The fate of Concord’s KVHS radio tower is up in the air. Here’s why the community wants to save it.

KVHS broadcasts from a tower tucked in Concord s rolling hills a scarce miles southeast of the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial on the shoreline of Suisun Bay Dave Hughes doesn t have a key to access the property despite being the on-air personality behind The Beat of Diablo KVHS FM s hyperlocal evening radio show That s not normally a obstacle because there s not a physical station to unlock Instead this small DIY broadcast powered by a four-member volunteer crew and computer program remotely blasts songs inhabitants arrangement announcements event listings and other educational content through a single small antenna But continued access to the unmanned unassuming tower is now uncertain as Hughes and several other population advocates fight to prevent FM from going dark July County coaching leaders are slowly calibrating their bandwidth to buy the station s FCC frequency license for take over the lease to broadcast from the tower and accept the complicated rules attached to this publicly funded radio station While supportive of KVHS mission they ve balked at committing to a deal on-air However KVHS is part of a framework of radio stations throughout the Bay Area that regional functionaries have long depended on for getting information about locality materials and news to the society meaning locals stand to lose an major part of their safety net for disasters The only noncommercial educational FM station at this time broadcasting in Contra Costa County KVHS has been licensed to Mt Diablo Unified School District since the s But radio classes and regional training programs built by students and teachers of Clayton Valley High School ended in following the school s legally messy charter transition MDUSD first signed the station s tower lease in but has been funding all costs associated with the volunteer-led operation for the past decade In addition to Jamaican ska tracks new releases from local artists and PBS-style deep-dive reports KVHS has provided crucial inhabitants function announcements to Contra Costa County residents over the years FM is federally banned from airing advertisements promotions or anything other than information A number of other community group stations in the Bay Area serve the same purpose KALW FM is one of the oldest independently-operated educational stations in the U S owned by the San Francisco Unified School District and transmitted from Twin Peaks Assistants and students UC Berkeley s radio station KALX celebrated six decades of broadcasting on FM last year In the South Bay KSJS FM offers underground music and masses affairs from San Jose State University while Pirate Cat Radio was lately federally authorized to welcome listeners from Los Gatos and Santa Cruz at on the FM dial Concord's FM radio station KVHS will go dark on July if a executive entity does not take over its license and pay for the broadcasting tower lease Phil Moore Hughes who works as a facilities manager for a downtown San Francisco law firm when he s not moonlighting as a disc jockey noted the fate of KVHS is also a matter of area access free expression and moments of unadulterated delight I think that any municipality in central Contra Costa County anyone within the signal range should be approached formally and publicly to be given a crash program of what s going on here Hughes announced this week speaking as a volunteer and local music advocate as opposed to a representative of KVHS This is bigger than me I would hate to see this legacy just fizzle out for no reason I mean it s about money in the end MDUSD functionaries however say they can no longer afford to foot the bill which they ve estimated has been nearly half a million dollars over the past two decades A majority of the school board agreed last week that the entirely volunteer-driven operation is no longer the best financing to benefit students enrolled at MDUSD or neighboring East Bay schools especially amid legal concerns that none of that populace money has been used to provide radio classes or services for students for several years The school board put KVHS s frequency license with the Federal Communications Commission on the domain for just one dollar However the buyer must be another regime agency one of the stipulations approved in the May vote to not renew the district s five-year lease with American Tower which expires June If MDUSD fails to close a deal for the FCC license by June the station s -year-old four-letter call sign will be automatically surrendered to the federal cabinet Hughes explained the radio station s technical difficulties can be solved with a little creative thinking and trust the same way he got his foot in the door as a KVHS volunteer in The Contra Costa County Office of Learning is in preliminary discussions about the role it could play in keeping the radio station on air Superintendent of Schools Lynn Mackey proven in a message Thursday I have listened to KVHS since I was a teenager That radio station is a population treasure that should be preserved for future generations Mackey revealed We are exploring how to return the radio station to its roots as an educational pool that allowed generations of students to learn valuable skills in a diverse variety of subjects such as journalism equipment business and civic engagement The financial and legal path toward that vision however remains cloudy Marcus Walton the office s director of communications and special projects mentioned there s no set timeline for final meetings or decisions about the KVHS lease and license We re not radio people so there s a lot we re still trying to figure out Walton explained adding that they have started tapping nonprofit instruction and radio industry experts for advice before signing any paperwork MDUSD Superintendent Adam Clark who announced he was the one who reached out to Mackey with the proposal to take over KVHS for only empathizes with helpers and listeners trying to preserve the station but reported the passion for radio doesn t outweigh pressures to improve test scores school conditions or enrollment options for the students and schools in his district We have of our kids who aren t reading at or above grade level so do I not focus on that and put guidance into a radio station Clark explained CCTV Operations Director Chris Verdugo is photographed at their studios in Martinez Calif on Thursday May Speaking as a resident and taxpayer within the Mt Diablo Unified School District Verdugo has joined several group advocates fighting to prevent FM from going dark July Jose Carlos Fajardo Bay Area News Group Chris Verdugo who oversees operations of CCTV as the Director of the Office of Communications and Media and is an alum of the station s former video regional occupation effort class often thinks about the best means to share fundamental information with as multiple people as accomplishable That work includes providing access to studio equipment and recording space for local residents as well as broadcasting public-access activities But speaking as only a resident and taxpayer within the Mt Diablo Unified School District he argues that it s more significant than ever to maintain access to locally focused community-powered news a vital tenet of democracy KVHS is a society media asset part of the local information ecosystem Verdugo reported later adding that if KVHS doesn t find a buyer by July going off the air is not a total loss The station will evolve once again But this is just part of what should be serving our neighborhood