KBFI Upgrades to State-of-the-Art Transmitter

For more than 30 years, KBFI has been trying to get its message heard from Porthill to Paradise Valley with a transmitter that had not been upgraded since the radio station began in 1976.

But now, listeners to Bonners Ferry's 1450 AM station will be able to hear a noticeably clearer and sharper sound coming across the airwaves thanks to a new solid-state, digital 1,000-watt transmitter Blue Sky Broadcasting installed New Year's Eve.

Not only is the sound more crisp and distinct; Blue Sky's Bonners Ferry sales manager Jo Jo Baker said the $15,000 upgrade gives KBFI the ability to reach further distances. That means more listeners for the local radio station that was started by Pete Wilson 33 years ago. Blue Sky purchased KBFI in 1994.

"The old transmitter hadn't been upgraded since the station began," said Baker. "It was definitely an antique. It was a low-powered 1,000-watt transmitter that really couldn't reach up to the Canadian border. What we have now can cover Bonner County and potentially 2,000 listeners."

The new transmitter was installed in the same location as the old one in what Baker calls "Copeland Field," just southwest of the Boundary County Fairgrounds.

"Over the years, tubes had gone out of our old transmitter and it had lost a lot of strength, even though we had basically been patching it up the best that we could," he said. "The upgrade has been in the works for quite a while. It gives the community a clear, power radio station that it can enjoy without interruption from one end of the county to the other."