SEQUIM — Volunteers with public radio station KSQM-91.5 FM hope “Raise the tower, raise the power” will become a common refrain among their listeners once fundraising efforts for a new radio tower start later this year.
KSQM Executive Director Bob Schilling, who has been part of the planning for tower fundraising efforts since he joined the station as a volunteer in March, said KSQM needs to raise $300,000 to fund a 155-foot-tall tower that would take the station from 700 watts to 2,400 watts.
This fall, the station’s volunteers will request donations from listeners through fliers and brochures.
Volunteers hope to have the tower transmitting by October 2013.
Once built, the station would lease antennae space on the tower to other agencies or companies, Schilling said.
Schilling said the new tower would allow most residents of Port Angeles to pick up KSQM in addition to providing a backbone for emergency communication for area law enforcement, fire and EMS agencies.
Over the long term, KSQM plans to work with local public agencies to build radio translators near the North Olympic Peninsula’s coastal communities so they can be effectively reached in an emergency.
“This tower will play more of a role in the community than just radio and music,” Schilling said.
The tower project has been in the station’s strategic plan for more than a year, Schilling said, while public fundraising requests began last year.
Seeking donations from listeners is just one way the station plans to raise the $300,000 needed for construction.
KSQM volunteers are in the process of applying for a $150,000 grant for the tower construction from a nationwide private foundation that has made similar donations in the past.
Schilling declined to offer details on the foundation before the grant is submitted but said the group is well-known and has a presence in Washington state.
Naming rights
The radio station also plans to sell naming rights to the tower, which would include mentioning the company that bought the rights several times during KSQM station identifications and publishing the company’s name in printed materials associated with the tower, Schilling explained.
The naming rights, good for five years, would be sold for $50,000.
Schilling estimated the same level of advertising with the station for five years would normally run as much as $136,000.
“We’re going to be looking for those companies real soon,” he said.
In addition to the grant application and naming rights, KSQM volunteers will ask a “celebrity circle” of 25 area people and businesses to each donate $1,000 for at least two years to help fund the tower’s construction and eventual maintenance.
Schilling said the station also will host fundraising meals, the proceeds of which will go toward tower construction.
The tower would be built on about an acre of state Department of Natural Resources land east of Blue Mountain Road between Sequim and Port Angeles, Schilling said.
He estimates the site, once finished, would look similar to the Washington State Patrol radio installation on O’Brien Road about 5 miles east of Port Angeles.
For more information about the radio station, visit www.ksqmfm.com or phone 360-681-0000.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
