how are we going to pay for it? It's a lot of work for WEFT to get all the money it needs. How are we going to find enough money to support both of them? Is there a risk that a new community radio station would drive WEFT out of business? Is anyone else worried about this? |
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$$ and Volunteers: Two Things We Are Being Careful About |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
10 Jun 2004
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Michelle,
Many of those involved in WRFU are either members or volunteers with WEFT. One thing we did not want to do is anything that would undermine WEFT. Our intention is to build the community radio infrastructure here.
From the beginning, we have made it a point to build WRFU without having a detrimental effect on WEFT. We will have to raise somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000 in order to build a studio, buy a transmitter, and erect an antenna. After that, we anticipate that monthly expenses should not amount to more than a few hundred dollars a month. We think most of this can be covered by WRFU membership funds ($10/year) and the rest by various forms of internal fundraising.
We are also planning on intentionally avoiding periodic pledge drives, although we may at times raise funds to pay for specific items of equipment and other such very limited and low-key on-air fundraising. So our hope is that we can give the community another 168 hours of week of air time with little or no impact on the fundraising of other non-commercial radio in our area.
Another potential source of concern is the volunteer base. We are planning on being on the air 24/7, but any time when airshifters are not available will be filled by automated programming of various types. We will not need to be trying to find enough people to have live airshifters every hour of the week. We hope that giving a large new group of people a chance to practice their skills will grow the community radio volunteer base in such a way that WEFT will benefit by having even more options in choosing from experienced people in filling open slots there when they become available.
It is our hope and intention that WRFU will give the community more media choice, with minimal or no impact on existing non-commercial broadcasters. After all, if we can have a radio dial nearly full of commercial shlock and right-wing bias, wouldn't we benefit from having one more choice among the very few non-commercial slots on the public airwaves? |
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Re: Become the Media with Urbana's Newest Community Radio Station: Radio Free Urbana -- Find Out More Tuesday June 8, 8 PM at the IMC |
by Paul Riismandel
paul (nospam) mediageek.org (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
11 Jun 2004
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For more detailed information about WRFU, please see the Frequently Asked Questions list that I just posted to the newswire:
http://www.ucimc.org/newswire/display/18333/index.php
I can't stress enough that how RFU will operate depends mostly on the people who make it run. However, a lot of forethought and care has gone into trying to make sure that WRFU will be a great addition to non-commercial radio in Champaign-Urbana, and not be harmful to some of our great existing stations, like WILL-AM and WEFT. |
