You've
heard the rumors... Wild eyed idealists holed up in endless
meetings hammering out incorporation papers, and bylaws, while creating
visions of airwaves (!) that tickle your ears and feed your soul.
Well it's true!
Gila / Mimbres Community Radio is a New Mexico non-profit corporation dedicated to bringing a community radio station to southwest New Mexico.
GMCR has been preparing for two and a half years for the event that is coming...
October 12, 2007
The FCC will open a window to accept applications for FULL POWER NC/E (non-commercial/educational) licenses.
Are you ready? The licenses that are becoming available October 12 are FREE to qualifying organizations like, well... Gila Mimbres / Community Radio!
However, that does not mean that there is no expense.
Broadcast Engineer
The immediate financial hurdle will be payment for an engineering study that demonstrates the technical feasibility of the frequency, power, location, etc. The good news is that we have retained one of the foremost experts in this field. The other news is that this will cost $5,000 - $7,000 dollars.
Communications Attorney
In addition, there will be legal fees for the completion of our 501(c)(3) to make donations to GMCR fully tax deductible and and to oversee the FCC application and coordinate with the broadcast engineer that will do the technical parts of the application. We are very happy to likewise have retained one of the top communications attorneys in the country that specifically focuses on community radio. We will probably be looking at $2,000 - $3000 dollars for legal expenses through the FCC filing in October.
We have a long way to go. Our goal through the filing window is $10,000 dollars.
This is where you come in!
GMCR is encouraged by the interest and responsiveness of a broad base of local folks that look forward to hearing:
* community-focused,
* non-profit,
* listener-supported,
* educational,
* non-commercial,
* volunteer based Community Radio.
Yes, we want community members on the air and participating as DJs, producers, program hosts, volunteers, members, underwriters, and supporters. We have invested considerable effort in getting the administrative underpinnings in place and obtaining our NM certification which enables us to now ask for your support.
Community Radio is an alternative to the increasingly calcified, regimented, and corporate character of the public airwaves. Community Radio is a national movement with hundreds of stations that support the broad principles of
* Reflecting the interests and issues of local communities,
* Giving expression to voices and communities that are under represented,
* Providing alternatives to the increasingly commercial nature of the public
airwaves,
* Increasing ethnic and cultural diversity on the airwaves,
* Presenting news and public affairs programming that is ignored or suppressed
by the corporate owners of most media outlets,
* Responding independently and locally to social conditions and events,
* Exploring a broader range of music and the arts,
* Promoting free speech and the protection of our Constitutional Rights,
* Being much cooler that than all that mainstream garbage!
Here We Go!
We continue to receive very encouraging updates on our prospects in the FCC application process from our attorney and engineer, Michael Couzens and Michael Brown, respectively. Both are very well known and respected, not only in their professional experience but also, in their support for community - vs corporate - radio. Their expertise is central to our effort.
These efforts to bring community radio to SW New Mexico began over two years ago with a burning desire and a loose grasp of the nature and requirements for establishing a station here. Looking back after lots of research and bootstrap education, it sometimes seemed that this day would never come and yet we are just days away from the opening of the application window!
We have had several fund raisers that have been solid successes with a great turnouts. While we have done well and expect to continue, we still have to raise a significant amount to meet our obligations with the engineer and attorney. We need your help and we need it now to make community radio a reality!
You can mail a check payable to:
Gila / Mimbres Community Radio
PO Box 117
Gila, NM 88038
Or contribute on-line at WWW.GMCR.ORG.
Think about it - 1000 people in Southwest New Mexico donating just $5 a month will push us over our fund raising goal leading up to the application and that continuing pledge of $5 a month through next spring will speed us toward raising the funds to get the station on the air and operational.
What will you have to look forward to if you pledge only $5 a month?
Think music of all kinds from here and around the world. Think news and public affairs that examines all sides of issues rather than the narrow or non-existent coverage of mainstream media. Think local issues and concerns addressed in depth on an ongoing basis. Think programming that reflects the full diversity of our community. Think volunteer DJs and program hosts from right here as well as the best available programs from across the country and around the world.
This is the vision of GMCR - Gila / Mimbres Community Radio. Now think how your organization and this community would benefit from the kind of outreach that a facility like this can provide - produce your own shows to further your mission, obtain and broadcast high quality programs that provide well organized information on your issues, respond quickly to emerging developments, and reach your constituency in a timely and consistent manner. This is also part of our vision and we hope it will become yours as well.
But what is Community Radio? Gila / Mimbres Community Radio is a member based, non-commercial, non-profit, volunteer operated model for a local radio station. We seek to provide a broadcast outlet that will cover substantial portions of the Four Counties of Grant, Catron, Luna, and Hidalgo. We will address the many segments of our community that have been underserved, neglected, or ignored by traditional media. We will provide a forum for the community and for unpopular, controversial, or neglected perspectives on important local, national, and international issues. Our volunteer Djs and program hosts will insure that local issues, concerns, tastes, and culture are always in the forefront. We see GMCR as a hub around which the energy and creativity of Southwestern New Mexico can circulate, interact, and blossom.
We will rely upon listener and community support. Our inclusive values of peace, justice, democracy, human and civil rights, multiculturalism, environmentalism, freedom of expression, and social advancement will define our policies. We will insure independence in our content and subject matter in contrast to commercial radio that is swept along by the whims of markets and advertiser pressures. GMCR's arts, cultural, and music programming shall cover a wide spectrum of expression from traditional to experimental, and reflect the diverse cultures that GMCR will serve and the breadth of human experience. GMCR shall strive for spontaneity and programming excellence, both in content and technique.
How Can I Help? In the future there will be many opportunities to sponsor programs, underwrite our operations, and contribute financially, in kind, by donations, or in a volunteer mode but you can help us now to make this a reality by making it your vision as well. At this time we ask for a letter of support and embrace of the vision we describe. Include your sense of how this could benefit your organization, further your goals, inform your constituency, bring joy, increase understanding, advance social progress, improve our economic environment, offer constructive involvement with young people, entertain, educate, and enlighten.
How Did This Begin? For the last two and a half years a group of local citizens have been meeting regularly to start such a community radio station for Silver City and the Gila and Mimbres watersheds. We are registered with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission as Gila / Mimbres Community Radio (GMCR), a non-profit corporation. Our website is www.GMCR.org.
What’s Next? Our 501(c)(3) application has been completed, and we have retained expert legal counsel to insure that we meet all requirements not only for IRS non-profit status, but the particular requirements of the FCC as well. We have also retained a broadcast engineer that will prepare the technical parts of the application in coordination with our attorney.
This fall, for a very short period, the FCC will open a window to apply for full power NC/E non-commercial / educational FM licenses to be issued to local community organizations. We are positioning ourselves for that window. Our 501(c)(3), engineering reports, and FCC applications must be ready to go when that application window opens. This is our chance to bring community radio to Southwest New Mexico.
The purpose of our effort over these last two and a half years is the oft expressed need to fill a void in our community. Gila Mimbres Community Radio will create endless opportunities for sharing information, providing entertainment, and connecting our diverse local cultures, needs and interests. All of us will be stronger, richer and healthier as a result of having a local, broad-interest community radio station. To be successful in bringing these efforts to fruition we ask for your support. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Respectfully,
Gila / Mimbres Community Radio
Gary Clauss, Director / Chair
Mary Burton Riseley, Director / Vice Chair
Kyle Johnson, Director / Secretary / Treasurer
John Fridinger, Director
Gila / Mimbres Community Radio is a New Mexico non-profit corporation dedicated to bringing a community radio station to southwest New Mexico.
GMCR has been preparing for two and a half years for the event that is coming...
October 12, 2007
The FCC will open a window to accept applications for FULL POWER NC/E (non-commercial/educational) licenses.
Are you ready? The licenses that are becoming available October 12 are FREE to qualifying organizations like, well... Gila Mimbres / Community Radio!
However, that does not mean that there is no expense.
Broadcast Engineer
The immediate financial hurdle will be payment for an engineering study that demonstrates the technical feasibility of the frequency, power, location, etc. The good news is that we have retained one of the foremost experts in this field. The other news is that this will cost $5,000 - $7,000 dollars.
Communications Attorney
In addition, there will be legal fees for the completion of our 501(c)(3) to make donations to GMCR fully tax deductible and and to oversee the FCC application and coordinate with the broadcast engineer that will do the technical parts of the application. We are very happy to likewise have retained one of the top communications attorneys in the country that specifically focuses on community radio. We will probably be looking at $2,000 - $3000 dollars for legal expenses through the FCC filing in October.
We have a long way to go. Our goal through the filing window is $10,000 dollars.
This is where you come in!
GMCR is encouraged by the interest and responsiveness of a broad base of local folks that look forward to hearing:
* community-focused,
* non-profit,
* listener-supported,
* educational,
* non-commercial,
* volunteer based Community Radio.
Yes, we want community members on the air and participating as DJs, producers, program hosts, volunteers, members, underwriters, and supporters. We have invested considerable effort in getting the administrative underpinnings in place and obtaining our NM certification which enables us to now ask for your support.
Community Radio is an alternative to the increasingly calcified, regimented, and corporate character of the public airwaves. Community Radio is a national movement with hundreds of stations that support the broad principles of
* Reflecting the interests and issues of local communities,
* Giving expression to voices and communities that are under represented,
* Providing alternatives to the increasingly commercial nature of the public
airwaves,
* Increasing ethnic and cultural diversity on the airwaves,
* Presenting news and public affairs programming that is ignored or suppressed
by the corporate owners of most media outlets,
* Responding independently and locally to social conditions and events,
* Exploring a broader range of music and the arts,
* Promoting free speech and the protection of our Constitutional Rights,
* Being much cooler that than all that mainstream garbage!
Here We Go!
We continue to receive very encouraging updates on our prospects in the FCC application process from our attorney and engineer, Michael Couzens and Michael Brown, respectively. Both are very well known and respected, not only in their professional experience but also, in their support for community - vs corporate - radio. Their expertise is central to our effort.
These efforts to bring community radio to SW New Mexico began over two years ago with a burning desire and a loose grasp of the nature and requirements for establishing a station here. Looking back after lots of research and bootstrap education, it sometimes seemed that this day would never come and yet we are just days away from the opening of the application window!
We have had several fund raisers that have been solid successes with a great turnouts. While we have done well and expect to continue, we still have to raise a significant amount to meet our obligations with the engineer and attorney. We need your help and we need it now to make community radio a reality!
You can mail a check payable to:
Gila / Mimbres Community Radio
PO Box 117
Gila, NM 88038
Or contribute on-line at WWW.GMCR.ORG.
Think about it - 1000 people in Southwest New Mexico donating just $5 a month will push us over our fund raising goal leading up to the application and that continuing pledge of $5 a month through next spring will speed us toward raising the funds to get the station on the air and operational.
What will you have to look forward to if you pledge only $5 a month?
Think music of all kinds from here and around the world. Think news and public affairs that examines all sides of issues rather than the narrow or non-existent coverage of mainstream media. Think local issues and concerns addressed in depth on an ongoing basis. Think programming that reflects the full diversity of our community. Think volunteer DJs and program hosts from right here as well as the best available programs from across the country and around the world.
This is the vision of GMCR - Gila / Mimbres Community Radio. Now think how your organization and this community would benefit from the kind of outreach that a facility like this can provide - produce your own shows to further your mission, obtain and broadcast high quality programs that provide well organized information on your issues, respond quickly to emerging developments, and reach your constituency in a timely and consistent manner. This is also part of our vision and we hope it will become yours as well.
But what is Community Radio? Gila / Mimbres Community Radio is a member based, non-commercial, non-profit, volunteer operated model for a local radio station. We seek to provide a broadcast outlet that will cover substantial portions of the Four Counties of Grant, Catron, Luna, and Hidalgo. We will address the many segments of our community that have been underserved, neglected, or ignored by traditional media. We will provide a forum for the community and for unpopular, controversial, or neglected perspectives on important local, national, and international issues. Our volunteer Djs and program hosts will insure that local issues, concerns, tastes, and culture are always in the forefront. We see GMCR as a hub around which the energy and creativity of Southwestern New Mexico can circulate, interact, and blossom.
We will rely upon listener and community support. Our inclusive values of peace, justice, democracy, human and civil rights, multiculturalism, environmentalism, freedom of expression, and social advancement will define our policies. We will insure independence in our content and subject matter in contrast to commercial radio that is swept along by the whims of markets and advertiser pressures. GMCR's arts, cultural, and music programming shall cover a wide spectrum of expression from traditional to experimental, and reflect the diverse cultures that GMCR will serve and the breadth of human experience. GMCR shall strive for spontaneity and programming excellence, both in content and technique.
How Can I Help? In the future there will be many opportunities to sponsor programs, underwrite our operations, and contribute financially, in kind, by donations, or in a volunteer mode but you can help us now to make this a reality by making it your vision as well. At this time we ask for a letter of support and embrace of the vision we describe. Include your sense of how this could benefit your organization, further your goals, inform your constituency, bring joy, increase understanding, advance social progress, improve our economic environment, offer constructive involvement with young people, entertain, educate, and enlighten.
How Did This Begin? For the last two and a half years a group of local citizens have been meeting regularly to start such a community radio station for Silver City and the Gila and Mimbres watersheds. We are registered with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission as Gila / Mimbres Community Radio (GMCR), a non-profit corporation. Our website is www.GMCR.org.
What’s Next? Our 501(c)(3) application has been completed, and we have retained expert legal counsel to insure that we meet all requirements not only for IRS non-profit status, but the particular requirements of the FCC as well. We have also retained a broadcast engineer that will prepare the technical parts of the application in coordination with our attorney.
This fall, for a very short period, the FCC will open a window to apply for full power NC/E non-commercial / educational FM licenses to be issued to local community organizations. We are positioning ourselves for that window. Our 501(c)(3), engineering reports, and FCC applications must be ready to go when that application window opens. This is our chance to bring community radio to Southwest New Mexico.
The purpose of our effort over these last two and a half years is the oft expressed need to fill a void in our community. Gila Mimbres Community Radio will create endless opportunities for sharing information, providing entertainment, and connecting our diverse local cultures, needs and interests. All of us will be stronger, richer and healthier as a result of having a local, broad-interest community radio station. To be successful in bringing these efforts to fruition we ask for your support. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Respectfully,
Gila / Mimbres Community Radio
Gary Clauss, Director / Chair
Mary Burton Riseley, Director / Vice Chair
Kyle Johnson, Director / Secretary / Treasurer
John Fridinger, Director
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