Copyright 2000 The Omaha World-Herald Company
Omaha
World-Herald
September 1, 2000, Friday SUNRISE EDITION
SECTION: LIVING; Pg. 45;
LENGTH: 1136 words
HEADLINE:
Tuning In To North Omaha Wes Hall wants a radio station for a part of the city
that is still underserved Brown to Be in Town For 'Power Seminar'
BYLINE: SIBYL MYERS
SOURCE:
WORLD-HERALD CORRESPONDENT
BODY:
Behind a push to
create a new radio station in north Omaha is a void felt by urban listeners and
the lack of a vehicle to deliver information about community concerns and
neighborhood improvements.
Omahan Wes Hall, founder of the nonprofit
Suntaman Communications, is gathering community support in his effort to obtain
a license for one of the low-power FM frequencies the Federal
Communications Commission recently made available. A low-power station has 100
watts with a broadcast radius of eight to 10 miles.
Even if Hall
succeeds, however, a neighborhood radio station won't happen anytime soon. The
FCC created a lottery to determine when states can apply for licenses, said
Brian Butler, engineering supervisor in the audio services division of the FCC's
Mass Media Bureau in Washington, D.C.
Nebraska was last in the lottery,
which means the application deadline is May 2001. The FCC has not determined how
many licenses will be granted in each state. It depends on the availability of
space between frequencies in a given area, said Butler, who added that licenses
will be granted on a first-come, first-served basis.
Omaha needs an
urban radio station, said Hall, who has 16 years experience as a DJ, on-air
personality and program director. Born in Cleveland and raised in Des Moines, he
came to Omaha in 1997 from Oakland, Calif., to serve as morning host of
then-urban radio station KNOS.
"It's fine to hear a few stations playing
'black' music, but we need information about the occurrences that affect our
lives on a day-to-day basis," he said. "The vehicle of a radio station affords
us an opportunity to dialogue about the needs of our community."
The FCC
has said applicants must:
Be a noncommercial educational entity.
Have been in the market area a minimum of two years.
Show
collaborations with community organizations.
Broadcast local
programming.
Hall estimates he needs an initial $ 250,000 to get the
station going, with an annual operating budget of $ 100,000. Suntaman
Communications is sponsoring its first fund-raising event Sept. 9 with a seminar
and banquet featuring motivational speaker and best-selling author Les Brown.
Brown is waiving his usual fee of $ 15,000 for the Omaha speaking
engagement, said Hall, who hopes the event raises the first $ 30,000 for the
proposed station.
The goal of Suntaman is to create a flagship station
in Omaha and then pursue other underserved urban markets in the region, Hall
said. A key component is to get local communities involved.
"This is not
an individual effort. We want to know what north Omaha wants as far as
information. We want to get the message out. This is a communications vehicle to
help the community grow."
The station also would offer an opportunity to
introduce students to broadcast careers and provide on-the-job training, he
said. Hall has developed a communications curriculum and worked with students at
the Butler-Gast YMCA, Boys and Girls Clubs of Omaha and Jesuit Middle School.
Other community collaborations have included programs with the Malcolm X
Memorial Foundation and the Husker Heisman NCAA Foundation Youth Pro Sports
Career Fair.
Organizations supporting the proposed radio station include
the Omaha Branch of the NAACP, 100 Black Men of Omaha, Black United Fund and
Urban League of Nebraska. Among those writing letters of support were:
Paul Penny, president of the Black United Fund, who said: "We understand
the importance of establishing a communication voice for the over 50,000
African-American residents in the Omaha metropolitan area."
Mayor Hal
Daub: "I wholeheartedly support this type of initiative. A station that will
service the businesses and residents of north Omaha will stimulate growth and
development that is much needed in the community."
Tim Clark, executive
director of the Butler-Gast YMCA, said he hopes area businesses and residents
support the endeavor.
"The community has to embrace the idea and come
together to really make it happen," Clark said. "Since we're talking about a
community station, the community needs to be active and take ownership."
The poor track record of urban radio stations in Omaha poses a
challenge, Hall said, because the community doubts that such an endeavor can
succeed. Problems of previous stations included weak radio signals, a lack of
professional staff and little advertising support, he said.
It's been
nearly two years since owner Bill Thompson sold KNOS (88.9 FM) to VSS Catholic
Communications Inc. KVSS, Omaha's first Catholic radio station, now occupies the
frequency.
Before KNOS was on the air, from May 1997 to November 1998,
Omaha had been without an urban station for about 10 years.
KOWH-AM
operated in the 1970s, followed by KBWH-FM in the '80s. KBBX (1420 AM), which
converted to an all-Spanish format in 1998, broadcast syndicated urban oldies
programming for a short time.
Hall is seeking a location for the
proposed station - a building of approximately 5,000 square feet in an area
roughly bounded by 24th and 40th Streets, from Ames Avenue to Cuming Street.
His projections for staff include a general manager, program director,
sales manager, business manager, engineer and about seven on-air personalities.
The station's target demographic would be listeners ages 25 and older,
he said. Music would include urban adult contemporary, R&B, jazz, gospel and
possibly blues. Other programming would feature news, current events,
informational programs and talk shows with professional moderators, Hall said.
His goal is to be on the air in September 2001.
The mission of
Suntaman is to create a professional radio station with a lot of community
involvement, he said.
"It's going to be a small radio station in a minor
market with a major-market feel."
Brown to Be in Town For 'Power
Seminar'
Motivational speaker, author and broadcast personality Les
Brown will be in Omaha Sept. 9 for a seminar and banquet to benefit Suntaman
Communications, a nonprofit organization seeking to create a new urban radio
station in north Omaha.
Brown will present his "Power Seminar 2000" from
9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Doubletree Hotel, 1616 Dodge St. The theme is "Have the
Best Year Ever." About 300 tickets are available. The cost is $ 39 per person. A
6 p.m. banquet will be held at the Wingate Hotel in Carter Lake, Iowa, near
Eppley Airfield. Tickets are $ 35 per person.
The price for both the
seminar and banquet is $ 60 per person. For tickets, call 391-9191. Or mail
checks to Suntaman Communications, P.O. Box 11904, Omaha, NE 68111. Additional
information is available by visiting the Web site
(www.omahavoices.com/lesbrown.htm).
GRAPHIC:
B&W Photo/1 NEW WAVE: Wes Hall stands in front of a community mural at 24th
and Grant Streets that traces the evolution of jazz, gospel, blues and
R&B-the type of music his proposed nonprofit radio station would play. The
station would be located somewhere in the area of 24th and 40th Streets, from
Ames Avenue to Cuming Street.; Rich Janda/World-Herald/1sf
LOAD-DATE: September 5, 2000 
