Student
based 50KW Community Radio Station WCQC
“The New Power of the Mississippi
Delta”
In a classroom setting
students will gain the tools to operate and manage a
student-based radio station located on the campus of Coahoma Community College,
a historically African-American college in the impoverished
Mississippi Delta.
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Photo Credit: Larry Binz
B.B. King visits Clarksdale, MS. The young man on the right is Omar Gordon. Omar is a graduate of The Delta Blues Museum's after-school music program. Today Omar has used his love for music as a young guitarist, entertainer and teacher in the Delta.
"B.B. King has always been one of my music idols. His music has always been special to me.I remember as a youth growing up that my grandfather had an old acoustic guitar and he would sing the blues...One of the great ambassadors of the state of Mississippi, will be 89 in September.", Jimmie E. Gates, "The Clarion-Ledger." July 2014
Who we are
Coahoma Community Collegeis located inCoahoma
County, in theU.S., StateofMississippi,
approximately four miles north of the city of Clarksdale.
The 99-acre campus lies in an agrarian setting along Clarksdale-Friars Point
Road near theMississippi River.
Establishing Coahoma County Agricultural High School in 1924, Coahoma County
became the first county in Mississippi to provide an agricultural high school
for African-Americans under the then existing “separate but equal” doctrine for
education. The junior college curriculum was added in 1949, and the name of the
institution was changed to Coahoma Junior College and Agricultural High School.
In the spring of 1995, after many years of not having an official district, a
bill was introduced into and passed by the Mississippi Legislature and signed
by the governor granting Coahoma Community College a district. Effective July
1, 1995, the Coahoma Community College district included Bolivar, Coahoma,
Quitman, Tallahatchie, and Tunica Counties.
Radio and Television
Coahoma Community College currently offers an associate’s
degree in Radio and Film. Operating and managing a radio station will be
integrated into this curriculum. The Radio and Film sequence is a program
that focuses on the theories, methods, and techniques used to plan, produce,
and distribute audio and video programs and messages. It also prepares
individuals to function as staff, which may include producers, directors, and
managers of radio and television shows and media organizations: includes instruction in media aesthetics, planning,
scheduling, and production, writing and editing, performing and directing, personnel
and facilities management, marketing and distribution; media regulations, law,
and policy; and principles of broadcast technology. Operating an on-campus
station will give students hands-on experience which will give them a better
opportunity for employment.
If we are successful in raising the needed funds
necessary to get the initial engineering and other planning work done, the
on-campus station will be operational by fall semester 2015. We need your
help to raise the initial planning money to do the groundwork to bring this
economic development project and educational tool to fruition.
During the past 10 years, we have witnessed
the demise and disappearance of local community radio stations. They have been
replaced by syndicated content from outside the market or formulaic approaches
that do not serve the interests of the community for which they hold a license.
The {Radio and Television coursework} will enable students of the Mississippi Delta
to have more chances for better employment.
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Students
will learn do the following:
·
Present
music, news, sports, weather, the time, and commercials
·
Interview
guests and moderate panels or discussions on their shows
·
Announce
station programming information, such as program schedules and station breaks
for commercials, and public service announcement (PSA) information
·
Research
topics for comments and discussion during shows
·
Read
prepared scripts on radio or television shows
·
Comment
on important news stories
·
Provide
commentary for the audience during sporting events, parades and on other
occasions
·
Select
program content
·
Make
promotional appearances at public and private events
·
Experience
working with Radio and television announcers with a variety of studio
equipment.
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The
Impact
In a June 8,
2013, article in The Economist, “Scratching
a living; A shocking rate of depopulation
in the rural South”, David Jordan, a state senator from neighboring Greenwood
said, “In the long run, education must improve dramatically for the Delta to
regain its footing. But struggling Delta counties and cities, with small tax
bases, find it hard to raise money for schools. Mississippi spends less per
student on education than all but four other states.”
It has a law, he said, that directs extra
funds to schools in poor counties, but has not complied with it, shortchanging
the neediest spots by a billion dollars over the past four years. In all the
states of the region and at the federal level, Mississippi budgets for
education and development have been getting skimpier.
According
to the Bureau and Labor Statistics in 2013 job prospects for radio announcers
have improved within the past 10 years.
Why do we need funding?
Funding requested will help us to cover the
costs of applying for a full time 5-year FM radio license, as well as the
hiring of technicians and installing the FM equipment at the College. The FCC
has reserved call letters WCQC for the station.
Coined the Home of the Blues, Coahoma County is
rich in musical history. The famous “Crossroads”, presumed to be the place
where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil to get famous playing the blues
is located in Clarksdale. We know there are many passionate young individuals
out there who want to get involved with radio and we want to give them access
to a radio school, provide them with training and allow them access to
broadcast their own radio show. Many, who are international, who have visited
the Mississippi Delta, lovers of the blues, can help to preserve this genre of music. This is your opportunity to help promote
and increase its popularity in the world of music.
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Creating and maintaining a new Radio station is a costly venture. The following
is an estimate of what the FCC approves for costs.
Production Control Room and Associated
Studio (Radio)
|
QTY
|
DESCRIPTION
|
PRICE
|
1
|
Analog
or digital audio console
|
$36,000
|
1
|
Non-linear
editing system
|
30,000
|
4
|
Speakers
|
2,000
|
2
|
Monitor
amplifiers
|
1,000
|
2
|
Audio
limiters @ $600
|
1,200
|
6
|
Microphones
with stands
|
2,000
|
2
|
Broadcast
quality CD players
|
2,000
|
2
|
Direct-drive
turntables @ $750
|
1,500
|
2
|
Stereo
turntable preamps @ $395
|
790
|
2
|
Turntable
arms @ $120
|
240
|
2
|
Stereo
cartridges for turntables @ $50
|
100
|
1
|
Custom
cabinet for audio console and turntables
|
6,000
|
1
|
6'
equipment rack with side panels
|
1,500
|
4
|
Jack
panels w/cords
|
4,800
|
2
|
Headphones
@ $150
|
300
|
1 lot
|
Miscellaneous
wire, ground strap, and installation materials
|
5,000
|
1 lot
|
Labor
for installation of production control room
|
10,000
|
TOTAL $104,430.00
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Cell Tower Lease
In addition to campus Control
Room expenses, we will need to lease space on a nearby radio tower. The average
cell tower rent averages between $19,000 per year ($1,583/month) and $36,000
per year ($3,000/month).
What happens if we don't reach our
target?
We have set a fixed funding goal. If we do not
reach our funding goal, we won’t be able to expand our project further, due to
the high costs involved in applying and installation of such equipment. Going forward once installed won’t be as
difficult, but getting started is the hardest to do.
Ways you can help
We would be more than appreciative of your financial help, but would
also be delighted if you will help us spread the word about our new and exciting
project! We
need to raise at least $100,000. All funds raised will go towards this project,
ANY amount will help. In today's world we need to learn to
work together on a community basis to make a better place for all, especially
our children. Our community has started that work and this locally based
radio station will help us continue and expand on that goal.
Other
Ways You Can Help
The
best way to help is to tell others about this exciting project. Share our story.
Your Contributions are Tax Deductible
The Quitman County Development Organization (QCDO), 501 (c)(3), has been a persistent force for the well-being of children and families in the Mississippi Delta by offering financial services that have led to increased saving among local citizens and the creation of businesses that feed the local economy, provide jobs and sustain area residents through education and economic development.
Why we care
The Mississippi Delta is known as the poorest corner
of the poorest state in America. And what little economic opportunity the
region does hold is just a few factory closures away from collapse, reports the
BBC's Paul Adams.
With Coahoma Community College’s radio station, we
believe we can give students tools and skills to express their ideas, giving
them a springboard to a world of wider opportunities. In the Delta, the means
to that end is radio. It is the technology that is most popular and
accessible.
Teaming up with CCC and Quitman County Development
Organization, we believe we can Empower Youth Through FM Radio, by providing
the necessary training, expertise, and support to ensure that the school’s
station is successful for students and teachers. It will encourage them to
participate, learn, share, and engage in a new career path. Working closely
with a variety of partners, WQQC will be a well-designed youth media project
that will, through the immediacy of gainful employment, will confer a college
degree to teach them about other paths and possibilities, other than
poverty.
As we seek to inspire students of the Mississippi
Delta we need your help.
The Mississippi Delta has long been a byword for
hard times. The region is the home of the blues, and it has never quite managed
to shake off its reputation as a place of misery, poverty and racial
inequality. Today, Nationwide, 14.3% of Americans lived in poverty in 2009. In
some counties in the Delta, it was 48%.
As the poorest region of the poorest state, the
Delta illustrates the huge income disparity in the world's richest nation. The
region is historically considered to be one of the most economically and
educationally deprived areas of the nation. Only 61.6 percent of adults in the
region have a high school diploma, compared to 80.4 percent nationwide. Adults
in Mississippi have the highest rate of low literacy in the nation, with 30
percent scoring as "Level 1" on the National Assessment of Adult
Literacy conducted by the U.S. Department of Education in 2003. Level 1
literacy is generally defined as less than fifth-grade reading and
comprehension skills. Giving these students the opportunities will drastically
help to reduce those percentages.
According to Kids Count, in my district alone,
Congressional District 2, 30,000 persons 18-24 live in poverty, that’s 47
percent of youth. Yet the area is rich
in Music, History and Culture. The Delta is the birthplace of the Blues,
arguably America’s first art form. Dr. Edgar Smith, an African American who
grew up in a juke joint community, ultimately became the Provost of the
University of Massachusetts system because he was given a chance. We want to give our students that chance.