Information Meeting - August 23rd@11am-12noon
Sacred Heart Catholic Church
St. Mary’s Parish Hall
911 Lincoln Ave @ 9th St All are invited to come and express your impute testimonies and concerns about the Breeze Radio. Get the updates for long term and short term strategies for the continuation of 107 LPFM Community Radio in the Tri City Area.
Low-powered radio station located in Port Arthur City Hall seeks to grow, new home
By COLIN GUY The Beaumont Enterprise
August, 2, 2008
Tucked in a former storage room in the Port Arthur City Hall annex, a modest radio station is poised for explosive growth.
However, the city's own growing pains mean it must first find a new home.
KSAP "The Breeze" 107.1, a low-powered FM station, has been broadcasting local content for almost three years with a 100-watt transmitter that reaches throughout a 5-mile radius.
The non-commercial station has been a watering hole for audiences with a diversity of tastes ranging from blues and zydeco to hip-hop, gospel and call-in talk shows covering local issues.
"It's a lot less rigid (than a commercial station), you're not handcuffed and it's not so time conscious," said Dwayne Diamond, a 20-year radio veteran who hosts a weekly talk show on the station.
"It's a lot more fun because the other way has changed so much from what it used to be. It's more corporate controlled now."
Stephen Mosely, founder of the non-commercial station and a shift-worker at Total Petrochemicals USA, has applied for more than $100,000 in federal grants that will allow the station to upgrade to a 10,000-watt transmitter that he said could carry its signal from downtown Port Arthur to as far away as Dallas.
They won't be broadcasting from City Hall for much longer, however...more>>>
Mayor to station: Free speech has its limits
Originally published in Current, July 14, 2008 By Jeremy Egner
The Gulf Coast city of Port Arthur, Texas, is giving a nonprofit low-power FM station four months to get its studio and offices out of City Hall after the station refused to eliminate political topics from its programs.
The city is trampling on the free-speech rights of KSAP (“The Breeze”), according to station leaders and local politicos on their side. They say Mayor Deloris “Bobbie” Prince is now trying to scuttle an alternate site as well — a city-approved plan to relocate the station to a soon-to-be-vacated firehouse.
“At some point, I think the mayor took it upon herself to get rid of the station,” says Martin Flood, a Port Arthur city councilman.
Other officials counter that the city simply needs the space now occupied by KSAP.
But they don’t deny that they want to evict the station because of what it broadcasts. As long as the station is based on city property, its penchant for political commentary could get the city in hot water with state ethics boards, which have previously fined other civic officials for plugging ballot issues on municipally-controlled broadcast stations, says Steve Fitzgibbons, city manager.
The new Arts & Entertainment District will provide our community with another avenue wherein our youth will be exposed to various activities and opportunities. For many students this will be an exciting experience while learning in a new environment. Also, some students will be able to enhance their current talent level while preparing to enter the job market in their chosen career field...more>>>
