Here is our donation link to donate online. To save the 3% fees for credit card you can snail mail a check to Natural Bridges Media/KSQD, PO Box 5551, Santa Cruz, CA 95063.

Thanks to our donors, we bought the license and transmitter for 90.7 FM through many large and small donations. It took almost two years of fundraising and negotiations with various entities, but we finally did it!

• Check out our volunteer page for lots of opportunities.
• Help us get the word out by sharing the video and/or donation link on social media and tell your friends!
• Do you know people who might be able to make a major donation? Are you willing to ask them or to let us know how we might contact them to ask?

Funds go to Natural Bridges Media, the nonprofit set up to operate KSQD-FM. Funds will be used to help us maintain the ongoing expenses of a community radio station, including rent, internet, music licensing fees, utilities and much more. Detailed budgets are available to share, just ask.

We started broadcasting on February 15th, 2019.

The license, transmitter and antenna cost $265,000, and ongoing station costs are estimated at $80,000 for the first year of operation. Successive years will cost more as we scale up to take in more revenue to support the small staff.

We are starting out with many volunteers, and we have found a very reasonably priced location for the station. There are many other community stations around the country who have successfully implemented a scaled-down, locally-sourced model. (Two good examples are KWMR in West Marin http://kwmr.org/ and KVMR in Nevada City http://www.kvmr.org/ ).

We do! Natural Bridges Media is a new 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization formed in December 2017 in order to facilitate the rebirth of community radio in Santa Cruz County. While individuals can’t own a radio license, a nonprofit with a board of directors can. The station will be overseen by a diverse, committed Board of Directors. Day-to-day operations will be eventually be managed by a small paid staff, and a large group of volunteers will provide their time and knowledge to make the station a success. Our goal is maximum inclusion on a mostly volunteer-staffed, locally-focused community station.

Tune in to 90.7 and find out! Community radio reflects the unique place and culture in which we live. What does Santa Cruz sound like? You will hear familiar shows from local experts you have come to love, as well as news, public affairs, and cultural programs.

The media environment into which we are entering is one in which the audience has become accustomed to Spotify, Pandora, podcasts, NPR, BBC, national and international news, receiving much of their information and music online. We will build an audience for locally focused news and cultural programs, cultivated through engaging hosts and topics, active promotion and outreach in the community.Audiences for local radio stations grew 15-17% in the last quarter. http://current.org/2016/08/npr-stations-credit-audience-gains-to-range-of-factors/ We will be occupying a different niche for listeners. One thing community radio stations enjoy is listener loyalty. Over time, listeners become like family, giving regularly because they have a personal attachment to the hosts, programs, or the feeling they get listening. It is hard to quantify feeling connected and belonging to a community of listeners, but stations that serve their audiences well are rewarded with long term support in the form of pledges and underwriting, and many other in-kind gifts.