SEQUIM — Alerts on icy stretches of highway and big-band swing.
You could hear them, and then some, on a Sequim public radio station later this year.
Rick Perry and Keith Burfitt, founding directors of Sequim Community Broadcasting, said this week that they’re awaiting a construction permit from the Federal Communications Commission.
Once they have that piece of paper, the pair will erect a 700-watt transmitter off of Atterberry Road west of Sequim.
“We were ‘accepted for filing,’ ” Perry said Tuesday. “That means the FCC doesn’t have time to issue a permit yet, but is saying, ‘We’re going to get to it.'”
Sequim Community Broadcasting recently joined the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce and is establishing a Web site at www.SCBRadio.com, Perry added.
In mid-April, he and Burfitt will attend the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas.
Soon after returning, Perry and Burfitt plan to hold a public information meeting.
They’ll also seek volunteers to host radio shows on what will be a noncommercial station.
Sequim Community Broadcasting will offer music of the 1940s and ’50s, plus frequent reports on road and weather conditions, at 91.5 FM, Perry said.
And it will be eastern Clallam County’s source of information in emergencies.
“That’s No. 1,” he added.
The station will cover eastern Port Angeles, the Dungeness Valley and Diamond Point.
Perry said it will rival KONP 1450, a commercial AM station based in Port Angeles, as a service to listeners who’re seeking locally generated emergency alerts.
And when he hit an icy stretch of U.S. Highway 101 near Sequim Bay on Monday, Perry wished his station was on the air to warn drivers.
KONP general manager Todd Ortloff, however, isn’t shivering.
Last fall, when Perry announced plans for the Sequim station, Ortloff pointed out that KONP has a direct link to the emergency management office at the Clallam County Courthouse, and is always ready to activate its emergency alert system.
“We’re all competing for listeners,” Ortloff said, but Sequim Community Broadcasting — a public station — won’t be permitted to sell advertising time the way KONP does.
As a community licensee, SCB may briefly acknowledge underwriters, to the tune of “Funds for this program are provided by . . .,” with no 30- or 60-second spots allowed.
Perry said SCB will collaborate with Radio Port Townsend, another independent applicant for a public-broadcasting license, to produce programs.
