If the turnout for last night’s first “public forum” for KIND 99.1 FM is any indication, the station shouldn’t have any problem attracting volunteers. By 7 p.m., every table in PS Collective was filled — more than 40 people were there to hear what the station was all about. The presentation began with the playing of another Dave Webber-voiced station promo over a logo-emblazened Powerpoint presentation while volunteers handed out agendas that listed the station’s “Goals and Intentions.” I’m not going into details, it’s pretty much what you expected — a home-grown radio station with a range of 10 blocks (you can read the background here).

The station’s entire team of program coordinators already has been selected. The program director is longtime radio veteran Mary O’Keefe, “CD Releases” music programmer is The Reader‘s Jesse Stanek. There’s also a slew of specialty personnel covering everything from “Comedy” (Matt Geiler) to “Independent Film” (Lauren Van Buskirk).

The station even has its own website up and running at kindfm.com (not sure why they didn’t get a .org site since they’re non-commercial, but oh well). Podcast/streaming is definitely in the works.

The hour-long meeting was mostly background stuff, except for one interesting tidbit: Station organizers intend to set up “repeater” transmitters in attics all over town, each broadcasting at a power level well within the limits of the FCC, essentially creating a pseudo 100 milliwatt citywide network. The engineer on hand said such tiny transmitters are cheap, easy to set up, and take almost no noticeable power to operate. Judging by the interest in the audience, plenty of people are willing to wire up transmitters as soon as the station begins operating.

Station organizer Shawn Halpenny appeared to be blown away by the turnout for the first meeting. And I have no doubt that the station will eventually be broadcasting, for as he said, his “reputation is on the line.” Halpenny explained that they were accepting any and all programming contributions as long as the content was legal. This brought up the question of the legality of airing BMI/ASCAP music. When asked by Coyote Bones frontman David Matysiak if they would play BMI/ASCAP material, O’Keefe quickly said “No,” but Nils Erickson, who runs Rainbow Recording Studio and who donated some equipment for the station, said they could air BMI/ASCAP music as long as artists signed a written waiver, which will be available from kindfm.com. No ASCAP/BMI content would be a real deal-breaker for the station. Even the smallest bands with or without a label have some sort of BMI/ASCAP agreement. Frankly, without the ability to broadcast ASCAP/BMI-represented performers, KIND would only be able to play amateur-level artists.

So when’s it going live? No one knew for sure, though it likely will be in the next few months. Volunteers were asked to fill out an “Interest Intake” form detailing what they wanted to do. Now it’s up to organizer Amy Ryan to sort through them all and begin assigning tasks… Stay tuned.

* * *

This weekend is front-loaded with shows — there’s tons going on tonight, and almost nothing tomorrow night.

Tonight at O’Leaver’s it’s The Third Men with The Diplomats of Solid Sound featuring the legendary Diplomettes — the band’s female back-up singers. I have visions of the scene from Apocalypse Now when the drunken troops stormed the stage and the Playboy Bunnies had to be helicoptered to safety. This could be interesting. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, there’s a rare live music show over at The Saddle Creek Bar tonight featuring Adam Weaver, Car Then Cars, UUVVWWZ and Crush The Clown. Show starts at 9 and is FREE.

Over at The Waiting Room it’s The Mercurys with gritty twang rockers The Filter Kings. $7, 9 p.m.

And finally, down at The Bemis Underground, it’s Black Hundreds and Columbia vs. Challenger for a free show that starts at 9.

Then it’s Saturday, and the only show of consequence is The Whipkey Three and Sarah Benck (sans The Robbers) at Mick’s. $5, 9 p.m.

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