The Crystal Beach station has essentially been off air since
Hurricane Ike struck in 2008, destroying its transmission facilities.
Laura Elder at galvestondailynews.com reports Galveston
Community Radio has asked the station’s owner, Cumulus Broadcasting, to donate
its Federal Communications Commission license to the group. Cumulus so far
hasn’t agreed, but Galveston Community Radio will keep asking.
“We’re not going away,” Sandra Stern, operations director
for the nonprofit, said.
Atlanta-based Cumulus Media Inc., which owns 525 stations in
110 metropolitan areas, has restored the station since the storm, but uses a
temporary antenna to broadcast the minimum number of days required to keep its
license.
Operation of the station isn’t financially viable, Cumulus
has informed the commission. The Houston-Galveston market is so saturated with
radio stations, the commission isn’t granting new licenses, Stern said.
Galveston Community Radio hopes public support via petitions
and letter-writing campaigns to the company and the FCC would persuade Cumulus
to donate the license.
If Cumulus agreed, Galveston Community Radio would create a
station offering local news, emergency information and a mix of music with
broad appeal, Stern said.
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On September 13, 2008, the transmitter facility and all of
the transmitting equipment were "washed away" by Hurricane Ike.
Cumulus has filed for permission for the station to cease operations and has no
specific plans on whether it will attempt to rebuild the station given the
scope of the disaster and the poor economic conditions, according to the FCC
filing. The FCC has accepted the filing,
but not approved the request as of January 2009. FCC's standard position is
that if a licensed facility remains silent for a year, the license expires as a
matter of law, although some exceptions are made.
Prior to its country format, KSTB played an adult
contemporary format under the brand "Star 101.5" (or "The Star
Of The Bay", referring to Galveston Bay), and was owned by Galtex Broadcasting.
In August 2010, KSTB briefly returned to the airwaves as
"Energy", playing music from the 1990s. It was running at very low
power, and was thus only receivable in Crystal Beach itself. It is possible
that this was simply a transmitter test or a temporary broadcast to keep the
station's license active.
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