Someone mentioned this on another website. It appears that 97.5 is off the air in Ft. Worth. Website is gone, and phone number not in service. Have anyone heard anything?
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97.5 KFTW
- Thread starter neosolbrudda
- Start date
They've been off the air for months, posting this announcement on their Facebook page at the time:
KFTW 97.5 FM signed off the airwaves in Fort Worth on Sunday, August 2 at 4:20pm returning to primarily a streaming platform as the Texas Pirate playing all Texas music.
Over a decade ago John Rody of Dallas legacy classic rock station KZEW and Texas Radio Hall of Fame recipient had a desire to build and operate his own radio station after working for dozens across the country. At this same time, the LPFM movement had begun allowing for non-profit organizations to operate a non-commercial radio station.
Seeing the decline of 'local' radio, The Pirate was born in Fort Worth January 2013 by John Rody and his new wife Sallie, who also had a background in media, with the promise of playing 100 percent local music and programming. They hoped musicians would be thrilled to hear themselves on the radio and they would help promote the station. What a wonderful community concept!
Together John and Sallie launched The Southside Pirate online radio station and app for listeners. John prepared and submitted the FCC application in 2013 and it was approved for the Fort Worth airwaves January 2014. The tower was installed in the Near Southside and The Pirate was on the air by August 2105 in Fort Worth. With fundraising and hard work, they build their basement studio January 2017. Sallie worked for over a year in the creation of their 501c3 designation, handled marketing, merchandising, PR and programming the music for the station while John did the FCC regulatory compliance, engineering, production and website.
The Pirate project took on a life of its own with booths at Arts Goggle, programming workshops, live remotes and producing & broadcasting thousands of hours of local radio shows of all kinds. John and Sallie's combined skill sets were called upon on daily as they maintained Fort Worth's only community radio station for five years.
Although it was fun they were unsuccessful at attracting top level help in the areas of engineering, production, fundraising, accounting and public relations, making it impossible to sustain the workload themselves. Then in March, 2020 Covid arrived with donations, productions and underwriting drying up with social distancing becoming the norm, rising unemployment and many businesses closing with uncertain futures.
KFTW signed off the air waves on August 2, 2020 at 4:20 pm returning to their roots as an online streaming platform at THE TEXAS PIRATE. Online listenership always exceeds FM audience, anyway. The Pirate's accumulated local programming will be offered to listeners in a new online effort... Simply music from Texas. Hope you'll enjoy it: The Texas Pirate www.TheTexasPirate.com
--- Thanks to all of the musicians, friends, and listeners for your support! We've enjoyed running the station but it was exhausting and we're looking forward to retiring. Over the past 2 years Sallie lost both of her parents and is looking forward to taking a breath while John is excited to get to travel again -once it's safe. Together we sail into the internet cloud with many thanks to those who shared our vision and supported The Pirate. ❤ Sallie & John
KFTW 97.5 FM signed off the airwaves in Fort Worth on Sunday, August 2 at 4:20pm returning to primarily a streaming platform as the Texas Pirate playing all Texas music.
Over a decade ago John Rody of Dallas legacy classic rock station KZEW and Texas Radio Hall of Fame recipient had a desire to build and operate his own radio station after working for dozens across the country. At this same time, the LPFM movement had begun allowing for non-profit organizations to operate a non-commercial radio station.
Seeing the decline of 'local' radio, The Pirate was born in Fort Worth January 2013 by John Rody and his new wife Sallie, who also had a background in media, with the promise of playing 100 percent local music and programming. They hoped musicians would be thrilled to hear themselves on the radio and they would help promote the station. What a wonderful community concept!
Together John and Sallie launched The Southside Pirate online radio station and app for listeners. John prepared and submitted the FCC application in 2013 and it was approved for the Fort Worth airwaves January 2014. The tower was installed in the Near Southside and The Pirate was on the air by August 2105 in Fort Worth. With fundraising and hard work, they build their basement studio January 2017. Sallie worked for over a year in the creation of their 501c3 designation, handled marketing, merchandising, PR and programming the music for the station while John did the FCC regulatory compliance, engineering, production and website.
The Pirate project took on a life of its own with booths at Arts Goggle, programming workshops, live remotes and producing & broadcasting thousands of hours of local radio shows of all kinds. John and Sallie's combined skill sets were called upon on daily as they maintained Fort Worth's only community radio station for five years.
Although it was fun they were unsuccessful at attracting top level help in the areas of engineering, production, fundraising, accounting and public relations, making it impossible to sustain the workload themselves. Then in March, 2020 Covid arrived with donations, productions and underwriting drying up with social distancing becoming the norm, rising unemployment and many businesses closing with uncertain futures.
KFTW signed off the air waves on August 2, 2020 at 4:20 pm returning to their roots as an online streaming platform at THE TEXAS PIRATE. Online listenership always exceeds FM audience, anyway. The Pirate's accumulated local programming will be offered to listeners in a new online effort... Simply music from Texas. Hope you'll enjoy it: The Texas Pirate www.TheTexasPirate.com
--- Thanks to all of the musicians, friends, and listeners for your support! We've enjoyed running the station but it was exhausting and we're looking forward to retiring. Over the past 2 years Sallie lost both of her parents and is looking forward to taking a breath while John is excited to get to travel again -once it's safe. Together we sail into the internet cloud with many thanks to those who shared our vision and supported The Pirate. ❤ Sallie & John
Looks like the streaming station is also gone. I clicked on that link, and it says the domain is available.
Wow... So sad.
- Status