Paul McLane is editor in chief.
We’ve been telling you about some of the many LPFM stations that will be coming on the air in the United States. Here’s one that’s cut from my kind of cloth.
“Mississippi non-profit Classic Book Radio is starting a low-power FM radio station which will broadcast readings from classic works of literature,” states the press release.
It said Classic Book Radio was established to broadcast classic audio books from the archive at LibriVox.org. It has a construction permit for 95.5 MHz in Columbus, with call sign WMFH(LP).
The station is trying to raise $15,000 via “crowd funding” on the Indigogo platform.
Founder Christopher Howard, who has audio and amateur radio experience, is quoted in the release saying the station wants to promote literacy. “We feel this can be an important tool for introducing people to the large body of quality English literature they might not otherwise experience, including timeless works from Aesop to Melville and from Shakespeare to Mark Twain.”
There are no royalties to pay for the text, because the material is all in the public domain, he indicated. “Our programming content is normal people sitting down to read to you.” Further, Howard writes on the station’s fundraising page: “We have a place to operate. And we have a radio tower, 60 feet tall, which I have used for my amateur radio hobby. We have reliable electricity and Internet. We have a PC running the Rivendell radio library/scheduling/playback software and a steadily growing body of downloaded content.” But he is seeking to raise money for studio gear, EAS system, transmitter and streaming hosting service.
The Indiegogo campaign runs til late March. Christopher Howard is seen in a promotional video below.
I wish him well; this kind of endeavor seems to me to represent the spirit of what LPFM is for. (Tell us about your own LPFM plans during this historic expansion of the FM service. Email [email protected].)
