Northwest's first Hispanic Christian radio station hits airwaves

HOOD RIVER -- The Pacific Northwest’s first 24-hour Spanish-language Christian radio station is on the air, serving this city and The Dalles.

KBNO, or “K-Bueno” (“bueno” is Spanish for “good”), hit the airwaves as a federally licensed “Class A” station at 89.3 FM on June 1. In addition to local programming, it carries programming from Texas-based World Radio Network, which is an outreach arm of HCJB Christian radio of Quito, Ecuador.

KBNO is an interdenominational project sponsored by Seaside-based Gospel Echo, Inc. Since the 1960s, Gospel Echo has placed translators, or repeater stations, for a variety of Christian radio stations in communities throughout the Northwest.

Frank Furnish, Gospel Echo founder, said the ministry’s Hood River supporters raised about $40,000 to start the station, and that many local churches contributed to the project. The license for the station was issued by federal authorities in January.

KNBO studios share a church building with the Hispanic ministry of the Hood River Christian Missionary Alliance Church. For now, local programming will be limited. “We will grow the station with the community,” said Furnish.

The station is actually Gospel Echo’s second Spanish-language project. The first is a translator licensed to Astoria at 90.5 FM, which served, according to Furnish, as a “guinea pig” for the Hood River project. He hopes to eventually increase the Astoria signal’s power to Class A strength.

The 2000 census showed that about a quarter of Hood River’s population is Hispanic, and that there are many other Northwest communities with a growing Spanish-speaking segment. “This is a huge audience that has no Christian media coverage,” said Furnish, who is excited about expanding the Spanish-language Christian radio format to other communities.

For more information, on Gospel Echo and its new oureach to Hispanic listenes, contacted Furnish at 503-738-7103.