Could 88.5 FM be the new home of a community radio station in Oregon?
By Sheila Flanagan
from Salem Monthly, Section News
Posted on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 09:43:04 PM PDT

http://salemmonthly.com/story/Could_885_FM_be_the_new_home_of_a_community_radio_ station_in_Oregon_135.html

Community radio is alive and well in many communities. I hope Salem has a chance to make this happen.

Here's another community radio station in Astoria. They do provide audio streaming.

http://www.kmun.org/

They just said that the streaming is down, due to the stom (they are operating on a generator), so don't be disappointed if you try today and don't hear it... Transmitter was off earlier, but seems to be doing fine now.

Its gonna be a few years for any 88.5 station to serve the Salem,Turner, Stayton area as there are 3 Mx'ed applicants in the recent NCE app window plus there will be quite a bit if co-channel interference with a new 88.5 coming on the air licensed to Junction City from the KDUK/KFLY site. Even at just 600+ watts their signal will still honk. All this is moot if someone has a lot of money to buy off applicants.

Update: KMUN is now streaming again, so things appear to be getting "back to nornal" after the storm. They did a great job of keeping the station on the air, and providing the community with needed information, during the the storm and for nearly a week that they were operating only on a generator, with very limited phone service. They had little or no heat at the studio, and a tree on the roof. (pictures also on the site)

http://www.kmun.org/

The community Station in Salem, if it gets on the air, will be tranmitting from Turner with 32 watts. The signal will probably be spotty in North Salem.

The Salem Monthly article says" "it won't be known until at least February whether the license will be granted."

Actually, when I ran a Longley-Rice analysis when doing that application the signal in NW Salem will be OK because that portion of town is up a little higher in elevation. The majority of Salem will have spot coverage except for the most southern parts of town.

The Turner app and the two competitors over in Stayton are all jammed between a co-channel and a first adjacent. The opening is like the center of an hourglass with the narrowest area being just south of Salem. The opening gets wider the further east you go. Due to these existing protections, none of the competitors can put a 60dBu over anywhere but the most southern portions of Salem. Clearly, the Stayton applicants didn't even try. The Turner application is the best that could be done to try and get some coverage in Salem, which will be limited at best. As a result of these limitations, I proposed a heavily directionalized antenna so that the proposed 60dBu contour would fill right up to the limiting 40dBu contour of the co-channel and the 54dBu of the first adjacent. This is all on line for anyone that curious.

No extra charge for the directional app...right???