The Republic (Wash.) Church members watched a 95-foot radio tower go up on a hill 900 feet above and 6,000 feet east of their church on Nov. 22, 2004. The $30,000 tower, purchased for $3,000 and weighing about 9,000 pounds, was only one of many miracles!
Five church members formed Ferry County Radio in May 2001 as a non-profit corporation. The only local radio station in the county, our call letters are KETL-LP (for Kettle River and Kettle Mountain Range, and LP for Low Power). We have agreed with 3ABN to use their radio signal stream, inserting local programming when possible.
We received our 18-month construction permit to build a low power radio station from the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) on Dec. 22, 2003, after two-and-a-half years of legal work. Since then we have built a road to the top of Gold Hill, raised the tower, buried 1,800 feet of power and telephone line, built a transmitter building beside the tower, and placed an unfinished broadcast studio near the church—all with the help of dedicated volunteers from the church and local community.
We will beam our signal from the studio beside the church to the tower 6,000 feet away. There it will be amplified and sent out with 100 watts of power at 100.5 MHz FM. We still need to purchase studio and broadcast equipment and a radio link between the studio and the tower. The FCC says we must have a signal on the air by June 21, 2005. We hope to meet that goal.
From left: Gordon MacIntire, Reed Heckly, Bob Charboneau, and an unidentified supporter discuss the challenges of raising a radio tower behind the Republic Church.
The KETL-LP radio tower is up!
