St. Francis High School in Mountain View, California has filed paperwork with the FCC in the hopes of assigning its class D 87.9 FM high school radio license for KSFH-FM to Mountain View Public Broadcasting. According to the asset purchase agreement, the sale price is $20,000. The long-time high school radio station has been for the most part off the air following the loss of its studio during a campus remodeling project. Plans are in the works for student radio to come back in the form of a streaming radio station in 2015.
I’ve long wanted to visit KSFH and finally just stopped by in the summer of 2013. As it turned out, I managed to see the final days of the old KSFH studio, as it was slated to be torn down soon after my visit. The history of the station is a bit of a mystery, but it’s been on 87.9 since 1981 and according to an archived version of its website, the station started in 1977.
According to paperwork filed with the FCC, Mountain View Public Broadcasting’s
educational mission involves the presentation of musical, educational and cultural programming to serve the growing South Asian community in northern California’s ‘Silicon Valley’. Some of the programming will be in the Punjabi language. The exact program schedule will be determined when MVPB takes over KSFH. Tthe [sic] programming to be presented over KSFH will form a comprehensive daily effort to entertain and inform the area’s South Asian community as well as other interested persons…”
Mountain View Public Broadcasting’s President, Sukhdev Dhillon is also the president of the network Radio Punjab Broadcasting and is a principal in two Canadian radio stations. He’s also listed on the application for KIGS-AM as a Vice-President and 10% owner (which will go into effect when the Hanford, California station transfers to its new owner, New Media Broadcasting).
Messages to representatives at both St. Francis High School and at Mountain View Public Broadcasting were not returned, but I will update this article as details become available.
