Asheville Free Media granted CP

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AshevilleSince 2009, the nonprofit community station’s exclusive content has been streamed online. But now the volunteer-based organization has taken one major step forward in reaching more people on part of the map that means most: Asheville, NC. The organization learned last week that the FCC approved its application for an LPFM station, notes an Asheville Citizen-Times story.


The application was a CP for a 100-watt at 103.3 FM, which will be beamed from a radio tower atop Hotel Indigo in downtown Asheville. The station now has 18 months to raise the funds for the equipment and building costs. On Tuesday, the organization launched an Indiegogo online crowdsourcing campaign to raise $45K.

The mission of Friends of Community Radio, Inc., the parent nonprofit for Asheville FM, has always been to produce community radio for local airways, said Erik Mattox, board president.

Kim Roney, board member and station co-manager, emphasized that the station will make the local programming more accessible and remove “the barrier of internet access.”

“Regardless of whether folks can afford the internet, they can get the sound of Asheville” through the FM station, she told the paper. “It is just amplifying our mission to provide free-form, locally produced content.”

About 80 active volunteers are behind the array of programming, which draws an average 1.1 million listeners each month, Roney said. Shows include pop, politics and poetry. News and blues. Old-school country and shows for kids still in school.

See the station’s fundraiser at http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/power-the-tower-fund-asheville-free-media-s-lpfm-station.

See the full Asheville Citizen-Times story here.