WIDE-LP 99.1 FM - "Progressive Voices on the Air" on the west side of Madison WI |
---|
Our FCC licensed low power radio station began broadcasting in the Orchard Ridge neighborhood of southwest Madison in late September of 2008, and at its full 100 watts of power in April 2009. The transmitter and broadcast computer were located in the garage of Bob and Barb Park's residence at 5610 Hammersley Road, near Whitney Way. During the day the broadcast antenna could be seen above their garage roof, and after dark a string of lights shaped to display the station's broadcast frequency, 99.1 FM, could be seen lit up under the eve by their garage door. This noncommercial volunteer operated station could be heard on car radios at distances of up to several miles from the transmitter location, and in homes within a mile or so of the transmitter on FM radios equipped with antennas. (One listener on the south end of Whitney Way in Fitchburg could not get the station at first, but after putting up her antenna wire said the station came in "loud and clear".)
Background The two organizations also created a daughter organization, Madison Mainstream Radio (MMR), to own and operate the transmitter and antenna. This organization did not create any of the programs broadcast by the station but limited itself to tasks and responsibilities for the station as a whole. The board of MMR was nominated by the two parent organizations (doing business as CityWIDE and SoulWIDE) and the funding for MMR came from the two parent organizations. Final approval to begin broadcasting came from the FCC at the beginning of October in 2007, but transmitter equipment still needed to be purchased or borrowed. We used rented equipment for a 2 week period of test broadcasting from a house on Gregory St. in west Madison in late Oct. 2007. FCC regulations limited potential locations for our transmitter and broadcast antenna to a narrow north and south corridor through west Madison because of the distance we must maintain from full power stations using the same or a nearby frequency in Milwaukee and Dodgeville . Two possible antenna locations that looked promising at first did not pan out. Faced with an FCC deadline for starting regular broadcasting under the 2007 approval, we decided to go with the Orchard Ridge location. By May of 2008 we had obtained a backup power supply to allow us to stay on the air during brief power outages, an FCC required unit enabling the broadcasting of messages sent via the emergency broadcast system, and some borrowed or donated second hand equipment that we hoped would allow us to start broadcasting from the Park garage. However, equipment difficulties delayed the actual start of regular 24/7 broadcasting until September 2008, and the equipment we began using then only allowed us to broadcast at about 50 watts of effective radiated power (ERP). Photos have been posted of some of the efforts leading up to the initiation of broadcasting from Hammersley Road. The purchase of a refurbished transmitter on ebay and the loan of another piece of equipment from the student radio station on campus finally enabled us to reach our allowed limit of 100 watts ERP in April 2009.
What we broadcast
Goals Though music on SoulWIDE's broadcast was lyrically consistent with a Christian worldview, it was not a conventional Christian Contemporary music mix. SoulWIDE played a wide range of genres and emphasized local and independent artists, though not to the exclusion of artists on major labels. SoulWIDE did not broadcast any talk shows.
In the News Two other errors are worth noting. The statement that there is "programming on Tibetan monks" was incorrect. There had never been any such programming on the station. The free lance reporter apparently misunderstood mention of attendance at early Radio Council meetings by representatives of the Tibetan refugee community in Madison, followed by webcasting of some programs they did on the Internet for a time, independent of WIDE. Finally, while one of the partners involved in running the station is "religion based", the other partner has never been "an organization of atheists". The other partner, operating under the name CityWIDE Radio, has been a coalition of secular nonprofit community groups.
Changes in 2015
Since 2015 On Nov. 13, 2016 we held the final meeting of Madison Mainstream Radio (MMR) as the the umbrella organization for Madison Nonprofit LPFM Radio (CityWIDE) and Madison Christian LPFM Radio (SoulWIDE). At that meeting MMR was turned over to us to serve as sole owner and license holder for WIDE-LP. The meeting minutes are available here. Those and subsequent MMR meeting minutes are linked to from the new Madison Mainstream Radio page. Since transfer of ownership from Health Writers to MMR required FCC approval, we agreed to keep Health Writers in existence until our application for transfer of ownership was granted, and then to dissolve Health Writers. Eric applied to the FCC for the transfer of ownership on 2/17/17, and the FCC granted the transfer on 4/5/17, subject to our submission of documentation of consummation of ownership transfer within 90 days. At the beginning of 2017 we adopted a new slogan for our website, replacing "Neighbor Radio" with "Progressive Voices on the Air." We stopped using the name CityWIDE Radio and dropped the citywidelpfm.org domain. On May 1, with only a few hundred dollars left in the MMR account, we began our first fund drive for the station. Since then, avoiding any on-air pledge drive, we have been able to raise enough money from the community association in the neighborhood where the station is located, several other organizations, and a number of individuals to keep the station solvent. The station has continued to broadcast from Orchard Drive with only brief interruptions. In early 2022 our reconditioned NiCOM transmitter started giving us problems. We had periods of decreasing audio quality on the air sometimes followed by silence from which the transmitter would spontaneously recover, returning to normal broadcast quality. Opening the transmitter up and cleaning all the accumulated dust and cobwebs out did not help. On May 22, 2022, we began broadcasting with the old FX 30 exciter we had used before April 2009 instead of the NiCOM. Retired WPR state station engineer John Coleman checked over the transmitter with a dummy load borrowed from Norm Stockwell and was unable to pinpoint the problem. Then we located a technician in Madison who was willing to work on the transmitter in his spare time. Several weeks later he had it back in good working condition. As a supporter of community radio he did not charge us anything for parts or his time. We resumed broadcasting with the NiCOM on Feb. 28, 2023. |