KDRT

KDRT is part of Davis Media Access

These people paid real money to found KDRT Handywork of MorganFlores

Frequency

101.5MHz

Call Letters

KDRT-LP "K-Dirt"

Transmitter Location

DCTV building

Transmitter Power

100 watt

Web Site

http://www.kdrt.org

Studio Phone Number

(530)792-1648

KDRT is the Davis community radio station run out of a studio in the Davis Media Access building. Click here to see a short video introducing the station. Jesse Drew of the Technocultural Studies department is heavily involved with KDRT. It is widely believed that their transmitter was actually constructed from a lightbulb. The FCC site shows that the transmitter range is quite limited, but does encompass all of Davis. KDRT is presently considering an enhancement of its wattage output.

KDRT does not stream its content currently due to the high cost of licensing, but may obtain a license before long.

KDRT is in danger. KMJE out of Gridley, CA, is planning to move its transmission antenna within 4 kilometers of KDRT. Although it will be moving closer to Davis than any other city, "Sunny 101.5" is officially changing its community to Woodland. Because KDRT is a low-power station, it comes second to commercial stations, and although KMJE is encroaching on KDRT, legally speaking KDRT would be encroaching on KMJE and would have to shut down. Their application has been submitted to the FCC, and the public has until May 29 to submit comments before they make their decision. Check this page for frequent updates, as there are many community events and opportunities to get involved coming up, and several businesses, organizations, and community members have already joined KDRT in solidarity. (Including KDVS) To read more about it, see SOS KDRT.

Construction has finished for the new KDRT studio, presently dubbed "Studio Shamu" (due to the shape of the interview table). Volunteers and staff converted a corner office into a swanky radio suite, complete with new paint, new mixer(coming soon), a spacious table, shelves(next project), carpet, and windows to both the interior of the station where the guest couch is, and also to the exterior of the building. KDRT is officially out of "the closet," (former studio was a closet) and will be the only radio station in town with a window to the outside.

KDRT broadcasted its first show from the new studio on Friday, August 4, 2006 at 8 pm.

More pictures will become available as the project completes over the course of the next month.

The previous occupant of this corner office disappeared mysteriously, paving the way for the construction. After the failed "Sweet Tangerine" test on the trim above, the decorators decided to go with a nice dark gray-green, reminiscient of a peat bog. Soon KDRT will have the most awesome studio in town. We're transmitting in your direction, KDVS. Looks more like a giant goldfish cracker. This is your community station, Davis.

Painting

KarlMogel

MorganFlores KenjiYamada

View from 5th Street

NikhilJoshi on 5th Street

"This Old Station"

Let's start by removing this load-bearing wall...

KDRT 101.5 closed for the 2005-06 holiday season, starting with the solstice. During this time, the KDRT renovation team (aka Jim plus others) was hard at work at converting the terra firma into a hewn statue made of marble, brimming with journalistic muscle. In what looks like the first half of an episode of "This old house," you can see pictures of the renovation in progress here.

DCTV's Jeff Shaw applied for KDRT's license back in 2000, when the FCC first started to license low power community stations. Four long years later, a construction permit was awarded and Jeff, along with the DCTV staff and community volunteers, set out to form a working group that would be representative of the Davis community. Within a year, KDRT was on the air, offering lots of locally produced public affairs and music programming (32 local programmers within the first 5 months!) and syndicated alternative news programming.

KDRT version 1.1KDVS veteran and now Pacifica Network Reporter, Sakura Saunders, took it upon herself to help the fledgling start-up KDRT, a self-proclaimed "half-brother-step-cousin-grandchild" of KDVS. Saunders mobilized KDVS volunteers to make carts (pre-recorded announcements) and mix CDs for the first few days of air (the station went live on September 24, 2004 at 6PM). For the first two weeks, DJs would just change CDs and keep rotating them.

Another KDVS manager (Nix Glass) stepped in and helped train some of the on-air KDRT DJs. Some have thought that KDRT would be a threat to KDVS 90.3FM. However, they are quite complementary stations and work together to liberate the airwaves from corporate control. 100 watts is very low power, but a victory towards community empowerment nonetheless. Switch on over to 101.5 when you don't like what's on KDVS, or vice versa.

Normal commercial and non-commercial FM stations broadcast their signal with thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of watts of power (wotta power). Low-power FM stations are limited to 100 watts, which makes for an average broadcast zone of just (very roughly) 3.5 miles. Largely seen as a response to the mass purchase of commercial radio stations by companies such as ClearChannel, low-power FM stations hold the promise of continuing truly independent radion into the next decade. You can read more about Low-Power FM on the FCC Low Power FM site, or read more about the technology at Howstuffworks.

It used to be that non-profit stations were given frequencies at the low end (I don't recall the exact cutoff, it was around 90MHz) and commercial stations above that. That's why it's strange that KDRT has the frequency it does. Perhaps the FCC abandoned that rule for LPFM stations. By the way, FM radio stations have channel numbers just like TV stations, but just for historical reasons people use frequencies for AM/FM radio stations and channel numbers for TV stations. The trend is toward channel numbers though. —SteveDavison

Hi, thanks for creating this wiki page about KDRT. The pirate and microradio movement has a long history, reaching much farther back than when I submitted KDRT's application to the FCC in 2000. Locally, one only has to look as far as Mark Chang, who built a transmitter which broadcasted Davis Live Radio back in the 1990's. Maybe he'll eventually edit a wiki page about microradio in Davis. —Jeff

I added a paragraph. I had to give Jeff props, cuz the station would not exist without him! -Sakura

The KDRT Schedule board.Ariela as W.A. Mozart. yee hee hee hee hee!

• Access Davis Friday 12-1:30pm by Anne Evans and rebroadcast Saturday 3-4:30pm
  

• Ariela's Appassionata Meet the Composers Friday 3-4pm by ArielaHaro and rebroadcast Saturday 8-9am, Sunday 3-4pm, Tuesday 12-1am
  

• The Inoculated Mind Science Fact and Science Fiction, Thursday 6:00-7:30pm by KarlMogel and rebroadcast Sunday 9-10:30pm
  

• Jazz Mainstreams Important recordings from the beginnings of jazz to Bebop and beyond. Co-hosted by George Moore and PeteBasofin. Broadcast Fridays, 2:30-3:00pm. Rebroadcast Saturdays, 8pm; Mondays, 7pm; and Wednesdays, 1:30pm.
  

• Duniya Dur Darshan with your host NikhilJoshi aka CharSoVeese. Indian music from Bollywood to Classical and discussion of Indian news and culture. Wednesday 8:00-9:00pm and rebroadcast Wed Noon - 1pm, Thu 8 - 9am, Sat 9 - 10pm.
  

• '"Better than Silence"' Punk, reggae, ska & screwing around with hosts RyanGonzales,
  

Clifford Garibay and sometimes Ian Hutchison, LIVE on Fridays 4-5PM

Comments:

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2006-07-19 20:31:02   I whole-heartedly approve of Studio Shamu. Stunning. —MorganFlores

2007-01-02 14:24:20   I don't think that's Karl painting, but his evil alter eqo —StevenDaubert

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