For years, Sun City resident Allen Pollack has taken to the air above Huntley as a pilot of small-engine aircraft, but with the Senate’s recent passing of the Local Community Radio Act on December 18, 2010, Pollack and Sun City resident Dorothy Litwin, along with a group of like-minded partners, may soon have their chance to take to the airwaves over Huntley in a different form, with HCR, Huntley Community Radio, a not-for-profit low-power FM (LPFM) station Pollack and others have been working hard to develop … and, well, get off the ground.
Allen Pollack and Dorothy Litwin at WRLR studios out of Round Lake Beach, touring the studios to gain better insight into the operations of a LPFM radio station. (Photo provided)
And if all goes well, Pollack will take you along for the ride.
“Our slogan is keeping the Huntley community connected and entertained,” said Pollack, who is HCR’s executive director. “There’s essentially real-time availability of information.”
Pollack said that HCR’s ultimate goal is to provide quality and entertaining programming to the greater Huntley community that offers listeners not only music, talk, and shows, but services such as D158 notices; regular village, county, and township notices from their respective governing bodies, police, and fire districts; and emergency alert services, among others, including programming specific to Sun City.
Pollack, along with other HCR directors, are currently scouting possible locations in the Huntley area to house HCR’s operations. Keeping with FCC regulations for low-power FM, HCR will broadcast at 100 watts and have a range of no less 5.6 kilometers (or 3.5 miles) that possibly extends to 15 miles before signal loss.
But until Senate passed the Local Community Radio Act, there would have been no signal at all.
For almost ten years, the Radio Broadcast Preservation Act of 2000 restricted the FCC from giving a license to an LPFM station if a full-service station was within three “clicks” on the dial away. The purpose of the restriction was to prevent interference to full-service stations, a concern that a $2.2 million tax-payer funded study concluded was unlikely.
The passing of the Local Community Radio Act in December that was signed into Law by Obama this month lifted those restrictions set by the RBPA. Pollack and HCR directors now wait for the FCC to open the 30-day LPFM licensing window (which can open without notice at anytime) to begin the process to obtain their broadcast license.
Originally, Pollack and his team worked with CAM to establish the low-power FM radio station inside Sun City with either a small space in the former sales center or the gatehouse as likely locations for their operations. However, CAM declined support, which led Pollack and his team to shift their efforts.
“A lot of anxiety, a lot of resistance initially because there was a lack of understanding,” Pollack said. “But over the course of time, that seemed to resolve itself.”
The offshoot of the HCR pioneering efforts in Sun City did, however, produce the formation of the Radio Broadcasting Charter Club, which, according to the club’s bylaws, is separate from the radio station. Moreover, Pollack said that taking the radio station’s base of operations out of Sun City “was to our advantage.”
“We decided to go to the outside [Huntley]. We can draw upon a whole lot more resources,” Pollack said, explaining that HCR’s doors would be open to boarder ranges of volunteers and perspectives and give HCR the opportunity to address the interests of the greater Huntley area, as well as those of Sun City.
Pollack and other HCR directors are currently scouting Huntley locations to house HCR operations. Having a known location is a requirement on the FCC application for broadcasting. The suitable location will have to support the 30-meter (approx. 100-foot) radio tower that holds the broadcasting antenna and provide the room necessary for the station’s equipment and volunteer staff. HCR directors are also seeking alternate antenna locations. As well, several options for start-up financing are being pursued.
Pollack said that once the financing is procured and the location is determined, HCR directors are immediately ready to act on the FCC application window. It’s just a matter of timing.
In the meantime, until full funding is acquired and the application window opens, HCR directors are planning to take the radio station online with a website that streams its broadcast to those who visit the site.
“[An online radio station] does two things,” Pollack said. “It gets the station up and running and allows our personnel to get comfortable on the station.”
Providing the funding is available, Pollack says that the online version of HCR can be up and running by the beginning of summer this year.
