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Three Hundred Fifty-One Emails Later by Kai Aiyetoro November, 2002 June 7, 2002 was the day I first contacted Hmong American Community, Inc. (HAC) of Fresno, CA. NFCB discovered that this group had decided to relinquish the construction permit they’d worked so hard to acquire. This multicultural Southeast Asian group did not want their project to fail, of course, but the obstacles were significant. They did not grasp the technical requirements of the project, and they felt that raising $100,000 (as quoted in the project’s original budget) was beyond their capabilites. Deadline for completion: October 12, 2002. (44 emails) The HAC board of directors could not justify investing this kind of money in a project that would not benefit their entire service community. The frequency (104.5 FM at 100 watts) would only cover approximately half of the city of Fresno, mainly the southern vicinity, and many of the Hmong community lived in the central and northern areas. Vee Inthaly, project manager, said there had been talk about Radio Bilingüe’s subcarrier (SCA), but she didn’t quite understand the process of using the SCA. Understanding the offer from Radio Bilingüe was the first step in determining the feasibility of the project. (54 emails) Hugo Morales, Executive Director of Radio Bilingüe, made an extraordinary offer to HAC. Radio Bilingüe was offering FREE subcarrier usage from their 16,000-watt Fresno station, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with engineering support, should HAC complete the project. HAC could broadcast from its own studios (through specially programmed receivers) to listeners outside of the 104.5 frequency’s range. (28 emails) After two months of phone and email correspondence, a second meeting was scheduled with board members still in opposition to the Hmong Radio project. A detailed writeup of the project plus a basic start-up budget of $15,000 was presented to the HAC board on my second visit. The board gave its approval, and the radio project was underway once again. (35 emails) Prometheus Radio Project had previously offered assistance with the physical construction of the station, but the project had not gained final approval. Pete Tridish had also visited the Hmong group prior to June, so he was familiar with the project. He started developing a new construction team, consisting of Dave Arney (Prometheus Radio Project, Philadelphia, PA) and Brad Johnson (Partytown.com, Salida, CA, and an ex-Clear Channel engineer). This team would purchase and assemble the equipment necessary to make this LPFM station a reality. (68 emails) This was the perfect opportunity for me to establish a group-buy situation. Broadcast-Richardson (recommended by KHEN-LP in Salida, CO) was chosen as the supplier of antennas, transmitters and cable for all LPFM stations under the guidance of NFCB. This company has offered LPFM stations the best deal yet for RF Cast 100/250 watt transmitters, Nicom or OMB antennas, and coaxial cable. This information was relayed to the Prometheus group, and the resulting savings kept the station within their $15,000 budget. (36 emails) October 4, 2002: Construction day finally arrived. Brad, Dave,
Vee and I met to purchase miscellaneous items (mast, cable, nuts and
bolts) and to inventory the equipment on hand. Antenna, studio board,
2 processors, and 2 microphones were all that had arrived. Construction
to set up the antenna and mast on top of a rented roof space in Fowler,
CA was to begin at 10:00 AM. Kai Aiyetoro
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