[grc] Wimberley Valley Radio • KWVH-LP 94.1 FM launch celebration

[Susan Raybuck]

As you probably heard, Wimberley was the epicenter of a record-setting flood over the Memorial Day Weekend. Eight people were swept away, including a number from a single vacation home where three related families were having a family reunion. Two young children are still missing.

Wimberley Valley Radio only had a recently granted construction permit and wasn’t yet on-air to help convey the scope of the flood and provide life-saving information. We were just preparing to launch a fundraising campaign for our capital campaign to get on the air by July 2016. I’d signed up and got phone calls, tweets, and other notifications so I began posting those to our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/RadioWimberley) knowing we had some 1700 followers and some of those would get notifications even if not looking at FB then. They might be able then to check on friends and family members and ensure their safety. About 10:30 pm my Internet provider went down so I contacted our other FB editor, Jessica Wagner, who wasn’t getting the phone calls and texts and began forwarding messages to her so she could post them. We did that until about midnight here. She lost Internet service soon after.

In the aftermath of the flood, we worked to get accurate, reliable information out on Facebook and on our website, knowing that those most harmed probably had lost phones, computers, and cars, along with homes and probably wouldn't get our information on where to get food, water, supplies, volunteer help, funds, etc. We just hoped friends would let them know. But it hurt to know so many might not find out and would feel alone and desperate.

Later that week a board member suggested we just go on the air. We realized that was the best way we could help. 

It’s a great story. (Some of it was told before in an interview you may have heard that Ursula Ruedenberg and Chris Berryhill did with Jim Ellinger and me that aired on Sprouts.) With the help of community radio friends from Austin we borrowed an antenna and transmitter. Jim Ellinger and Jerry Chamkis with Austin Airwaves, drove out in yet another terrible thunderstorm to install and test it. The low water crossing at the bottom of the hill to the transmitter was flooded and they weren’t allowed to cross. So they found a back way and headed for the ham operator’s antenna they could see on the hill. When the way was blocked by a moving van, one of them got out of the car carrying equipment and hiked 15 minutes up to the antenna. Eventually they all got there, built a temporary wooden mast and mounted the antenna they’d brought, hooked up the transmitter and started testing the signal and reach. 

After successful tests, we turned off the transmitter. That was Saturday, May 31. That Monday we applied for an emergency permit. That was denied. We tried again, asking for a permit to operate as an experimental station. Denied again. With considerable assistance from Senator John Cornyn’s office, and only after we ordered and paid half down on the antenna in our original application, KWVH-LP 94.1 FM was finally granted permission to broadcast under “Program Test Authority” for 30 days. We’ve now applied for a license to cover, and until the FCC grants or denies it, we continue to broadcast under the original permit.

We are finally going to have a launch celebration, on September 19. I wonder if some of you might consider writing a short message for the event? 


Best regards,

Susan

Susan Raybuck

Director and Acting Station Manager, Wimberley Valley Radio • KWVH 94.1 FM
PO Box 3128  •  Wimberley, TX 78676
(512) 722-3266

www.wimberleyvalleyradio.org
wimberleyvalleyradio at gmail.com