Fort Collins Youth Broadcasting

A quick Google search of “high school Internet radio” brings up an interesting little factoid.

Click here to see it in action…
Click here to see it in action with “I’m Feeling Lucky”…

In either case, we’re pretty stoked to be the number one high school Internet radio station in the cloud.  (Or on the Internet.  Whichever you prefer.)

While KLIK Radio just had its third birthday a couple months ago, the organization itself is now four years old! Pretty incredible if you ask me 🙂  Even more incredible is the fact that I’ve been there for every single one of them.

I was going to post a lot of statistics about what KLIK has done, but I think most of those can be seen throughout the blog (i.e. grants we’ve been awarded, number of volunteers, etc.)  Instead, I’d like to dedicate a blog post to just thanking people.  Imagine that.  I have like…four or five specific people that I want to recognize, first, but please read to the end…the most important one is last.

First and foremost, I’d like to thank my parents.  They were the ones who gave the initial $500, which was enough money to get our IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter, a classified ad in the Coloradoan about our evil plans to go on FM radio, and probably a few other things here and there.  Plus, they gave lots of other money afterwards, and tons and tons of advice and support.  Thank you.

Second, the first real board members — Elizabeth and Simone.  They helped things get off the ground and got a lot of really cool IB students involved.  Kudos and thanks to them!

A certain local foundation — who I failed to e-mail in time for this blog posting, but we’ll put their name in here as soon as we get approval — allowed us to invest thousands of dollars in equipment instead of relying on old, unreliable equipment that would have either been donated or picked up for cheap.  We can’t thank them enough for what they have done. Without their support, KLIK would probably exist, but it’d be a bucket of rust.  Thank you.

Sally Doyle, Sandra Stashak, and Ms. Mapes – even though I know for certain that 2 out of 3 of them left Poudre, they also offered a lot of support, resources, and connections that helped things get up and going.  Let’s also not forget about the fact that I got 4 credits out of the deal, too, thanks to them (winning).  So thank you!

Peter McFeely…while your position as my replacement for executive director was short-lived and rather stressful for me, you still took a chance nonetheless.  Thanks, I guess. 😛 (In all seriousness…he kept it together long enough for me to swoop back in and save it…which takes something)

Jordan Fisher…who replaced Peter…and has done pretty cool things with the station.  Thanks for taking over the project, and good luck finding a replacement 😉

And last, but certainly not least — I’d like to give a HUGE thank you to Justina Cline, who raised tons of money, spent a lot of time helping me out with things, and not to get sappy or anything…really put her heart and soul into the station.  Without her, things would definitely not be where they are today, so thank you.

To everyone who has volunteered with KLIK…thank you! Phil, Rick, CJ, Don, Ed, Al, Durrie, Ilya, Talley, Grethe, T.J., Riley, Jordan (the girl and the guy), Michelle, Michelle’s boyfriend…

…all the Taylors, Katie, LeAndra, Cody, tons of Tylers…whether its Power Hour, Big & Bad, Rice & Beans or anything in between…you guys rock and made KLIK awesome.  Without you guys, KLIK would be a pointless hunk of junk out there in the cloud, so thanks for making it what it is.

I would love to hear stories and favorite memories from volunteers about working with KLIK.  Please please please either post them here on the blog, tweet them to us @klikradio, send them to us on Facebook, or e-mail them to me directly: jake at f c y b dot org.  I’m going to post as many of the stories as I can here on the blog.

Here’s to another 4 years, KLIK. 😀

For Immediate Release:

KLIK Radio hits AM radio, changes name to KCSB-AM

Fort Collins, CO – April 1, 2011 – After years of research, bargaining, and begging, KLIK Radio finally has a radio frequency to call its own – 1670 AM.

Earlier today, Fort Collins Youth Broadcasting finally closed a deal with the FCC to purchase 1670 AM for $42.  However, since a KLIK-AM already exists, the organization was forced to change its beloved moniker to something else.  The organization chose KCSB-AM, after KC and the Sunshine Band, to showcase and praise the band’s contribution to pop music.

The money for the endeavor was donated by an anonymous donor who only stated, “I’ve loved KLIK ever since I discovered it, and I wanted to see them become a real radio station.”

“We’re incredibly excited to finally be a part of the terrestrial broadcasting scene,” said Jordan Fisher, executive director of the organization.  “AM radio is such a mature, yet forward-looking technology, there’s almost no reason to look back to Internet radio.  Even though FM radio is the dominant player in the terrestrial space right now, we’d prefer to be sent back 80 to 100 years instead of only 30 years or so.”

Cody Daig, who was recently appointed as advertising manager, is also excited for the switch to AM.  “Instead of inconclusive server logs that count the number of listeners we get, AM radio is tracked by a professional media company using radio diaries.  It’s a far more accurate approach to tracking radio listenership than anything we have with Internet radio.”

Other costs in switching to terrestrial included censoring the music library, and another local radio station chose to donate an old profanity delay to KCSB so it could broadcast live telephone calls without fear of breaking censorship rules.

“We agree that terrestrial radio signals, which can be received by anyone, need to be family friendly,” said Jake Wood, the station’s treasurer.  “We will also be removing shows from our schedule that have a history of talking about taboo or controversial subjects.  Political correctness is a priority for our new programming.”

KCSB-AM will be signing on today at 2:30 PM Mountain time to coincide with the end of the school day, but normal shows will not be starting until next Monday.

About Fort Collins Youth Broadcasting
Founded in 2007, Fort Collins Youth Broadcasting is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to creating a media outlet for high school students.  As a result, FCYB has provided incredible experiences for students hoping to pursue business administration, computer science, journalism, audio recording and engineering, and a variety of other disciplines.  FCYB operated KLIK Radio, an Internet radio station, for just over 3 years.  On April 1, 2011, KLIK Radio was shut down, and was replaced with KCSB-AM, the AM counterpart to the former KLIK Radio.  What the future holds for KCSB-AM remains to be seen.

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