The American River Folk Society, recognizing the need for a local radio station to serve the Georgetown Divide, applied for a construction permit to build and license a community radio station in the Georgetown area. On December 4, 2000, the Federal Communications Commission granted ARFS a permit for a low-power FM station to be operated at 95.1 FM.
In order for KFOK to qualify for licensing, it had to broadcast a minimum of 36 hours a week with at least 5 hours of broadcasting 6 days a week by December 4, 2002. KFOK went on the air on November 23, 2002, broadcasting 7 days a week with more than 40 hours of weekly programming.
Today, our 30 or so broadcasters present about 50 hours of live programming per week from our studio at Georgetown’s Main Street Plaza. Most live programming runs from about 8 am-10 pm, at about which time we switch over to a computer system that plays music though the late-night and early-morning hours so that we are on the air 24 hours a day every day.
Our live broadcasting consists primarily of a diverse range of music programming selected and created by broadcasters from the Georgetown Divide and the surrounding region. We also feature public-affairs programming on aging and senior issues, families, science and the environment, and other topics. In addition to broadcasting on the air, we stream our broadcasts onto the Internet from our website.
All personnel at the station are volunteers, so there are no paid positions, but the yearly cost to run the station is about $25,000, which includes the cost of rent, utilities, insurance, office supplies, royalty licenses, Internet broadcasting, and equipment upgrades. Because of these expenses, fund-raising continues to be a very important ongoing activity for KFOK, and we appreciate the generosity of our members, our underwriters, and the community at large.
