Thank you to the 40+ people who showed up last Thursday for our community meeting to discuss ideas for a start-up radio venture in San Francisco!
The background: The San Francisco Public Press is exploring the possibility of setting up a new low-power FM radio station after winning a permit from Federal Communications Commission to broadcast on the frequency 102.5 FM. We have 18 months (renewable for an additional 18 months) to move forward. We have a timeshare agreement with San Francisco Community Radio (formerly KUSF in Exile) for each group to get 12 hours a day on the same channel.
What happened: In two hours on Thursday, we scratched the surface of what’s possible in terms of content creation, writing a set of shared values, seeking organizational partnerships and exploring new storytelling formats. We are reaching out to individuals who are interested in participating as staff, volunteers, donors, or allies. We will provide more opportunities to brainstorm ideas for diverse public-service programming, including journalism, public events, talk shows and more. Check out this excellent summary on Medium from Samantha Clark, a journalism student at U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.
What’s next: We have lots of news to share with you and are preparing a thorough report-back from the meeting. In the meantime, we are setting up a Google Group for people who want to learn more and get involved. If you’ve already provided us with your email, we’ll be sending you an invitation in the next few days. We also plan to hold additional meetings this fall. If you’d like to hear how you can get involved email radio [at] sfpublicpress.org.
