Back in the mid 70's I had a similar situation in Battle Mountain
Nevada. At the time I was the county counselor. I talked it over with
the school board and got them to agree to help fund the first High
School owned and operated FM Stereo Educational radio station in the
state of Nevada. It required additional contributions from the
community. We applied for a 10 watt educational license and got it at
88.1 FM.

In town was a 1st class licence operator who volunteered time to be
the station engineer. We bought a reasonably inexpensive remote board
and the 10 watt transmitter. Mounted the antenna on top of a telephone
pole the shop class erected next to the school and "studio". Some of
the high school kids were interested and were the announcers after
school. I spent a lot of time recording daytime and late evening shows
on tape that could be played before the kids were on and after.

Had reasonable town support and contributions. Fit into the school
fairly well with the student DJ's.

That was a long time ago, but it can be done. Something to consider

On 2 Mar 2007 21:01:03 GMT, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

dumbneasy wrote:
I live in a small town in the mountains of western Montana. My town has
about 1000 people. There are a couple of other towns within a 30 mile area,
but our nearest big communities with radio transmission are Missoula, 80
miles away, Great Falls at 90 miles away, and Helena about 50 miles away,
but on the other side of the continental divide. On good weather days we
might get two good stations and some days we don't get any.

So would anybody like to give me some ideas on what it would cost to put a
radio station in that people could hear within a 2-5 mile area of the
transmitter? I'd like to use it to relieve community boredom, as a tool to
teach and give kids a way to express themselves, and finally, local issue
community awareness talk radio.

Since we are a poor community it would be non-profit regardless of the type
of license. LOL! And of course, used equipment would be preferable to new.
I also know nothing of the F.C.C.'s regulations.

Bad News:
You can't do any of this without a license. There are folks who will
sell you equipment that can be heard at some distance, but none of it
is legal for use.

Good News:
The FCC used to have a "Class D" broadcast license available for just
this sort of thing. It was discontinued in 1978, but recently resurrected
as the "LPFM" Low Power FM allocation.

Bad News:
The FCC allocation of LPFM licenses has been pretty poorly handled, with
short windows during which time licenses could be applied for. Sadly,
Christian broadcasting networks have barraged the FCC for license requests
during the open period, which has very much clogged the paperwork chain.

Good News:
The FCC does have some information on their web site at fcc.gov about
applying for LPFM licenses, and if you can get a retired lawyer to
volunteer some time for you, it's not very expensive to apply although
it could take years for the license to be actually granted.
--scott