KVRF

KVRF, branded Big Cabbage Radio, is a community radio station licensed to Sutton, Alaska, United States. Based in nearby Palmer, Alaska, the station broadcasts to the Matanuska-Susitna Valley with transmitters serving Sutton, Palmer, and Chickaloon. The station airs a wide variety of music, including classical, folk, country, bluegrass, blues, jazz, soul, new-age and tropical, as well as local and national shows. KVRF is owned by Radio Free Palmer, Inc.

History

Radio Free Palmer, named after Radio Free Europe, was formed in April 2005 to seek a permit to build a community radio station to serve the Palmer area. In the meantime, it offered podcasts and organized events to gauge community interest, including a talent show; it also provided archived audio of school board meetings and internet access to downtown Palmer. By 2008, the Federal Communications Commission had granted a construction permit for the station; though backers hoped to be on the air in 2009 or 2010, KVRF began broadcasting on August 23, 2011, using a transmitter gifted by KTNA in Talkeetna. Licensed to Sutton, it was inaudible in Palmer until KSKA donated its translator on Lazy Mountain to extend the service later that year.

Translators