Originally published KVMR Listeners’ Guide Jun./Jul. 2003
KVMR seems to be blessed with a Phoenix-like ability to turn a seemingly disastrous situation into a magical opportunity. I’ve had the honor to witness this phenomena on many occasions but one stands out in relief.
By mid-1998, we had overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles to replace our failing transmission facility on Banner Mountain. We had secured a federal grant, successfully raised our matching share, been granted a new FCC permit for the project, filed all of the necessary county paperwork, and withstood contentious public hearings. Everything appeared to be in order.
As we were filing the final papers, we discovered that because of our proximity to the local airport, we would have to have a beacon light on the top of our new tower, a condition that was specifically forbidden by Nevada County. We explored every possible mitigation measure imaginable and there was no way around it. Our project was stalled. Our team had worked for over a year to be cut off just steps short of the finish line. We were devastated and broken.
I had called the office of the Federal Aviation Administration – the folks who require beacons – no fewer than a dozen times over many months. I can’t remember why I phoned them that last time; we had pretty much conceded defeat. But one morning, I got the right person on the phone, she was in a good mood, I said things the right way, she saw things in a slightly different perspective than before, we figured out a way to process the forms that might allow things to go differently. . . and by the time I hung up the phone, we had our final approval.
The transmitter replacement project yielded, and continues to yield, a wealth of memories for the KVMR treasure chest. I remember standing on Banner summit in December 1998-the day before my birthday-when the backhoe broke ground for our new tower. I remember watching Eric Rice, Richard Tewes, Michael Keene, Thomas Greener, and Dan Bertsch working together to build our new transmitter shack. And of course, the day we threw the switch and changed the course of history at KVMR – effectively doubling our signal area in one minute. They’re all such colorful memories. But for me, it goes back to a chance morning when those magical forces that work in mysterious ways at KVMR, leveraged a phone call that made all those other memories possible.
