Earlier this year, Christian radio station KGLS–LP at 99.1 FM in Tillamook, Ore., celebrated one year on the air. With the aim of “Sharing God’s Love by the Sea,” Good Life Radio is staffed by volunteers and broadcasts music and programming up to18 hours a day. Programs include Money Matters, Family Life Today, Vibrant Life and Bible Answers Live.
Jaimy Hill, Good Life Radio CEO, reports a good listener response. “People stop me on the street and in the market to say they are tuning in. People tell me that they listen to the calming music when they have sleepless nights,” said Hill.
The story starts five years ago with prayer, planning, paperwork, fund raising, miracles and more prayer. In April 2001, the church prayerfully voted to pursue the daunting task of application to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Two years and four months after submission, on Sept. 30, 2003, Good Life Radio Inc. received a building permit for the station.
The next hurdle was funding. Even though the church was involved in a number of other projects, they voted to promote fund raising for one year and decided that there must be $33,000 on hand at that time for the project to continue. God blessed, and the funds were in hand with just days to spare.
God was also providing for the personnel needs. Tim Berthelsen, an engineer, moved to town in the midst of fund raising. He had spent a year setting up a radio station in Costa Rica for Adventist World Radio. Lyle Mohr became our assistant engineer. Judy Mohr, an avid radio listener, agreed to be the program consultant. David Harrison joined the group as the day-to-day computer programmer. Jaimy Hill headed the corporation and kept the paperwork straight.
In January 2005, we ordered the equipment. All was on track to be up and running by the March 30 deadline when suddenly two more major issues appeared. Since the original inquiries in 2001, the city of Tillamook had adopted new regulations regarding antenna tower limits that now made the proposed tower unacceptable. Also, since the broadcast antenna was 2.93 miles from another radio antenna, instead of the required three miles, the FCC required a $20,000 field test to be sure that there was no interference with the other station’s signal. We had less than eight weeks to solve these challenges. If we were not up and broadcasting by March 30, our building permit was null and void.
With God’s guidance, our engineers designed and had manufactured an acceptable antenna framework. It is safe to say there is not another like it in the world! An engineer was found to do a computer simulation test for interference. This turned out to be acceptable to the FCC and the other radio station at one-tenth of the cost of the field test.
With a prayer of thanksgiving and a sigh of relief, we went "live" on March 21, 2005, eight days before the final FCC deadline. A low-power FM station has a projected footprint of 3.5 miles, line of sight, around the transmitting antenna. In Tillamook’s case that would include a potential listening audience of 7,000 people. Our God is a God of miracles! The station has a range of more than 10 miles in every direction—essentially covering the entire Tillamook Valley and more than doubling the potential audience.
Tillamook's new Christian radio station management, from left: David Harrison, Jaimy Hill, Tim Berthelsen, Judy Mohr.
