Sanders County radio station goes live

There's a new voice in Sanders County and it can be heard on the airwaves circulating from Plains.

Raf Viniard of Plains created Clark Fork River Radio Station as Internet station CFRR on FM 91.9 located in a separate studio building at his Plains residence. "It has no call letter assigned for FM yet, as we are still brand new and operating under construction license," said Viniard, who added that the station was actually "born" at the end of February, but they just completed the Beta test on June 16 and are streaming live on the Internet and syndicated through its parent company of Ram Communications, owned by him and his wife, Pam.

Viniard's first live show was at the Sanders County Fairgrounds last Thursday at the fairgrounds Independence Day celebration, "Freedom Festival." It was his first time to do a live show, but he plans to do more local events, including at the fair, and will be putting the event on their webpage as a podcast. Dozens of people visited the radio booth during the event. "It was absolutely awesome. Learned a lot and I know what to do next time," said Viniard, who talked with numerous interested advertisers and received a lot of positive feedback.

Presently, on the FM side, his station has a seven-mile radius around Plains, but he plans to add more transmitters in adjacent communities. "We raised the antenna up and I live about five miles north of town in the mountains and it was coming in loud and clear on my truck radio," said the 63-year-old Viniard, who moved from Georgia to Plains in June 2012. He added that they still had some interference, mainly due to the cable used, but he planned to change it.

"For right now, we are just broadcasting on the FM side in the Plains area using a low watt broadcast and hope to extend our reach to Thompson Falls, Trout Creek, Noxon, Hot Springs, St. Regis, and Superior over the next few months," said Viniard, who added that the station doesn't have a range limit on the Internet and said they got responses coast to coast on his first day of streaming, reaching more than 200 listeners.

He got the idea to have a station about two years ago, but he was too busy with his construction business, Huckleberry Contracting. He began buying equipment for the station last December and did an enormous amount of research on the operation of an Internet radio station. "I felt our river valley communities needed a voice and music that crosses all genres," said Viniard, whose favorite types of music are gospel and country. He said the valley has a limited variety of music styles and he hopes to change that. Viniard conducted a street marketing analysis and discovered that listeners want to return to "days gone by" - music from the 1960s, '70s, '80s, '90s, rock, country, and pop.

Clark Fork River Radio is a 24-hour broadcasting operation from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., at which time a group called the River Club takes over and will play New Wave music for the younger crowds.

Sometime this fall, he plans to include a special segment called "Montana Backwoods" on hunting, fishing, ranching, horseback riding, huckleberry picking, and other outdoor activities unique to Montanans. Viniard was the publisher of an outdoors magazine,"Montana Woods N Water," for almost four years, but it became too costly to print.

"Our world is changing fast and I feel we are about to enter a new age and the importance of timely information is so important in our small towns and communities. We may be miles apart, but we are connected not only by the river, but we are Montanans and most of us are transplants and proud to call Montana our home," said the Texas born man. "Our country is divided enough, but America is only as strong as its rural communities."

Viniard had to get a license for his radio station with the state and set up domains, along with buying software and equipment. "The most important thing was to get music licenses to ensure the artists get paid for their work," he said. Viniard spent 22 years in the Air Force and during his time he did public service announcements, his only radio broadcasting work, but he's confident it'll be successful and will eventually be looking to sell radio ads. Businesses and organizations can now go to the station's website http://www.cfrradio.com to check out advertising rates. "I think we can be very competitive in promoting businesses with a very personal touch to boot," said Viniard.

"I dabbled in TV trying to get a TV show launched called Yesterday's Outdoorsmen back when channels like Pursuit and Outdoor Channel were popular. I think I was just before my time and when I get Montana Backwoods up and running, we will bring that adventure back to life," he said. For the moment, the station will be run by volunteers he calls "River Rats," which is Viniard and his wife. "Pam is the butter to my peanut butter; she does all the music selection and programming while holding down a full-time job. She leaves all the technical and business stuff for me," he said. However, he added they'll be hiring DJs, marketing specialists and social media personalities as they increase their financial footing.

"We are excited about getting the high school kids involved in broadcasting. We will be working with the local schools to try and make that happen this year," he said.