Lompoc is now even more media savvy. Gregg Ratcliff, studio manager for the city’s Public, Education and Government [PEG] access television said that the city’s new FM radio station, 100.9 FM-LP, is operational.
Ratcliff made the announcement before the City Council meeting on May 19, adding that the city received its broadcasting license one week before the meeting and that it was also the council’s first FM radio broadcast.
Getting to this point took a while, Ratcliff said.
From start to finish, the project took around 2 1/2 years, beginning with project research in November 2012, which took about a year. After that Ratcliff said he applied for a broadcast license.
In January 2014, the Federal Communications Commission issued a construction permit. At one point, construction crews were delayed for two weeks. Eager to begin construction, Ratcliff started digging a trench with his assistant.
“One day I got tired of waiting, and I grabbed my assistant Bill Smith, a couple of shovels, and some Gatorade and we went up to the transmitter site and started digging ourselves,” Ratcliff said. “We got about 8 inches deep and we realized that possibly our best trench digging days were behind us.”
The station’s antenna is mounted to an old light pole, which Ratcliff said was rescued from the city scrap pile. The transmitter housing is also recycled from the scrap heap, Ratcliff said.
The transmitter—which is only 100 watts, considered low power by the FCC—was constructed from March to April.
Because it has the LP designation, Ratcliff said the station is required to identify itself as low power at the top of every hour.
Now the station is currently in testing mode, broadcasting music 24 hours a day seven days a week. Ratcliff said that they aren’t required to continuously run the station, but he wants to. The studio is located in the Anderson Recreation Center.
Different types of programming will be available. The radio station will now give the PEG to broadcast high school sports live, whereas before, with Tap TV, it couldn’t because the California Interscholastic Federation doesn’t allow it.
Ratcliff will soon open the station to public programming, but not until policies are written for public use. City Council meetings and special events will also be broadcasted.
Coverage of the station, which is better than Ratcliff hoped for, reaches all of the Lompoc Valley, Mesa Oaks, Vandenberg Village, and also has a clear signal to Surf Depot.
Ratcliff said that low power licenses are noncommercial by design, but added that the station will allow for some underwriting events.
According to Ratcliff, a link from the studio to the emergency operations center is planned so that live announcements can be patched directly into the station’s broadcast.
Every radio station must have a slogan, Ratcliff said. The station’s, which was designed by his assistant, Smith, reads, “Just this side of the 101 … we’re 100.9, KPEG.”
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 4, 2015.