Some Tribal Organizations Feel Pressure As Radio Station Construction Deadline Approaches

With a permit expiring next month, the Native Media Resource Center is working hard at building KGUA(FM) Gualala, Calif., in time. “Little did any of us realize that the economy would tank and with that it makes fundraising harder, particularly for non-profits,” said NMRC President Peggy Berryhill. Costs of establishing a radio station have risen, she said. Most native radio projects face barriers of distance, said Loris Ann Taylor, executive director of Native Public Media. Reservations in Arizona are located miles from cities where equipment is purchased, she said. It costs more to bring the equipment to the site and “you have to often pay engineers who aren’t readily available on tribal homelands,” she said.

Out of more than 50 applications from native communities, more than 40 construction permits went to tribal nations and nonprofits serving those communities, Taylor said. While Native Americans took advantage of the application process, the overall communications landscape is still broken, she said. “We fall short of our intention for all native communities to have access to a robust and healthy information system.” Overall, tribal nations have broadband deployment at less than 10 percent penetration, few emergency communications services and there are still highways and roads that have to be paved, she said. With these issues, “you realize the significance of the role terrestrial radio stations play in providing them with essential and critical information that they need to make lifesaving decisions on a day to day basis,” she said.

The number of tribal radio stations has increased, yet elimination of the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program for FY2011 is a setback for some stations, said Berryhill and Taylor. In April, Congress approved a budget that zeroed out PTFP funds (CD April 14 p7). NMRC received a grant from the PTFP, which is helping it move closer to construction, Berryhill said. However, “for those who didn’t receive them or didn’t have the ability to apply, I would imagine it’s quite a struggle,” she said. “To have a revenue source that’s completely removed off the table provides a significant challenge to those applicants who already secured their construction permits,” Taylor said. “It places a wrench in the fundraising plans of the stations in those communities."

Existing stations could go dark if they need PTFP funds for emergencies, Taylor said. “That funding was an essential part of replacing equipment.” A tribal station is likely “to go dark and remain dark” if its transmitter goes out and power goes down, she said. Losing PTFP “is making us vulnerable at a time when communications are so important,” she added.

Some permit recipients requested deadline extensions from the Media Bureau. The bureau considers such requests on an individual basis, a bureau staffer said. “Tolling” is granted for factors like natural disasters, “litigation concerning local requirements for construction” and other circumstances preventing construction, the official said. The bureau has received requests from Coeur d'Alene Tribe for KWIS(FM) Plummer, Idaho; White Earth Recovery Project for KKWE(FM) White Earth, Minn.; and Chippewa Cree Tribe for KHEW(FM) Rocky Boy’s Reservation, Mont.

The National Congress of American Indians also submitted an extension request on behalf of tribal applicants, “who now face the prospect of having the permit expire because of cutbacks in state and federal funding for public media,” NCAI said in an FCC filing. NCAI is actively working with the FCC to look for an in-depth approach to addressing the request, an NCAI spokesman said.

As a result of the permits, the public radio landscape on tribal lands has improved, Berryhill said. “I think that it is showing a vast improvement and great achievement on behalf of tribes and organizations that are putting these stations on the air because land-based radio is still important,” she said. “We're going to continue to rely on terrestrial stations and legacy forms of communication,” Taylor said. “They still work in Indian country because it’s all we have.”