High school radio is such a rare thing that it saddens me when a station goes dark. Earlier this month, the FCC cancelled the license for the Akiachak School’s class D FM radio station KHKY because the license holder (Yupiit School District) did not renew the license.
I can’t find much information about this station, but when the school submitted its application for the license in April, 2007, the stated purpose of the station was to “address both reading and writing grade-level expectations, by offering students a chance to write scripts, PSA’s, informative pieces about the community, conduct interviews with elders, and improve communication and technical skills.” It was expected at the time that the station would “be used in conjunction with a broadcast class that would operate and maintain the station.”
The application also stated that the school served a “community of about 600 Yup’ik eskimos” in a “remote area” where there is no other FM radio station for 50 miles.
Interestingly, a concerned citizen protested the FCC’s decision to grant KHKY a construction permit, arguing that the school had operated an unlicensed FM station on the same frequency in fall 2006. The FCC dismissed the citizen’s Petition for Reconsideration and KHKY eventually went on the air as a licensed station. As recently as 2011, there was an active website for the station (dubbed Radio Husky) at KHKY.org, but that URL is now being used by an Indonesian company. The Akiachak School website has no references to a campus radio station.
