PORT TOWNSEND — The Federal Communications Commission has granted a construction permit to Port Townsend Seventh-day Adventist Church, paving the way for religious radio programming over Jefferson County — and perhaps farther away.
Once the infrastructure is built and passes an FCC inspection, the station will receive a broadcasting license.
The non-commercial station’s effective radiated power will be 1,000 watts, said Glenn Gately, head elder at the Seventh-day Adventist Church, 331 Benton St., who is leading the radio effort.
With the amount of power allowed, Gately said the signal broadcast on the 91.1 FM frequency should reach far into the Interstate 5 corridor.
“My hope is that it will reach all the way to the Cascade Mountains,” he said.
The church applied to the FCC for a license in October 2007.
Gately said the station’s broadcast studio would be at another Seventh-day Adventist-owned building in uptown Port Townsend, a former apartment at the Jefferson Better Living Center on Bentley Street.
The center is a church-supported organization that provides clothing and household items to help the needy.
“We have three years from April 2, 2009, to get on the air,” Gately said of the FCC license. “Three years should be no problem.
Hopefully, we will be on with it in a year.”
Programming
While the station would focus on a spiritual message that “Jesus is coming soon,” parenting, health and music programming would also be included.
“We still have to tweak the programming,” Gately said.
The license application originally filed by Gately’s church, led by the Rev. Kim Berg and the church board, competed with others: KPTZ-FM, or Radio PT, now in the process of airing in Jefferson County and KSQM-FM in Sequim.
All parties involved worked out broadcast limits that will prevent those signals from crossing.
“I’m just really glad the way things worked out,” Gately said. “This way, everybody can have on the air what they want.”
The church’s application estimates it will serve a potential audience of 101,000.
The transmitter and broadcast tower will be located on Maynard Mountain overlooking Discovery Bay, south of Gardiner.
The tower, which is on stateDepartment of Natural Resources land, would beam signals west of Sequim about halfway to Port Angeles and east to Whidbey and Camano islands.
The church’s radio transmission also would extend north of the tip of Quimper Peninsula in Jefferson County south to Port Ludlow.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
