Funferal

Snow storm makes case for community radio station

An interesting story from Caledonia, of a community that has decided to push for a community radio station after a recent snow storm:

When the lights went out during last month’s snow storm, many people were left in the dark literally and figuratively. The TV society thinks a community radio can fix the latter problem.

The community hopes to get half the CAN$90k start-up costs from ‘Olympic grants’ which are seemingly being given to media outlets that broadcast coverage of the winter Olympics in 2010. Annual running costs for the station are being estimated at CAN$24k per annum, which would put them at the upper end of costs for a US LPFM station, but far below, for example, the costs of an Irish community station (generally about EUR60k per annum) or a full-power community station in the US (upwards of $100k).