KBCS
Encyclopedia
KBCS-FM is a noncommercial community
radio station
serving the Puget Sound
region of Seattle, Washington, USA. The station is licensed to Bellevue College and broadcasts in HD Radio
at 91.3 MHz with a power of 8,000 watts. The transmitter and studios are located in Bellevue, Washington
on the campus of the college. A 1972 student sit-in demanding studio space and a radio tower led to the creation of the station. On February 3, 1973, KBCS went on the air as a college radio station with used equipment donated by KING FM at 10 watts of power.
In 1988, the station was experiencing difficulties in maintaining the legal requirements of its operating license. In addition, Bellevue Community College administrators wanted the station to better serve the community at-large. The college then decided to hire Harriet Baskas as the new General Manager. KBCS then became licensed as a Community Radio
station.
Currently, the general manager is Steve Ramsey. Typically, music experts, journalists and social activists from the local community comprise the station's DJs, reporters and program hosts. KBCS's eclectic programming includes noncommercial folk
, jazz
, world
and blues
music rarely heard on the radio dial. Syndicated News and Public Affairs programming includes CounterSpin
, Hard Knock Radio, Democracy Now!
, GRITradio, The Takeaway
, The Sound of Young America
, BBC World News and The Michael Eric Dyson Show. The station is a Pacifica
affiliate. KBCS currently has an all volunteer news department. A team of volunteers also produces two weekly public affairs programs: Voices of Diversity and One World Report.
Community radio
Community radio is a type of radio service, that offers a third model of radio broadcasting beyond commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting. Community stations can serve geographic communities and communities of interest...
radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
serving the Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
region of Seattle, Washington, USA. The station is licensed to Bellevue College and broadcasts in HD Radio
HD Radio
HD Radio, which originally stood for "Hybrid Digital", is the trademark for iBiquity's in-band on-channel digital radio technology used by AM and FM radio stations to transmit audio and data via a digital signal in conjunction with their analog signals...
at 91.3 MHz with a power of 8,000 watts. The transmitter and studios are located in Bellevue, Washington
Bellevue, Washington
Bellevue is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, across Lake Washington from Seattle. Long known as a suburb or satellite city of Seattle, it is now categorized as an edge city or a boomburb. The population was 122,363 at the 2010 census.Downtown Bellevue is...
on the campus of the college. A 1972 student sit-in demanding studio space and a radio tower led to the creation of the station. On February 3, 1973, KBCS went on the air as a college radio station with used equipment donated by KING FM at 10 watts of power.
In 1988, the station was experiencing difficulties in maintaining the legal requirements of its operating license. In addition, Bellevue Community College administrators wanted the station to better serve the community at-large. The college then decided to hire Harriet Baskas as the new General Manager. KBCS then became licensed as a Community Radio
Community radio
Community radio is a type of radio service, that offers a third model of radio broadcasting beyond commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting. Community stations can serve geographic communities and communities of interest...
station.
Currently, the general manager is Steve Ramsey. Typically, music experts, journalists and social activists from the local community comprise the station's DJs, reporters and program hosts. KBCS's eclectic programming includes noncommercial folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, world
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
and blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
music rarely heard on the radio dial. Syndicated News and Public Affairs programming includes CounterSpin
CounterSpin
CounterSpin is a weekly, half-hour radio program produced by the progressive media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting . It is hosted by Janine Jackson, Steve Rendall, and Peter Hart, and describes itself as offering "a critical examination of the major stories every week exposes what...
, Hard Knock Radio, Democracy Now!
Democracy Now!
Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
, GRITradio, The Takeaway
The Takeaway
The Takeaway is a morning radio news program co-created and co-produced by Public Radio International and WNYC-New York Public Radio with editorial partners the BBC World Service of the United Kingdom, The New York Times, and WGBH Radio Boston of the United States...
, The Sound of Young America
The Sound of Young America
The Sound of Young America is a public radio program and podcast based in Los Angeles, California and distributed by Public Radio International...
, BBC World News and The Michael Eric Dyson Show. The station is a Pacifica
Pacifica Radio
Pacifica Radio is the oldest public radio network in the United States. It is a group of five independently operated, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations that is known for its progressive/liberal political orientation. It is also a program service supplying over 100 affiliated...
affiliate. KBCS currently has an all volunteer news department. A team of volunteers also produces two weekly public affairs programs: Voices of Diversity and One World Report.