KOWS--FM moving to Sebastopol Methodist Church

[Shepherd]

Following is this week's Bohemian article announcing that the wonderful KOWS-FM radio station is moving to the Sebastopol Methodist Church. If you go to the Bohemian's website, you can make comments and help welcome this community station to our small town.

Coming Home: Nonprofit Occidental radio station KOWS-FM relocates to Sebastopol

BY TOM GOGOLA

HAM FOR KOWS Station programmer and host Minkoff Chatoy
is thrilled about KOWS’ new location inside a classroom
at the United Methodist Church.

KOWS is on the move, or as they like to say, they're on the moooo—OK, you get it.

Mandatory cow joke dispensed with, here's the news: the offbeat Occidental community radio station, 107.3 on the FM dial, is poised to sign a new lease and start the process of relocation this week to a classroom at the United Methodist Church in downtown Sebastopol. They'll be fully jacked-in at the new space come Dec. 1, if all goes according to plan.

And it looks like it is. Late last week, a few members of the all-volunteer nonprofit descended on the new space to sketch out the hows and wheres of installing a control studio in the classroom.

Programmer Arnold Levine, a Brit with an elfin mien and a gold ear cuff, scoped out the work ahead with another station volunteer while a church employee, the man with the key, looked on.

Meanwhile, effervescent volunteer programmer Minkoff Chatoy provided spirited color commentary to the technically involved proceedings getting underway. Chatoy is host of A Fool in the Forest, Tuesdays from 8pm to 9pm, and she bursts into the new space with a delighted gasp, grabs some chalk and draws the KOWS logo on a chalkboard as she raves about KOWS coming home to Sebastopol; the station has been scoping a new home here for about a year and a half.

The community station has been broadcasting for eight years ...

Continue reading here: https://www.bohemian.com/northbay/co...nt?oid=2764104

[Shepherd]

Dear Sebastopol City Council Members, Manager, Planning Director, and Clerk,

I was glad to see that the agenda of your Nov. 3 meeting includes a proposal by KOWS-107.3 FM to lease the antenna at the Pleasant Hill Reservoir. I write to support that request, since it would be a great community service. KOWS excites so many West County listeners of this non-profit radio station, which has functioned for nearly a decade out of Occidental. It soon will be moving its studio to the downtown Sebastopol Methodist Church, which also was one of the first sites of the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, helping it grow into the wonderful place that it has evolved to be. If KOWS has an antenna closer to town, more local residents can listen to their diverse programming.

It also has a wider state, national, and international listenership through its online broadcasting. This would bring more music, news, specialty programs, enjoyment, and information into and beyond our lives, as well as alerts on fire, flood, road closures, and other emergencies.

Many of you probably saw or will see this week's Bohemian article about the move, with an attractive photo of our United Methodist Church. You can read it at the following link:

https://www.bohemian.com/northbay/co...nt?oid=2764104

Let's give a hearty welcome to KOWS' move to Sebastopol!Shepherd BlissFollowing is this week's Bohemian article announcing that the wonderful KOWS-FM radio station is moving to the Sebastopol Methodist Church.

If you go to the Bohemian's website, you can make comments and help welcome this community station to our small town.

[spam1]

Dear Sebastopol City Council Members, Manager, Planning Director, and Clerk,

I was glad to see that the agenda of your Nov. 3 meeting includes a proposal by KOWS-107.3 FM to lease the antenna at the Pleasant Hill Reservoir. .

Where's the outcry about EMF! I'm guessing this station is much more powerful than the small wifi or PGE smart meters.

Moving the antenna will expose even more people to the potential cancer causing agent. There's been too little study of EMF to justify taking the risk....

Warning: the previous post was a sarcastic attempt to point out the foolish inconsistencies often seen on the bb.

[Ted Pole]

Cool for S'pol. Not so much for Occidental, but on a purely selfish level, I'll be happy to hear KOWS more better. As a former disc jockey, I much prefer the freeform content of stations like KOWS to the usual stuff on the radio.

[Shepherd]

The following short update on the KOWS-107.3 FM move to Sebastopol appears in this week's Bohemian. I will be interviewed this evening on Laura Goldman's "Laura's Living Room," which goes from 5 to 7 p.m. The current plan for KOWS to start broadcasting from Sebastopol in late Nov. or early Dec. There was also a longer article in this week's Sonoma West about this move.

KOWS Almost Home

This will be last time we use this clever headline device for a while. Or at least until the cows come home.

Expand

We recently wrote about radio station KOWS and its move to a classroom at the United Methodist Church in Sebastopol ("Coming Home", Oct. 28).

The lease has been signed, and KOWS moved on to resolve another key piece of its relocation plan: a Sebastopol-based station antenna, now that the community radio station is leaving Occidental, where it utilized space for its current antenna up a hill outside of town on the Coleman Valley Road.

Station representatives appeared before the Sebastopol City Council to see if KOWS could lease city-owned land at the Pleasant Hill Reservoir and put a new antenna there. The council approved the plan Nov. 3.

"It was a unanimous decision by the council to go forward with our proposal into the permitting stage," says station programmer Arnold Levine. But the radio station had to assure the council that it wouldn't let anyone else's antennae onto the mast—a concern, says Levine, because of a previous and failed attempt by a cell-phone service provider to use the tower.

"It was not something we had considered," Levine says, "as it would cost us more to beef up the mast and the foundation, which we can barely afford now. We assured them it was just for us."

The KOWS crew is now asking for a set of three fee waivers from Sebastopol so it can fast-track the permitting process to set up the antenna, and make sure the new setup is aligned with Federal Communication Commission (FCC) requirements. "All the costs for the new mast, antenna, transmitter shed, wiring and cabling will be paid by KOWS," Levine says, and adds that the station will also boost its signal from 25 to 35–50 watts. —Tom Gogola

Cool for S'pol. Not so much for Occidental, but on a purely selfish level, I'll be happy to hear KOWS more better..

[IgorGold]

This is great news and an important development for Sonoma County. I'd like to know if the station is entertaining expanded programming to match its extended range and if so, who to contact with proposals for new publically oriented radio programs? ~Igor

...We recently wrote about radio station KOWS and its move to a classroom at the United Methodist Church in Sebastopol ("Coming Home", Oct. 28)...