Classic Book Radio - progress report

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elfpen
Posts: 34
Joined: June 27th, 2011, 7:42 pm

Post by elfpen »

It was over a year ago that I posted on the forum about a faint wisp
of a plan: librivox over the radio.

Since then we have
a) created a non-profit corporation,
b) applied for and obtained a Low Power FM radio license,
c) obtained IRS 501(c)3 non-profit status,
d) put together a computer system and downloaded
content into the library for broadcast

Our authorization from the FCC (the federal agency that oversees
radio and television stations) will expire in July 2015.. That's when
we have to have our station up and running. (I have heard that in
some cases an 18 month extension can be obtained.)

What we are doing now is trying to raise funds to purchase a transmitter
and other equipment. I have been combing through the
Guidestar.org website and other sources, trying to find foundation
grants, government funding or anything else. We need
to raise about $12,000.

I would encourage you to support librivox.org with some $$$.

If you have a bit more, consider coming to our website
at www.wmfh-lp.org and buying a t-shirt. Or, use
Amazon Smile to buy your Christmas gifts this year
and select "Classic Book Radio" as your charity.

And if you know of some grant-making organization I should
be applying to, be sure to let me know.

Chris Howard
Classic Book Radio - WMFH-LP
Columbus, Mississippi
Kangaroo692
Posts: 1939
Joined: August 21st, 2014, 9:34 am
Location: Probably the holodeck :)
Contact:

Post by Kangaroo692 »

Wow -- this is a great idea. Good luck! :D
elfpen
Posts: 34
Joined: June 27th, 2011, 7:42 pm

Post by elfpen »

An update on Classic Book Radio in Columbus, MS:

We are still doing the fundraising thing, with some limited success. But we are close to
the point of having enough for a minimal start-up configuration of equipment and supplies.

I still have a few grant applications in play, with the most hope pinned on one
with a corporate foundation which targets literacy projects.

And we've been doing more outreach in the local area which may bring us
listeners as well as the possibility of contributions. People seem to like
the concept of an audio-books radio station. So we get a lot of smiles
and encouragement. (I hope we can live up to expectations and make
your (librivox) hard work, and the quality of the material come through
with technical and presentational quality!)

If you would like to participate directly we could always use $$ contributions
of course.

But we also would like to ask for librivox readers to record for us a station
identification. The official requirement is to have our call letters 'followed by'
our city of license. Here's a suggested pattern:

"Classic Book Radio
WMFHLP
95.5
Columbus, Mississippi"

If you would like to do so you can add your name and/or location
to the front of that:

"This is Charles Dickens in London, England
and you are listening to
Classic Book Radio
WMFHLP
95.5
Columbus, Mississippi"

The minimum legal requirement is

"WMFHLP
Columbus"

I can't guarantee that we will use your submission.
We may edit your submission to meet our needs.

But I'd like to have a large selection of these to put into
our library and play back in a random way (our station automation
system can do that).

Send your submissions in the same format as your librivox submissions
by email attachment to

contact at wmfh-lp dot org
kayray
Posts: 11828
Joined: September 26th, 2005, 9:10 am
Location: Union City, California
Contact:

Post by kayray »

done! :)

I suggest you edit your email address so that it's harder for spambots to harvest... like "contact at wmfh-lp dot org"
Kara
http://kayray.org/
--------
"Mary wished to say something very sensible into her Zoom H2 Handy Recorder, but knew not how." -- Jane Austen (& Kara)
Kangaroo692
Posts: 1939
Joined: August 21st, 2014, 9:34 am
Location: Probably the holodeck :)
Contact:

Post by Kangaroo692 »

Finished and sent! :D
elfpen
Posts: 34
Joined: June 27th, 2011, 7:42 pm

Post by elfpen »

I want to thank everyone who sent us a station identification recording!
If anyone else wants to do that, we would be very happy to have your
voice in our system.

Since mid-November 2015 we have been running the station in a "test"
mode on the weekends. Test mode means we don't have the obligation
of running full-time and we can make adjustments to our equipment
as we go. Our license authority from the FCC requires that we
go into full-time "live" operation in the summer of 2016.

Testing has been very helpful, we now have a better idea of the
range of our signal. And we have had some equipment problems
to work out.

For test content we have been using random samples from our
library of downloaded librivox content, mostly stuff from the short story
collections series and the short poetry collections.

We still have big plans for the website and for internet streaming
but those have taken a back seat to getting the over-the-air
operation up and running.

If you have any comments, questions, would like to record our station-id,
or anything else, you can contact me at

chris dot howard at wmfh-lp dot org or visit our website http://www.wmfh-lp.org

Chris Howard
Executive Director
Classic Book Radio
WMFH-LP 95.5 Columbus, Mississippi

e-mail address edited by admin
Kangaroo692
Posts: 1939
Joined: August 21st, 2014, 9:34 am
Location: Probably the holodeck :)
Contact:

Post by Kangaroo692 »

Thank you for your update, Chris. I am glad things are going along well. :)
SonOfTheExiles
Posts: 2649
Joined: December 20th, 2013, 1:14 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Post by SonOfTheExiles »

So what sort of territory are you transmitting into, Chris? Built-up or rural, or a mixture of both?

I don't know anything much about the lay of the land, though I do realise that there's something backwards here about an Australian asking someone from Mississippi to "show me". :D

Son of the Exiles
Currently on sabbatical from Librivox
Darvinia
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 3247
Joined: March 15th, 2009, 8:38 pm
Location: Alberta, Canada
Contact:

Post by Darvinia »

I'm in Canada and even I know that Missouri, not Mississippi, is the 'show me' state! :P
Bev

There's nothing you can't prove if your outlook is only sufficiently limited. - Lord Peter Wimsey
I yam what I yam, and that's all what I yam - Popeye, the sailor man
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice - Neil Peart
12696
SonOfTheExiles
Posts: 2649
Joined: December 20th, 2013, 1:14 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Post by SonOfTheExiles »

You see how ignorant I am? :D

Fifty states! However does a school kid learn to recite them all? Six states and two territories were plenty enough for me.

SOTE
Currently on sabbatical from Librivox
dlolso21
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 4827
Joined: January 11th, 2011, 12:13 pm

Post by dlolso21 »

The contact us page lists the address as 541 Mount Ariery Church Road, Columbus, MS 39701 which would put it in the woods about 10 km southwest of Columbus, Mississippi.

The address should be searchable via mapping software like Mapquest, Google Maps, or whatever you choose.

David O
RuthieG
Posts: 21957
Joined: April 17th, 2008, 8:41 am
Location: Kent, England
Contact:

Post by RuthieG »

/offtopic
Fifty states! However does a school kid learn to recite them all?
When I used to have difficulty getting off to sleep, reciting the US states alphabetically usually did the trick ;).

Chris: I'll send you a station identification recording, too.

Ruth
My LV catalogue page | RuthieG's CataBlog of recordings | Tweet: @RuthGolding
SonOfTheExiles
Posts: 2649
Joined: December 20th, 2013, 1:14 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Post by SonOfTheExiles »

Way to make me feel inadequate, Ruth! :lol:

On the other hand, even after thirty years, I can still recite the periodic table at least as far as Krypton. But for some unexplained reason, that element always defeats me, as far as further progress is concerned. Can't think why... :roll:
Currently on sabbatical from Librivox
elfpen
Posts: 34
Joined: June 27th, 2011, 7:42 pm

Post by elfpen »

Hello Librivox friends!

We are soon approaching our 1st anniversary broadcasting
Librivox content on the air 24x7.

Thanks to all of you!

You are invited to record a station identification for us.
I believe the needed format is given in an earlier message in this topic/thread.

Please keep doing what you are doing!

Chris Howard
Classic Book Radio
Columbus, Mississippi
www.wmfh-lp.org (link to streaming can be found there)

contact at wmfh-lp dot org
chris dot howard at wmfh-lp dot org
Peter Why
Posts: 5815
Joined: November 24th, 2005, 3:54 am
Location: Chigwell (North-East London, U.K.)

Post by Peter Why »

A lovely piece of work; I hope you're popular.

Do we produce enough fiction for you? After all, quite a lot of our output is non-fiction.

Do you publish comments from your listeners? I couldn't see anything on your web page.

Peter
Last edited by Peter Why on November 24th, 2016, 4:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
"I think, therefore I am, I think." Solomon Cohen, in Terry Pratchett's Dodger
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