KZSM–Is going places so help station get there
Now, in our seventh year of providing community- based programming to engage, enlighten, and entertain you, KZSM is expanding! By the end of October, we will be on the FM dial with our familiar call letters, at a frequency to be determined. With this expansion, our mission will broaden to include emergency broadcasting, a responsibility that comes with the low-power FM license that has been donated to us by the City of San Marcos.
The City of San Marcos applied for a radio station with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) following the devastating October 1998 Central Texas floods. Many residents found that information from neighboring communities was nonexistent or inaccurate to the San Marcos community during the emergency. In 2010, the FCC approved the city’s construction license for a new low power radio station.
On November 15, 2022, the San Marcos City Council voted for the transfer of the City’s low-power FM Radio Station License (KZOS) and related transmission equipment to KZSM. We are deeply grateful for this opportunity to serve the community in one more very important way.
Additional responsibilities present real challenges to our relatively small, 501(c)(3) non-profit, all-volunteer organization. We need to acquire and test equipment, hire experts, and reconfigure the studio. Hays County has generously allotted us Federal ARPA funds to cover many of these expenses, but while the work is taking place, we must pay rent, internet, insurance, music licensing fees, and other expenses. Your donation can help us keep the doors open and our programs streaming live during the transition. Go to KZSM.org and click the donate button to help out.
If, like many of us, you don’t have funds to spare, your time and interest can do just as much to help us expand our service to the community. You could join one or more of a range of committees we’ve created to structure our organization. If you have interest and experience with sound, IT, carpentry, or wiring, you could help our Operations Committee. Bookkeeping or number crunching? That’s the job of the finance committee. Public Relations or Fundraising could use your interpersonal skills or your social media expertise. If you like planning parties, you could work with our Events committee. For real radio lovers, the Programming Committee chooses and schedules shows and seeks out new ones. To learn more about any of these, email KZSMSanMarcos@ gmail.com.
