History of KGPS 98.7 LPFM

The idea of KGPS began at a Senior Pastor's conference in 1993-1994 when a Pastor from Twin Falls, Idaho spoke.  He encouraged the other pastors to consider applying for a low power FM station through CSN via translators.  Because of the opportunity to spread the Gospel to the Kingman area, Pastor Ron, along with the leadership at Calvary Chapel of Kingman, considered this.  Through prayer and the leading of the Holy Spirit, they decided to apply for a full power through CSN instead. The possibility of having the Word of God available through radio to so many people was thrilling.

Ten years later and after a lot of waiting and red tape, CSN won the bid for the high power license.  In the process, the location was moved to California and out of the Kingman area.  So, we were back to square one.

             Prior to this, in 2002, the FCC opened applications for low power stations. Considering this, it was decided to apply when Arizona opened up in 2003. 

            When we applied to the FCC, almost immediately a group of lawyers from San Francisco, Ca. filed against us.  They said that we, as Calvary Chapel, were connected together and thus a conglomeration and that we wouldn’t be adhering to the FCC rules of ownership.  Getting counsel from our lawyers, we decided to fight against this challenge before the FCC.  More challenges would be waged against us before the year was up.

            About one year later in 2004, The FCC decided in our favor, giving us the right for our application to be considered! Now for more waiting….

            With our application in place for a low power station, we began gathering information about where we could place our antenna and on what tower.

            In February of 2006, Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa held a radio conference in Murrieta , California, because of all the interest within the Calvary Chapels. This would prove to be pivotal to our progress. Pastor Ron and his wife Sally went to this conference which was very encouraging to continue with the original vision that Pastor Ron had from the Lord so many years earlier. This was also a great time to share that vision again with the body at Calvary Chapel of Kingman.

            As the workload began to grow for the radio station, it was decided that Sally would begin to back out of her fulltime job and begin helping Pastor Ron with the task at hand.

            We were finally granted a construction permit by the FCC in August of 2006. We were on the way!

            Being granted this construction permit meant that we would need to transmit from the FCC approved site within eighteen months.  All the years of waiting, and now the Lord was saying, “Move!”

            Meanwhile, the Lord was also stirring the hearts of His people to donate their time to helping us at a most crucial time in preparing the programming.

            With much help from others and being led by His Spirit, we began ordering the needed components for the station. In May of 2007, we transmitted for the first time from a spot in the desert outside of Kingman. From a 20 foot pole on the back of an old 1981 Chevy truck, we hooked up the transmitter to a generator and an I-pod, and it worked! The FCC granted our license in July of 2007. 

Since then, we have applied for two separate moves in order to get to the site where we are currently, on a forty foot pole and transmitter room being generously donated by a local resident. This setup has reached far beyond what we expected, reaching from the base of the Hualapai mountains to at least ten miles North on Stockton Hill Rd. 

We are now looking for land on which to construct a permanent tower and transmitter room. We have also applied for an additional two high power stations in the Kingman area in order to push the signal beyond Kingman.

 We marvel at God’s gracious provision to us through donations and prayer support from the body at Calvary and encouragement from the Body of Christ in the greater Kingman area. God is truly good and may His name be lifted high in Kingman!   

 

Update as of 3-1-2015

We have purchased land for a new permanent tower and transmitter room along with studios. However the construction of our new permanent location costs money. With much prayer we are looking for God’s people to lend a helping hand.

 

Our goal is to raise $150.000.00. We know nothing is too hard for God as we seek to move forward until the Lord returns.

 

Update as of 7-9-2018

In February of 2017 we found that we would have to vacate the property where the antenna and transmitter are housed due to the upcoming sale of the property. The leadership decided that now would be a good time to go forward in applying for the move through the FCC, as well as applying for a rezone to commercial to be able to build on the new land. We put in for both in March of 2017. We were granted the move by the FCC in May of 2017, however we were denied by the County council for the commercial status in April of 2017 because we wanted to put up a 100’ tower. They received no less than 18 signed petitions requesting denial by surrounding neighbors, primarily because they did not want to “see a tower in their backyard”  even though these were 1 acres lots and from north to south we had a buffer of additional acreage. As we were leaving that meeting, a sense of peace was in our hearts because we knew Jesus was in control. We had prayed for direction and He was giving it through the council. We were pleasantly surprised to be able to explain to some of the neighbors at that time that this was God’s station and He would lead us on, giving testimony as to His sovereignty!

 

We were not deterred however because the Lord has promised us that He will lead us in victory, therefore we decided to just build a 40’ tower much like the one we were using at the time. Little did we know that they wouldn’t allow us the studio there as well because, again, it needed to be on commercial land. The property just adjacent during the same meeting had been allowed to become commercial so we didn’t quite understand but we decided to commit it to prayer! As we waited, we received a letter from the council saying they would hear the matter again in June. This surprised us because we thought the matter was closed and we had been praying for direction towards another plot of land.

 

The day came and we showed up however none of the other neighbors came so we were convinced they would shoot us down once again. To our surprise they passed all 3 applications, 1) commercial zone 2) studio 3) 100’ tower! What a shock and pleasant surprise!

 

We are now beginning the build and hope to be done by the deadline of February of 2019. It has not been easy and definitely not inexpensive but our God continues to lead us in victory! We are excited to see what the Lord will do in reaching this community for Christ through the teaching of His Word.

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Update as of early January 2019-

We are now about 5 weeks away from the FCC's deadline of February 11th and are waiting for the drywallers and stucco to be finished so we can move on with the electric finish and plumbing. We are hoping to have the Certificate of Occupancy by February 4th as the tower will be stacked from the 4-7th. 

Please pray for us that the Lord would have His own way and the monies needed would come in, as we continue the build. 

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February 11th update-

As we were preparing for the week up to February 11th the weather was threatening rain and snow with high winds! But in between bad weather the Lord was faithful in bringing us fearless tower climbers on Monday and our engineers on Wednesday. They teamed up with many from the Body at Calvary as well as some from the community to put together the studio as well as the equipment room.  An amazing amount of work happened as we watched in wonder God moving through His people! 

We were able to move the equipment in exactly 8 hours and turned in the report to our lawyers by the end of the day on Friday, February 8th. Little did we know the actual file reached the FCC on Monday, February 11th- our deadline. Yes, our God is never late but aways on time.