FCC Green lights Voice of Vashon FM station

On Friday (February 21st, 2014), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved Voice of Vashon’s application for an FM radio station. Fourteen years ago a small group of volunteers dared to dream that Vashon could have its own live radio voice. Now, that dream has come true. The new station was assigned the frequency 101.9 on the FM dial. Voice of Vashon is still reviewing several options for call letters, whish are usually assigned after the construction permit has been issued for a new station.
 
Voice of Vashon is making plans to build the station as soon as possible, though it will take some time to build the transmitter, antenna and other elements needed to put the station on the air. Fortunately, VoV built much of the needed infrastructure long ago in anticipation of this moment. For example, broadcasts will originate from the existing Voice of Vashon studios on Sunrise Ridge, next to the Food Bank. But there’s still a lot of work to do and we can’t predict precisely when the station will go on the air.
 
The FCC approval has happened much, much faster than anyone expected. FCC applications were accepted late last Fall and at that time experts predicted it would take years to get this far. But the FCC has moved very quickly and has already approved over 1,000 new stations nationwide. Now VoV has the construction permit in hand, they are finalizing  engineering designs and raise funds to finish building the new station. Voice of Vashon has set a goal of $50,000 to get the equipment in place for the new LPFM station.
 
For more information visit the Voice of Vashon website at www.voiceofvashon.org