Хорнсби–Остин қауымдық радиостансасы KOOP

Community radio station in Hornsby–Austin, Texas

KOOP (91.7 FM) (pronounced 'co op') is a noncommercial community radio station owned and operated by its members and staffed by volunteers. The station broadcasts in Austin, Texas on 91.7 MHz at an effective radiated power of 3 kilowatts and is licensed to Texas Educational Broadcasting Co operative, Inc., a nonprofit organization (doing business as KOOP Radio, previously Austin Co op Radio). The station was assigned the KOOP call letters by the Federal Communications Commission on October 27, 1993. The 91.7 frequency is shared with KVRX, the student radio station for The University of Texas at Austin. KOOP broadcasts on 91.7 FM from 9 a. m. to 7 p. m. Monday through Friday and from 9 a. m. to 10 p. m. Saturday and Sunday. KVRX, which is licensed to the University, broadcasts during the remaining hours. KOOP streams online during KVRX's broadcast hours. KOOP's studios and transmitter are located separately in East Austin.

KOOP's radio format consists of 75 locally produced shows each week. Daytime programming typically consists of music programs, while late afternoon programming is usually news. In 1994 the station shared the Austin Music Awards honor for "Best Thing To Happen in Austin" with KVRX.

The Austin Co op Radio project was initiated by James R. (Jim) Ellinger, whose community radio experience included social justice programming for prisoners, broadcast on KOPN FM in Columbia, Missouri; local information programming on KAZI FM in Austin, Texas; and engagement with NFCB (the National Federation of Community Broadcasters and AMARC (l'Association Internationale des Radiodiffuseurs Communautaires / World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters). He also worked with cooperatives in the areas of housing and food. He released a first call out for interested persons in December 1983. The first official meeting was held March 28, 1984, and a newsletter including the minutes was published.

In the summer of 1986, engineer Bob duTreil completed an engineering study for the broadcast license application, for which the fledgling station agreed to pay $2,500, the first of a number of debts incurred by the organization. An application dated July 4, 1986, was submitted to the FCC. That was rejected August 5, 1987; an additional $1,500 of engineering work was required to comply with FAA requirements, and the proposed tower height was lowered to 98 feet. On May 4, 1988, the Co op Radio checking account was frozen for 90 days, for inability to pay the $7.50 monthly fee. They still owed more than $2,000 on their engineering study. On the same day, the University of Texas student newspaper, the Daily Texan, reported that the student assembly had approved $10,000 for a frequency search. On May 11, well known community radio lawyer John Crigler of the Washington firm Haley, Bader & Potts filed a motion to dismiss and replace Co op's original application, and on June 1, the FCC stated that Co op's (amended) application would be processed "in an expedited manner." On July 25, 1988, the FCC's window for noncommercial license applications for the frequency closed. Two business days before that, The University of Texas filed a competing application, to be used for a student station The FCC awarded the license to KOOP, and the University appealed. In 1995, the FCC stopped using comparative hearings for deciding which applicant for a noncommercial educational radio frequency would win. In the summer of 1992, the FCC ordered the two applicants to share the frequency. Both applicants rejected the regulator's plan that the stations should use the frequency on alternating days. By February 1993, they had negotiated the current time sharing arrangement. KOOP also agreed to lease tower space from University station for $10,000 a year, for up to five years. Because the two stations were sharing the frequency, neither was eligible for a noncommercial radio equipment grant from the US Department of Commerce.

In early 2006, KOOP's 304 E. Fifth Street studio was hit by two fires. On 6 January a fire caused significant smoke damage; the station suspended operation for just five days and sought a new home. Before a site could be found, a second fire occurred on 4 February which destroyed KOOP's building and three adjacent structures that housed artist studios and a nightclub. Both fires were declared accidental. The first was blamed on careless smoking by a neighbor; the second, on the nightclub's faulty heating and air conditioning unit. The February fire knocked KOOP off the air for 17 days, during which time KVRX covered its sister station's hours, as it had following the original fire. KOOP resumed broadcasting on 21 February from studios at the city's classical music station KMFA. The station began broadcasting from the facility on 9 December 2006. Austin fire officials declared the incident arson and within weeks charged a former station volunteer, Paul Webster Feinstein, with setting the blaze. According to investigators, Feinstein had quit a month earlier following a dispute over the music lineup for the station's overnight webstream. On 12 June 2009, Feinstein pleaded guilty to setting the 2008 fire, and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment; however, as part of a plea agreement, Feinstein would serve 120 days at the Texas State Prison in Huntsville, pay $134,000 restitution, serve 10 years probation upon release from prison, and undergo community service and counseling. The station was back on the air within a few weeks, using studio space donated by Entercom Austin, which owns three of the city's commercial stations. KOOP returned to its Airport Boulevard studio in September 2008.