I was owner of Downtown Records for a number years, about 7. The record store in any community is a good place to network and find out what is going on. I have meet several great people this way. Anyway my manager Dave Montoya told me about this guy who looking for people who are interested in starting a new radio station, a community radio station, also known to the FCC as a NCE radio station. Dave told me that he told the guy that I was a former pirate radio guy and that I have some interest in the deal. That's where it all started.
I received an email from Todd Urich on July 11th,2006. It was asking if i was interested in starting a NCE radio station and he could send me some info. I received a wealth of info the next few days. Maps of all kinds on Kern County, regional, antenna locations , possible broadcast locations. Lists and manuals and contacts on how to start a radio station, budgets, equipment, engineers, organizations, the works. Todd was from Common Frequency in Sacramento, a grassroots org that want to help communities get a radio station on the air. Also to make sure that the application window wasn't totally flooded by religious orgs and ministries. Not that they are bad, but they are bad for the airwaves and they are hoarding up all the good spaces.
I wanted in! This is my big chance to do something that nobody has done here in Bakersfield before, start a community radio station. It is going to take a lot of work and money to get this going, I have a full time job as a steel worker for about 15 years at the time, I own a record store and now this! I was gonna be real busy. That's when I called Greg Looney.
I know he would love to help, I just knew it. We have the same vision on this town and we worked together at KBCC (the now defunct cable access college radio station) at Bakersfield College. He did some pirate stuff on the side too, and had a great radio show. I told him right off the bat that it was just us two working on this project and we have to keep this on the "down low". For when the FCC opens that application window, we have as little application competition as possible. We didn't know when the window would be open, but it would be coming soon we heard. The FCC was accepting apps for new NCE radio stations for the first in 25 years and the last time ever. Greg speculated we will be on the air in about a year and I speculated two. Little did we know we would still be working on it.
We had to keep this a secret, we didn't know for how long.
Happy Birthday Greg!
