CONCORD — A beloved, half-century-old neighborhood radio station not broadcasts from the unassuming tower close to Suisun Bay that carried its sign for 20 years.
However due to a brand new buying deal and particular authority from federal regulators, KVHS quickly can be again on the air.
Whereas the station’s four-letter name signal has been licensed to Mt. Diablo Unified Faculty District because the Nineteen Sixties, the college board unanimously permitted a purchase order settlement final month to promote the radio station, together with its broadcasting gear and license for 90.5 on the FM dial, to the Contra Costa County Workplace of Training — all for $1.
‘“There’s a lot of energy around the radio station,” spokesperson Marcus Walton stated, referencing help that’s bubbled up from volunteers and neighborhood leaders amid concern that KVHS would go darkish. “We’re looking to see how we can utilize that to help continue the station’s legacy in the community.”
In the meantime, KVHS continues to stream on-line till its antenna is rehomed atop the county Workplace of Training’s rooftop in Nice Hill within the coming days — a brief association to renew broadcasting till a everlasting, better-reception resolution is finalized.
The price of working the station — which faculty district officers estimated at almost half 1,000,000 {dollars} over the previous 20 years simply to host the antenna in Harmony — was the largest cause MDUSD voted to promote KVHS and let its tower lease expire final month. In saying the brand new deal on July 3, Superintendent Adam Clark stated he was thrilled by the settlement, as a result of now “the station is in good fingers.”
Pending approval from the Federal Communications Fee, which may take as much as three months, operation of KVHS can be transferred to the identical workplace that initially helped fund youth-led radio at Clayton Valley Excessive Faculty, which shortly developed right into a licensed station throughout the Nineteen Sixties.
However subsequent broadcasting courses and regional coaching packages resulted in 2012, following the highschool’s legally messy constitution transition, and a majority of the district’s faculty board agreed in Could that the completely volunteer-driven operation was not cost-effective as a profit to college students in Mt. Diablo and neighboring East Bay faculties.
At the moment, KVHS is a small, DIY broadcast powered by a four-member volunteer crew that remotely blasts Jamaican ska tracks, new releases from native artists and PBS-style deep-dive reviews. The station has additionally supplied essential public service bulletins to Contra Costa County residents through the years; 90.5 FM is federally banned from airing commercials, promotions or something aside from informative content material by means of its single, small antenna.
The symbolic $1 deal opens the door for the Contra Costa’s Workplace of Training to concurrently protect KVHS and revive its authentic mission, Walton stated.
“We are still figuring out the best way to turn (the radio station) into a vehicle and a tool for students,” Walton stated in an interview Monday. The county’s schooling workplace is already in talks with educators from the Diablo Valley Faculty and the Contra Costa Youth Journalism Mission. Superintendent of Faculties Lynn Mackey “understands the value of journalism and knows that the skills that it teaches students are important for the community and for society,” he stated.
Listeners can nonetheless assist fund operations by donating on to Contra Costa’s Workplace of Training, however Walton stated the superintendent’s workplace has taken on full accountability for the station, together with “trying to make sure that we’re doing it in as physically sound a manner as possible.”
Whereas long-term plans about future alternatives are nonetheless into consideration, Walton stated the county doesn’t foresee any instant overhauls to the present, community-focused programming on KVHS.
Dave Hughes, the on-air persona behind The Beat of Diablo, KVHS 90.5 FM’s hyperlocal night radio present, stated the station’s future is the brightest he’s seen since he began volunteering in 2021.
“We’ve always been on the ropes,” Hughes stated over the cellphone Monday, “but now there’s finally some sense of stability.”
Hughes conceded that the brand new web site at 77 Santa Barbara Street may have a lowered sign in comparison with the previous Harmony tower. He’s optimistic, nevertheless, that schooling officers will discover one other rooftop, radio tower or different county property that would host the station’s antenna — doubtlessly broadcasting to extra individuals, for much less.
Because the station dodged the specter of forfeiting its beloved frequency to the FCC, Hughes stated county schooling officers have extra time and suppleness to plan for the long run — a future that, he hopes, preserves the KVHS as a beacon for neighborhood entry, free expression and moments of unadulterated pleasure.
“Now they have the FCC license and the equipment’s moved over there (to Pleasant Hill), there’s less of a rush,” Hughes stated throughout a name Monday. “This is promising.”
