“The Montana Radio Cafe — Front Porch Radio Served Fresh Daily.” From a Porch in Creston, Montana, Low-Power Radio’s Voice Rises – KXZI

“The Montana Radio Cafe — Front Porch Radio Served Fresh Daily.”

The floor of the broadcast booth at KXZI radio http://www.kxzi.com/ , which is, truth be told, really just Scott Johnston’s front porch, slopes gently down toward the yard, as 90-year-old farmhouse porches tend to do.

The station’s low signal goes only so far in its rural Montana locale.

Mr. Johnston, once a folksinger, says that small stations like his, if royalty payments for Web-streaming remain affordable, could have equal footing to compete with the biggest stations in the world.

Mr. Johnston’s antenna, out by the big cottonwood trees that line the road, is not as fortified as it might be either. Unsupported by wires, it sways in the wind, so that when a storm front strikes northwest Montana, the station’s signal fluctuates. And even in the best of times, 100 watts go only so far — the music cannot be heard even in nearby homes because the signal does not penetrate walls very well.

Mainstream media it is not.

By KIRK JOHNSON New York Times

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/us/08radio.html?_r=1&hpw