Walking the Tracks

Ozcat Radio has lived along Vallejo’s old Sperry Mill tracks since our first year.

Ozcat's Yellow Brick Home

When we moved out of our old building, we moved to the other side of the tracks. (We didn’t find either side to be the “wrong side of the tracks.”)

Over the years, we have seen how much foot traffic goes down and over these tracks. There are well-established walking patterns, so our Yellow Brick Road Project has tried to make our section of the tracks a nicer walk.

As you could imagine we’re aghast at the idea to make these rails active again, four times a week, for 50-car ore and cement trains taking 4 to 5 minutes to cross each of 20 at-grade crossings through the North-South axis of Vallejo. Since most people are only aware of the tracks as a minor driving annoyance, I thought a visual tour would be in order. Nothing fancy, handheld, sometimes distracted, but you’ll get the idea.
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FCC Approves Ozcat for Increase to 1,000 Watts

Hey Buddy... wanna buy a watt?

When Ozcat Radio first received our FCC license as KZCT-FM in 2009, it was the outcome of a years-long battle for the frequency with out of town interests who wanted to automate it.  At that time we had to hammer out a hole in the already full Bay Area radio market, which required us to be low power, even though we have a full power license.

Circumstances have changed, so the FCC has given us the go-ahead to bump our power to 1,000 watts, a pretty hefty increase over our current 12 watts.  Yes, twelve.  If you listen when you drive, you know our weak areas of town.  This should go a long way toward fixing that, as well as boosting our signal strength all over town and our reach outside.

The expense is more than our budget will allow, so we’re holding our first ever on-air fundraiser to cover the expense of upgrading our broadcast chain:  transmitter and antenna, pre-broadcast signal processing, and a replacement for our aging control room mixing board to drive it all. Our goal is $20,000.  For which the entire community gets a better radio station.  Click the heart to show some love.

FCC Approves Ozcat Radio’s On-air License


It’s Official!  On March 28, 2011, we received the letter from the FCC authorizing Ozcat Radio for full-time on-air operation as 89.5 FM, KZCT, Vallejo.  What began two months short of six full years ago as a dream, is now a reality.  Ozcat Radio is officially Vallejo’s public radio station, a Non-Commercial Educational (NCE) station serving our slice of Solano County in all those ways a public station can serve a community. Continue reading