Locals find voice on airwaves

By mid-October, the Carrboro-Chapel Hill area will have a new and innovative voice on the air.

Dedicated to "building community by serving the community," Carrboro's newest radio station, WCOM-FM 103.5, held an open house Sunday afternoon during the Carrboro Music Festival.

Ruffin Slater, president of the Public Gallery of Carrboro, explained the need for a station like WCOM.

"Radio stations are constantly being bought out by big companies that broadcast the same programming all over the country," he said, "(WCOM) is completely local and responsive to what local people want to hear."

Housed in an old bank building at 201 N. Greensboro St., across from Weaver Street Market, WCOM is a low-power grassroots radio station with a 5-mile broadcast range.

Low-power stations are the result of an initiative by the Federal Communications Commission to put some radio waves back into the hands of locals instead of large, corporate owners.

WCOM programming will include talk shows, eclectic music and call-ins, but anyone can propose an idea and be considered for airtime by the Programming Committee.

About 40 percent of WCOM's programming will be in Spanish, something Slater said has not been available on a local radio station until now.

Olivia Moreno, a WCOM volunteer and native of Mexico, will host a program centered around health, community information and motivation for Hispanic women.

"Life for Hispanic women is completely different in the United States, and often very stressful," Moreno said.

"I want to motivate Hispanic women in the community so that they continue to overcome the obstacles that they are met with every day."

For others, WCOM 103.5 will be a chance to hear some musical variety. "You go up and down the dial and all you hear are the same 20 songs," said Claudio Rodriguez, a volunteer on the WCOM Engineering Committee. "This is an outlet for all of that music that no one gets to hear."

It took almost three years for WCOM founders to find a space to house the station and to meet FCC requirements for a broadcast area that would not interfere with signals from local cell phone towers.

The station's remaining task has been to raise $20,000 to add to a federal grant of $33,000, which will pay for airtime and renovation of the building.

It already has raised $15,000, mostly through donations made on its Web site.

WCOM is broadcasting a continuous 30-minute loop of sample programming until mid-October, when it will begin full-blown programming.

More information or instructions on how to make a donation may be seen at the WCOM Web site, www.communityradio.coop.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.