July 4 is Independence Day for Radio Free Palmer

PALMER — Officials at Radio Free Palmer are targeting July 4 as the first day of terrestrial radio broadcasting in town.

Until then, the station has a lot of work ahead of it to prepare for the date.

After waiting for three years, Radio Free Palmer (RFP) finally got the go-ahead this fall from the Federal Communications Commission to tap the airwaves for live broadcasts. When RFP lands on the FM dial, it will take the local, grassroots station from it’s current Internet-only presence and expand to cars and homes with radios.

Most importantly, RFP board members say, is the station will provide community-based radio for Palmer and Sutton.

In a previous interview, David Cheezem, owner of Fireside Books and chair of the board for Radio Free Palmer, said the station will become another building block for the community.

“A community doesn’t just happen,” Cheezem said. “It’s created and built.”

Judging from an event held in Palmer in December, the public seems interested the new radio station.

Mike Chmielewski, RFP’s treasurer, said a celebration of the station’s radio license at Vagabond Blues in Palmer brought out a standing room only crowd.

The turnout reaffirmed the desire among locals in Palmer for a new radio staation.

“I think it just reaffirms that, yes, there are a lot of people that are interested,” Chmielewski said.

He added many people have already come to him with programming ideas, something Cheezem has said is exactly the way RFP envisions the radio station: community radio with programming from the community.

Next on Radio Free Palmer’s agenda is finishing a business plan — the station is working off a draft plan for now — and purchasing the necessary hardware and technology necessary for a station.

Jim Sykes, an RFP board member and technical adviser, said the station will transmit at 200 watts from a nearly 50-foot tower.

The equipment — transmitter, antenna and other transmitting materials — is expected to cost from $7,000 to $10,000, Sykes said.

Chmielewski said the station wants to have enough money on hand so that, “When we turn it on we don’t have to turn it back off.”

It’s also on the hunt for a programming manager and is always up for suggestions from the community regarding what will air, Chmielewski said.

Like KTNA in Talkeetna, Radio Free Palmer officials hope the station will fill in space they say isn’t being served by local media.

“Generally speaking, it serves the community rather than selling stuff,” Chmielewski said.

For now, RFP will stay on the Web, streaming Mat-Su Borough Assembly meetings and continuing preparation for its terrestrial station.

The station will also keep getting the word out, and, officials hope, keep hearing positive feedback from the community.

“If I say Radio Free Palmer, people like the idea,” Chmielewski said. “They have a sense of it.”

Contact Michael Rovito michael.rovito@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.