WINNEMUCCA - Although he says he's not yet ready to announce the format for the new radio station he plans to base locally, Ken Sutherland says he's excited about the prospects of expanding his Ruby Radio Corporation (RRC) into Winnemucca.
Sutherland is president of RRC, which operates five radio stations in Elko. RRC was founded in 1992, with its first Elko radio station, "Mix 96.7." "94.5 News/Talk" was added next, followed by "Big Country 103.9," then "Z107," a high-definition radio station playing '70s and '80s hits, and finally "Coyote FM Classic Rock." RubyWantAds.com offers want ads on the web.
Sutherland said the process of putting a new station on the air is challenging, and "there are a lot of steps associated with this."
Although he owns multiple stations, starting a station is new territory for Sutherland.
"This is not what I do. I run radio stations once they're on the air," he said. "It's not coming together as fast as I'd like, but we are making progress."
Sutherland said the station will "at least" be on the air for testing purposes by June 10. However, the station will not start regular on-air broadcasting until some time after that.
The county did an inspection May 30 at the tower site for the new station on Winnemucca Mountain. Engineer Larry Wilson has been in Winnemucca off and on for weeks now, and will continue to work on getting the new station up and running through at least the middle of June.
Wilson said last week: "I have the studio running, the computer running, the music playing and we're working on the antenna to take the signal to the tower on Winnemucca Mountain for broadcast into the area." The new station's place on the FM dial is 102.7.
Technical considerations notwithstanding, Sutherland said, "The good news is every single business owner I've talked to is interested in running ads on the station. We've received a very very warm reception from the advertisers."
Sutherland offered a self-description of the company he presides over, saying, "We consider ourselves good broadcasters; we serve the community, we're a proven entity, and we work really hard to make our advertisers happy."
Determining exactly what the programming will be for the Winnemucca station is not going to happen all at once, according to Sutherland, who said, "Letting the 'personality' of the radio station develop takes time."
As an example of the concept of letting a station's personality develop, Sutherland pointed to a programming concept that developed on one of his Elko stations - a three-minute radio interview that's live every morning.
Sutherland explained the interview features a quick conversation with someone on "what's happening in the community."
"We know Winnemucca is a terrific town," said Sutherland, "and as we come to know all of the reasons why Winnemucca is a terrific town, we will figure out ways to serve the community."
Sutherland spoke of finding a means to cover local news using a combination of freelance writers and possibly existing news sources.
The radio station's studios are located upstairs in the Sheppard building at 530 Melarkey St., Suite 201.
As to the subject of local employees, Sutherland said, "We have a manager, we're looking for on-air personalities, and I will sell advertising."
Sutherland commented, "We're not coming into the community with any 'attitudes.' We're going to make friends with everyone we can."
The call letters for the new Winnemucca station are KQGB "at the moment," says Sutherland. Those are the letters attached to the radio station license he bought from the same man who sold RRC its first radio station.
He had to get FCC approval to change the city of license for KQGB to Winnemucca. Sutherland may eventually request different call letters from the FCC, something a little more catchy, he said.
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