North Idaho listeners can now hear KSFC news radio at 100.3 FM. Spokane Public Radio’s newest signal provides Coeur d’Alene and the surrounding area with news and information from NPR, the BBC, the Northwest News Network, and many other programs such as On Point, TED Radio Hour, and The Takeaway.
SPR fans in North Idaho have often requested increasing the KSFC range, says SPR President and General Manager Cary Boyce. “I asked the audience at Coeur d’Alene’s Chamber of Commerce a few years ago how we might serve the area better. The overwhelming response was to provide KSFC. Every year at Art on the Green, visitors to our booth say the same thing. It’s taken some time, but today 100.3 FM is on the air.”
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted permission to power up the transmitter on July 25, 2016. SPR rents space on Canfield Butte near downtown Coeur d’Alene. It operates at a modest four watts, but its height and placement should provide excellent service to most listeners in this area for several miles.
“When we first created the KSFC service in summer 1999, we knew it would expand our mission of providing high-quality informational programming,” says Program Director Verne Windham. “We owe it to our communities to make that total public radio package available to as many people as possible.”
News programming is the most expensive part of the public radio service. Funds for Spokane Public Radio—a not-for-profit organization—are provided primarily by listener contributions, business underwriting, and grants. “Our hope is that listeners and businesses in and around Coeur d’Alene will hear the value in this expanded public radio service, and help make it sustainable in Coeur d’Alene,” Boyce says.
A KSFC program schedule is online, or call the station at (800) 328-5729 for a complimentary program guide.
KPBX 91.1 FM (news, information, classical music, jazz, entertainment) is also heard in Coeur d’Alene.