Graham Nystrom

ASTORIA, Ore. – Coast Community Radio (KMUN, KTCB and KCPB), the nonprofit radio station in the Columbia-Pacific region, has received a $15,000 grant from Templin Foundation.

Station Manager Graham Nystrom wrote the grant for money toward the purchase and installation of a new 5,000-watt transmitter. This moves the station significantly closer to being able to replace the essential, but aged and often repaired, transmitter atop Megler Mountain, KMUN’s primary broadcast site. Transmitters of this kind range in cost from $30,000-$40,000.

“Regular equipment overhaul is a necessary process in the functioning and maintenance of a viable radio station like Coast Community Radio,” stated Nystrom, “In fact it was a grant from the Templin Foundation last year, funding replacement of three vital, but aging, pieces of equipment related to the transmitter, that provided the stimulus for a capital campaign to overhaul the station’s entire broadcast chain.”

The campaign is a three-year plan, of which the first year defines a goal of at least $25,000 from local foundations. The total fundraising goal for Year One of the equipment overhaul from all potential sources is $100,000.

In other good news, the station received a Clatsop County Cultural Coalition, funded by the Oregon Cultural Trust to projects that support, maintain, preserve and protect cultural programs in visual and performing arts, heritage, and humanities.

In December, Tillicum Foundation/CCR received the $2,000 grant earmarked for “Remote Broadcasting in the Community.” This project will allow the station to broadcast remotely from anywhere with an internet connection, a major enhancement to its capability.

“We couldn’t support the community without great support from CCCC, Templin and other local grants, thank you” declared Nystrom.