New radio station coming to Yelm

Yelm is getting a new radio station.  Brian Butler, the marketing manager of KXXO radio (MIXX96) in Olympia, confirms that he has been granted approval to construct and operate a new AM digital radio station with headquarters in Yelm.

Butler hopes to put his station on the air in the summer of 09, pending land use approval from the city and county.

The station at 1120 AM will be a directional station.  That means it will have to direct its signal so as not to compete will existing stations using the same or similar frequencies. 

The station will initially operate on 10,00 watts during  the day and power down to 6,000 watts at night.

Opening a new radio station isn’t cheap.  From 2003 when he started the process, to flipping the switch and putting the new station on the air, Butler estimates he will have spent $250,000.

(A more in-depth story on this new radio station appeared on the pages of the September 08 edition of Ken’s Corner and the Real News.)