The Driftless Community Radio board of directors has turned to the public for ideas of what direction to take the new radio station, which will be making its way to the airwaves later this summer.

A crowd of about 50 people gathered at DCR’s station, 311 S. Main St., for a listening session Thursday, Jan. 28, to give their opinions on the types of music, programming options and the overall function of WDRT 91.9 FM.

The vision of the radio station varied greatly among those participating in the discussion. Some wanted mostly music, while others wanted more public affairs talk shows. Even the style of music the crowd desired had a wide spectrum: from classical to Americana to techno to folk.

Jim Hallberg, one of the station’s founders and now the programming director, said a big part of the mission of the radio station is to offer programming that is not currently available in the area.

A preliminary application is available for anybody wishing to submit ideas or volunteer to run a show for on-air public affairs and entertainment programming. Examples would be a public forum discussion of a particular topic, a regularly-aired talk show, a performance by a local artist or musician or an informative segment on a particular topic.

"Quality is the most important thing to start with," Hallberg said. "If we’re a dud from the beginning, it will be really hard to get folks to get back on to us."

DCR is a nonprofit 501C3 organization. As such, WDRT will be a non-commercial, educational radio station serving the Westby and Viroqua areas and as far as 25 miles from the transmitting tower situated between the two cities. The station will broadcast at 480 watts.

"The thing about the engineering study is that it’s a supposition at this point," Tamara Dean, president of the DCR board, said. "You don’t know how far the signal will reach until you actually get the tower up, power up the transmitter and send that first signal. Because of the topography in this area, it’s notoriously difficult to know, especially in the valleys, if you’re going to get a clear signal."

DCR has been streamed via the Internet from 2005 to 2009. Dean said the Internet stream will continue to run even after WDRT is fully-functional.

"We have an educational mission," Dean said. "As part of our FCC charter, we are bound to serve the community in ways that are educational and positive."

One of the ways the station will serve the public is by educating anybody who wants to get involved how to be an on-air DJ or work any of the other functions of the radio station.

"We are volunteer-run," Dean said. "We depend on all of you to contribute your talents and your time to make this work. All of us on the board are volunteers and are spending quite a bit of time."

This month about 20 local contractors, electricians and other construction workers will volunteer their time to construct the on-air and production studios at the WDRT station. Once the studios are complete, the program training will begin.

"We intend to be on the air by the end of summer," Dean said. "It’s a really aggressive schedule and that’s why I can’t stress enough that this is all volunteer-run."

More information about WDRT or DCR can be found at wdrt.org.

"We’ve been known as a few different names along the way," Dean said. "I want everybody to understand that we are the same organization."