By Richard L. Doering, Community Music Programming/Radio 95
The rapid growth of the FM radio over the past decade induced a young Wyoming professor to determine the feasibility of an automated high-quality low-cost FM radio station exclusively serving subscribers of the local cable TV system.
On November 2, 1968, a $3(:00 system designed by Mr. Doering began transmitting a wide selection of musical programs in stereo to Riverton cable subscribers. It has been operating 15 hours a day ever since, at 95.0 MHz FM.
Doering makes tapes at home from his own 2,000-album record library and sells advertising time to local sponsors at $25 a day (88 cents a minute). RADIO 95 has produced quality music programs at a mere fraction of the cost of operating an FCC-licensed an-the-air station.
The terms of Doering's lease with Community Television of Wyoming (the parent company), the type of equipment he uses, the programming material he has found most successful, audience surveys, copyright clearance, advertising and publicity methods, and other practical suggestions should be of more than passing interest.
A whole new field of broadcasting may open up to hi-fi hobbyists and cable systems as a result of Mr. Doering's unique experiences with RADIO 95.