Radio Rappahannock? Proposal for FM station to serve four counties gets support from Board of Supervisors
By James P. Gannon
Suppose you could turn on your radio and get local news and talk-radio chat on what’s happening in Rappahannock County–reports from a Board of Supervisors meeting, alerts from the Sheriff’s office, emergency weather warnings, or a debate on the pros and cons of Land Use taxation.
That’s part of the vision of a local non-profit organization that is applying to the federal government for a license to operate a news and public-affairs station to serve Rappahannock, Madison, Culpeper and Fauquier counties.
Verdun Adventure Bound, Inc. of Rixeyville, VA has applied to the Federal Communications Commission for a non-commercial/educational FM license to broadcast at the 88.1 mhz frequency. VAB operates outdoor education programs for local public and private schools, 4H groups and Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.
Rappahannock County’s Board of Supervisors likes Verdun’s idea. The supervisors lent their backing Monday by voting to send a letter supporting Verdun’s application to the FCC.
“Rappahannock County needs a local radio station that broadcasts local news and public affairs,” the letter from Board Chairman Robert Anderson to FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin states. “Nothing of this sort currently exists here. The only applicant that promises to provide regular, in-depth local news–including activities of the Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors–is Verdun Adventure Bound, Inc. in Rixeyville.”
Anderson asks the FCC “to approve their application as soon as possible.” He said the group of non-commercial/educational FM applications currently under review at the FCC ‘represents the last opportunity for us to have a local radio station….What we need is a station that will give voice to all citizens concerns. We want a station that can bring citizens together for civil discussion of important issues on a wide range of subjects. No such forum exists, and no applicant other than VAB appears interested or capable of providing such a community service.”
The hoped-for station is hardly a sure thing, however, as Verdun is just one of a dozen applicants seeking the license for that broadcasting frequency in this area, according to Randall Allen, who is spearheading the project for VAB. Among the other applicants are at least three universities–James Madison University, Virginia Tech and American University–which want to use the station to retransmit their current broadcasting to this four-county area.
Allen pointed out that such retransmissions would not provide local news and public affairs coverage as VAB proposes to do. Among the 12 applicants, “nobody is offering local news or information except us,” he said in an interview.
If the license is granted to VAB, he said, it would operate a “community-oriented radio station” offering local news, public affairs, locally produced music and other cultural offerings. “We have a lot of musicians in the Northern Rappahannock Valley area that never get any air time” on radio, and the new station could offer such exposure to them, he said.
The station would be based in Rixeyville, Allen said, where VAB has its camp facilities. The foundation was founded in 1999 by Dr. David M. Snyder, a Warrenton orthopedic surgeon. It provides camp-like outdoor adventure experiences for children and youth, centered on nature and the environment.
-- James P. GannonComments
Comment from realneil
Time: May 7, 2008, 7:03 am
“bring citizens together for civil discussion of important issues on a wide range of subjects”
Hopefully we’ll see this Radio Station soon.
Until then we have Rappnet.
–Neil Mathieson
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