They admit they're a motley bunch, but the people organizing Madison's first low-power FM community radio station say they all have a common goal: getting new voices on the airwaves.
Those in central Madison be able to tune in 99.1 WIDE starting in September, a moment that the organizers -- area non-profit groups, volunteer journalists, music aficionados, church groups and community activists -- have been awaiting for six years.
Due to hotly contested restrictions on how many low power stations can exist in any given listening area, the seven original Madison permit applicants to the Federal Communications Commission were forced to come to a compromise and share one frequency (what one organizers calls "playing in the sandbox together").
This means that groups as seemingly divergent as Christian evangelicals, humanists, Tibetan rights activists and teen hip hop artists will be sharing airtime on the 100 watt station (most radio stations operate at 10,000 watts or more), which will have a listening radius of at most three miles from its near west side transmitter.
By night -- from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m. -- content will be directed by "SoulWIDE," a diverse group of people interested in deejaying music with a Christian influence. By day -- 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. -- "CityWIDE" will focus on talk shows, news, features, music and whatever else grows from community and individual interests. ...
