Dear Folks,

 Take a minute to write a support letter to Myron Jackson, Gene Colliflower and Kazie Perkins at KZGM-FM in Cabool, Missouri. This will be a community-sponsored radio station connected to the Pacifica Network (WBAI in New York and KPFA in Los Angeles etc). St Louis has KDHX and Columbia has KOPN; KZGM-FM will fill in a large blank in South-Central Missouri !!! Such programs as Democracy Now! will be on the air and the difference is we can have our own local programming that will not only be relevant here but on a national basis, might be carried across the nation. Please help this fledgling station out so they can get letters of support and grants to procure equipment and running money.  Please send letters of support to: KZGM, 1211 Ozark, Cabool, MO 65689. Dollars would be nice as well. KZGM-FM is well positioned in the heart of the Ozarks to not only reach a diverse crowd but to bring meaningful change here and elsewhere. How positively wowzers would it be to have Amy Goodman connect with us here and welcome us to Pacifica?! How cool will it be to be a beacon in a sea of Clear Channel homogenized radio.

 -tomaso

Please read what Kazie Perkins, an old friend, sent me:

 Subject: GREAT RADIO NEWS-We are now KZGM! - Letters needed now! GREAT NEWS! SUPPORT LETTERS NEEDED BY February 16!

The last few weeks have been very busy and we have some exciting news. The Federal Communications Commission has granted Real Community Radio Network our construction permit for KZGM, a new full power non-commercial FM radio station! What we need from you now is a letter to us, expressing your enthusiastic support for real community radio ( KZGM FM )in the Ozarks! SEND TO: KZGM , 1211 Ozark, Cabool, MO 65689 Your letters expressing your support for the station are needed as a very important part of our next application in the process: we will be applying for a Public Telecommunications Funding Program equipment grant. This equipment reimbursement is very important for our getting community based radio off to a sound start here in south central Missouri. And TIME IS VERY SHORT! We need letters of support arriving at our Cabool studio by Feb 16. We MUST send our application packet on Feb. 18, 2008! We need regular letters, sent by snail mail. But if there is no way you will be able to do that, (can't remember how?! ) we will include your email to us with the packet, and hope for the best! In a real pinch: emails send to: myron@KZ88.org ABOUT US : (Is this exciting or what?!...tell us via letter!)

 Real Community Radio Network Inc was formed in 2005 to bring radio to our Ozark community, to inform, educate, and entertain. Now, for the very first time the south central Ozarks will be served by a locally programmed, non-commercial, non-religious radio station: community based radio, reflecting our diversity, responding to our needs and interests. At last the people in our area will have a voice on the radio! This is an excellent opportunity for local folks to showcase their talents, share their skills, and perform their music (such music in our community!) read their poetry, listen to a story at children's bedtime story hour, tell tall tales, collect and broadcast oral histories, listen to radio reading, create and hear radio drama, old time radio shows, inform folks of local news and issues in depth, call in nature happenings and garden information, discuss the care and feeding of the Ozarks farm, women's issues, How to, Where to, When, Who....you name it... AND hear the best in music of all kinds from everywhere. We are also ready to provide a comprehensive textbook, teaching guide, software, support and airtime to area schools, that students may learn hands-on about media and broadcasting. We hope to schedule student programming and local events. Meanwhile we have been working with Pacifica Network to have access to the best of national and world news, interviews and programming. Their mission is to help us grow a great locally programmed station without interference or demands from a network. Not only will we have access to their programming such as DEMOCRACY NOW!, but we can make many of our own locally produced shows available to other stations across the country. We will also have full weather coverage, and are prepared to function as a needed voice for emergency information during local or regional emergencies, providing continuous coverage and updates.

We have been granted call letters KZGM at 88.1 FM by the FCC. We have a new website: www.KZ88.org. If you’ve always wanted to do your own radio program, this is a great opportunity for you. Whether you’d like to record your performances, share skills, host a program, produce news, read a book, or create radio PLEASE ... TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT THE STATION! Volunteer!! We will be scheduling workdays soon! Our signal will cover Cabool, Willow Springs, Mtn. Grove, West Plains, Mt.. View, Houston, Licking, Summersville and more. We will have the facilities to broadcast live from just about anywhere in our coverage area Where community radio exists it has become a popular vital part of the community. When gas hits $4 a gallon,‘tis written that rural America will feel the worst first. In good measure we can stay connected without driving our distances, via radio! We are open to listeners’ suggestions! Let us hear from you. We need community radio. It’s going to be a lot of fun and a lot of work! Grab a pen and start a letter now! Very important we show support. THANK YOU!

Kazie Perkins, Gene Colliflower, and Myron Jackson

KZGM 1211 Ozark, Cabool, Mo. 65689

417-547-4665

myron@KZ88.org

PS...About 88.1......Since we heard a comment that we 'took away NPR', we include the following: We have been granted the frequency 88.1. Yes, it is the KSMU translator frequency at Mt. Grove. They will have to change frequencies, which is a simple procedure, if KSMU is willing to continue to serve its listeners in the area. 88.1 as a translator frequency was toast regardless of us and our application.88.1 has been rendered basically useless as a translator by two other stations, one in Springfield raising its power, and one in Doniphan, which wipe out the 63 watt signal of the Mtn Grove translator. One reason for the poor reception many have complained about has been due the NPR signal being 3 watts over that of a 60 watt light bulb. This cheap form of broadcasting is not protected by FCC in any way...stations using them are considered "squatters" on the frequency. The recent FCC window was open to all. KSMU could have filed for license to protect the translator, and in fact, NPR stations across the country were advised to do so by their own industry group, mostly because of the aggressive tactics of large religious broadcast networks. KSMU did not choose to do so. During this FCC process all applicants were unknown until the application window was closed. However, when Real Community Radio filed an informal document with FCC, our plans entered the public domain. We were contacted by an out-of-state religious broadcast network. They had planned to file for 88.1 for their own use. Noting that our application would prevail due to its superior status on the FCC localism point system, and the fact that the FCC had handed down a decision limiting the number of applications per entity filing to only 10, the broadcaster decided to file elsewhere. We have saved the frequency for our own local community! Variety is the spice of life! Instead of one more of the same, we have this treasured opportunity to come together and build a station that can be highly useful as well as creative, challenging and entertaining! - kzp