What do hula-hooping sessions, poetry readings, and a social worker have in common?
Low-power radio, of course.
Meet WRFR-LP 93.3 FM in Rockland, Maine. Representing an entry in the station’s weekly events calendar, a program broadcast on Thursday mornings, and a woman whose promotion airs on the station, this eclectic mix is par for the course at WRFR. (And for the record, the hula-hooping sessions, held on the second and fourth Friday of each month, are not a joke.)
This self-described “on-air voice of the community” in Rockland puts its microphone where its mouth is. The station features 54 programs from 50 volunteers, and it has some 85 sponsors, nearly all of them local.
At the helm of this operation sits Joe Steinberger, WRFR general manager. A lawyer and a former Rockland City Councilmember, Steinberger also helped found the station. During his time on the Council, Steinberger organized a taped debate that was to be broadcast on the municipal government’s cable channel. When the debate was withheld from the air because a councilmember was dissatisfied with the outcome, Steinberger lost interest in what he viewed as an overly restrictive channel.
Then he learned about low-power FM (LPFM).