KBMF-LP (102.5 FM) is a

non-commercial A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that is not carried out in the interest of Profit (economics), profit. The opposite is Commerce, commercial, something that primarily serves profit interests and is focused on bu ...

low-power

community radio Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial broadcasting, commercial and public broadcasting. Community broadcasting, Community stations serve geographic communities and communities o ...

station that broadcasts terrestrially from a transmitter atop the historic Carpenters' Union Hall in Uptown

Butte, Montana Butte ( ) is a consolidated city-county and the county seat of Silver Bow County, Montana, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow. The city covers , and, according to the 2 ...

. Broadcasting 24/7, the station showcases 60+ unique freeform music programs, two one-hour weekly news programs, and a variety of community programs. KBMF-LP's

FCC The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains ju ...

licensee is Butte America Foundation (BAmF), a

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

501(c)(3) organization A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...

. The station's slogan is "America's Most Radio".

History

KBMF-LP 102.5 FM was established as the flagship project of the Butte America Foundation in August 2013. Filing of the initial construction permit was delayed by the

2013 United States federal government shutdown From October 1 to October 17, 2013, the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government entered a Government shutdown in the United States, shutdown and curtailed most routine operations because neither Appropriations b ...

, but the permit was awarded in January 2014. After 18 months of fundraising and planning, including the "100 for 100 campaign," wherein 100 supporters donated $100 each, the Butte America Foundation filed for a broadcast license with the call letters KBMF-LP. The station first went on the air on Miners' Union Day, June 13, 2015. The radio station's training procedures and freeform ethos were modeled after

KBGA KBGA (89.9 FM), licensed to Missoula, Montana, is a college radio station on the campus of the University of Montana. It was formerly known as Revolution Radio. Josh Moyar is the current general manager of the station. KBGA was established by ...

89.9 FM in

Missoula, Montana Missoula ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, United States. It is located along the Clark Fork River near its confluence with the Bitterroot and Blackfoot rivers in western Montana and at the convergence of five ...

, the college radio station for the

University of Montana The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana, United States. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. Fall 2024 saw total enrollment hit 10,811, marki ...

. KBMF-LP's founding General Manager Clark Grant was manager of KBGA from 2011-2012 and drew heavily from established procedures and methods developed over that radio station's history. The Butte America Foundation board of directors at the time of KBMF-LP's launch included founding board president

Amanda Curtis Amanda Gayle Curtis (née Morse, born September 10, 1979) is an American politician who serves as the president of the Montana Federation of Public Employees (MFPE), Montana's largest labor union. Curtis describes herself as a socialist. She se ...

, as well as Ann Szalda-Petree, who would later become president of Missoula Community Radio.

Programming

News

Among the topics on its news programs are local politics and environmental issues. As a consequence of more than one hundred years of intensive mining, Butte is part of the largest

Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency may refer to the following government organizations: * Environmental Protection Agency (Queensland), Australia * Environmental Protection Agency (Ghana) * Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland) * Environmenta ...

Superfund site in the United States. A $30,000 grant from the NEH allows KBMF-LP to produce a series of documentaries that explore Butte's century-old mining history. Another interview series, "Let's Talk Butte," airs local interviews and oral history excerpts that explore Butte's multicultural heritage. Additionally, KBMF-LP live broadcasts Butte-Silver Bow's weekly City Council meetings and five afternoons a week airs Native America Calling. KBMF-LP regularly updates an archive of past news programming.

Support

non-commercial educational A non-commercial educational station (NCE station) is a radio station or television station that does not accept on-air advertisements (television advertisement, TV ads or radio advertisement, radio ads), as defined in the United States by the Fed ...

(NCE) station, KBMF-LP broadcasts 24/7 thanks to an avid volunteer DJ community, ongoing financial support from listeners (both terrestrial and streaming), and several grants. Grants to date have come from the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

(NEH), the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...

, the Superfund Advisory and Redevelopment Trust (SARTA), BNSF Railway Foundation, Montana History Foundation, Staples Foundation, and others.

Media

Al Jazeera

Less than a year after KBMF-LP first began broadcasting, a team from Al Jazeera English traveled to Butte to interview members of the KBMF-LP team.

Standing Rock pipeline protests

During the fall and winter of 2016-17, KBMF-LP news team members traveled three times to the

Standing Rock Sioux The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North & South Dakota controls the Standing Rock Reservation (), which straddles the border between North and South Dakota in the United States, and is inhabited by ethnic "Hunkpapa and Sihasapa bands of Lakot ...

reservation in North Dakota covering the

Dakota Access Pipeline protests The Dakota Access Pipeline Protests or the Standing Rock Protests, also known by the hashtag #NODAPL, NoDAPL, were a series of grassroots Native Americans in the United States, Native American protests against the construction of the Dakota Ac ...

on the

reservation in North Dakota. KBMF-LP subsequently aired interviews with members of the

Oceti Sakowin The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin ( ; Dakota/Lakota: ) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations people from the Great Plains of North America. The Sioux have two major linguistic divisions: the Dakota and Lakota peoples (translatio ...

tribe, as well as academics, activists and researchers visiting the camp from around the world. Additionally, more than forty newspapers published a syndicated story by a KBMF-LP news team member that detailed actions by armed forces at Backwater Bridge on the night of November 20, 2016.

Nongoma, South African global partner

In an ongoing cultural exchange, Prince Sbo Zulu and three representatives of community radio station Nongoma-FM 88.3 in the

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

n province of

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

have twice visited Butte, Montana spending several months each visit working at KBMF-LP and engaging in a state-wide cultural exchange. In 2017-18, four representatives of KBMF-LP subsequently visited Nongoma for two months, working with the African station and learning about Zulu culture and aspirations. KBMF-LP and Nongoma-FM continue to share a dedication to ongoing community education and empowerment in the name of social justice.

Historic preservation

KBMF-LP and BAmF are headquartered at the Carpenters' Union Hall, the oldest operating labor temple in Montana. Built in 1906, at the peak of Butte's architectural heyday, the three-story building was in great disrepair. KBMF-LP and BAmF volunteers are gradually refurbishing the historic building.

References

External links

Official KBMF-LP website

Official Butte America Foundation website

KBMF-LP Programming Schedule

KBMF-LP webstream

Current & Past KBMF-LP Playlists

Official Nongoma-FM 88.3 website
{{Butte Radio Community radio stations in the United States BMF-LP BMF-LP Radio stations established in 2015 2015 establishments in Montana