About

That day, Ken Pacha and Jim Pemberton decided Springfield still needed community radio, and with little more than good intentions and a few other foolhardy souls, we formed Springfield Community Broadcasters, the 501(c)3 that owns and operates the WQNA name and brand.

When we started back on this journey in 2019, there was no clear path to rebuilding a radio station, and while it’s been done before, there’s usually more involvement than some wide eye dreamers and their hopes for a far away goal.

We started fundraising in the tail end of 2019, with the sole intention of brining WQNA back to the local airwaves. We held three fundraisers, and they were well-attended and we raised a considerable sum for again, what amounted to little more than good intentions and the commitment to achieve our goals.

Unfortunately, COVID reared its nasty head, and slowed the progress we were making offline to an absolute glacial pace. During that time, we secured our 501(c)3 status, pursued other entities for their LPFM licenses, and mostly just tried to keep things moving forward so we could achieve the impossible.

Fast forward to 2023 and we’re still going. Still planning, still working to make sure we have everything together, organized, and ready to go if the opportunity arises. Then, something amazing happened. Despite only twice in their history opening a window for LPFM Construction Permits (CP), the FCC opened a third window of opportunity to apply for an LPFM license. This was monumental and unexpected. But since we’d persevered and had everything ready, we were successfully granted a construction permit for a radio station.

We’d been in talks with the owner of The Elf Shelf, planning to occupy the top floor and place our antenna tower on top of the building. We were rocking and rolling and headed towards the good times. Then, two absolutely unforeseen and unexpected events occurred.

First, we received a challenge to our CP from the FCC, based on a misunderstanding of the signature to finalize the application. Our Program Director, Jim Pemberton, is visually impaired, for almost his entire life. As such, Jim can’t “sign” a contract, rather his proxy can or he can have his hand guided to “sign”. Seeing as how this was an electronic application, neither of those were workable solutions. In the interest of honesty, we had the preparer/Our station engineer, sign the application.

The challenge was based on that, what’s known as a fatal signature error. You absolutely MUST be a board member to sign the application. But we also signed it to the best of our ability given the standing limitations. We sent in our reply to the challenge and sat back, waiting for the outcome.

While we waited, we paused our activity, as no CP would mean we had no license to build or broadcast. We’d be without a paddle up a creek, and as such, we waited patiently, but anxiously.

During that time, the second unforeseen and unexpected event occurred. A horrible fire in Downtown Springfield. Tragically, The Elf Shelf building had caught fire, leaving it a a total loss, with nearby building heavily affected, and the damage to Adams St left a lasting scar on Downtown Springfield.

https://www.wcia.com/community/the-adams-family-businesses-in-downtown-
springfield-in-recovery-from-disastrous-fire/

Faced with a double whammy of losing our location and possibly our license, we buckled down and waited to see what the next step would turn out to be for this crew of dedicated individuals. At the end of 2024, the FCC finally answered our reply to the challenge against our CP. We’d come out on top, with the FCC stating that the Signature Rule was established to prevent bad actors and for-profit parties from taking advantage of the access and outreach LPFM can provide. As such, given our community ties and good intentions, the FCC finalized and granted our CP in full.

Now, fully in possession of our CP, NFP status, and still working within our budget the search for a new studio location began anew. While Springfield is a decent sized city, the ability to co-locate a broadcast tower and a broadcast studio limits available options. With that in mind, we narrowed it down and found a home in Downtown Springfield, moving into the historic Myers Building, with our ground floor, public accessible studio on Washington Street, adjacent to the Old State Capitol.