By Dallas Baxter
Contributing Writer

As a kid in Houston, Neil Chavigny would go out to his father’s car after dinner, lie across the front seat and listen to the radio – a boxing match in Chicago, news and music from even farther away places.

 “I love all kinds of radio,” Chavigny said. “I listen to short-wave radio all the time. As a teenager I loved to listen to Radio Havana, great music and lots of propaganda. There is something about listening to a signal that comes from half way around the world with no wires into your house,” Chavigny said.

After graduating from Strake Jesuit in Houston, Chavigny did a short stint as an electrical engineering student at Arizona State in Tempe, but his fascination with the world, first discovered on the radio in his dad’s car, called, and he traveled and traveled to see what was on the other side of the mountain.

In the early 90’s, Chavigny was in Prague where he helped Radio One become the first legal privately-managed radio station in the new Czech Republic.

Back in Texas in 1992, he started and subsequently sold a station in Hutto, 10 miles east of Round Rock.

All of this while really living in Austin selling lab and testing equipment to clients like Motorola, Lockheed and Sematech.

In 2000, Chavigny came to the Big Bend for the first time to visit his friend Danny Self, who owned the Marathon Motel. Visits increased and with them, the desire to leave Austin. When Chavigny met Big Bend artist Mary Baxter, the visits became longer and longer.

He moved to Marathon in late 2004 and married Baxter in 2006.

What next?

Chavigny currently heads the Marathon Chamber of Commerce. Slender and sandy-haired with a direct, cut-to-the-chase gaze through rimless glasses, he exudes energy. He describes his curiosity as “a blessing. I don’t know where I got it.”

Chavigny works hard to put Marathon on the map.

“I love living in a small town,” Chavigny said. “It’s easy to make a difference.”

And if Chavigny is going to make a difference, what better way than with a radio station?

Always interested in opportunities in radio, Chavigny stays attuned to what’s going on with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). With his friend Danny Self, who had a pirate station in Marathon for a while, he tried to get a permit for a low-power FM station, but found that the short window of opportunity typically offered by the FCC was closed.

Still, Chavigny watched and waited.

And there it was.

For the first time since 2000, the FCC was offering permits in 2007 for non-commercial educational (NCE) stations.

NCE’s are full-power stations with frequencies below 91.6 on the FM dial. They are dedicated to local programming that reflects their local audience.

Sometimes they are public radio stations. Other times not. Full power stations can be any power, between 100 watts up to 100,000 watts, depending on the location. Some stations may choose to broadcast at less power in order to keep transmitting costs down.

At first, Chavigny saw this opportunity as something only for Marathon. Then he began to think how the idea could work in Fort Davis, Marfa and Alpine as well.

The FCC first requires that these stations be sponsored by an existing community-based non-profit, though not necessarily tax exempt 501 (c) 3, organization. In Marathon, that is the volunteer fire department.

While the application is offered for free, there are start-up costs for engineering and legal help to make sure the application is filed correctly and on time. The FCC will accept only electronically-filed applications in an October 12-19, 2007 window.

Chavigny plans to donate to the sponsoring organization the approximately $4,000 necessary for the legal and engineering costs to file for the permit and receive the construction permit.

“The community would not spend one penny until the permit is received,” Chavigny said.

With the construction permit from the FCC, the station is legal and ready to begin to build, and they have three years to do it.

This period would be used to create a committee of the board of the sponsoring organization. Made up of local people in each town, the committee would be responsible for raising funds to buy equipment, renting space for an antenna and a studio and securing the services of an engineer, who will typically work for 20 or so stations.

Figuring on a 5,000 watt transmitter, a 60 foot tall tower set on a high point and an antenna (which is typically 18 inches by 9 feet tall and weighs about 60 pounds), Chavigny estimates that the funds needed for this phase of the station would be approximately $30,000.

“We would use simple studio equipment, seek to put the antenna on an existing tower and put together a music library along with partially automated music while local programming is developed,” he said.

“My idea for raising the $30,000 needed for this phase of the operation,” Chavigny said, “is to ask a number of community leaders to contribute $1,000 to $2,500 each.”

The final fundraising stage – to support the day-to-day operations of the station – would target funding a $15,000 to $30,000 operating fund created and continually replenished by donations of all sizes.

What does Chavigny envision would be the end result of creating several small radio stations?

“All the stations would be independent, on the air 24 hours a day; the programming would reflect all parts of the community. Local people on the board committee would influence the direction of the station,” Chavigny said. “I can see possibly creating an alliance of the boards, sharing programming. No programming would be franchised or syndicated.”

Mostly, Chavigny would be happiest getting all of this started and then getting out of the way. He has a sponsoring organization for the Marathon station, is close to having one in Fort Davis and is working on finding a sponsor in Marfa. No one in Alpine has approached him, but he’d be happy to work with someone who wanted to sponsor an Alpine station and invites calls at 432.386.0689.

Chavigny is a little abashed by the attention his ideas are getting.

“I don’t want to be recognized; I just want to make a contribution to the community,” he said.