Roger Parmenter enjoys helping people.

And right now Parmenter is looking at bringing Ames its own community radio station.

Parmenter has teamed up with Iowa State’s FM radio station, KURE, in an effort to bring Iowa State and the entire Ames community its first true community radio station. Right now, the student-run KURE focuses on the ISU campus.

While KURE is planning to help Parmenter in any way it can, both stations are making sure they don’t interfere with each other.

“We tried to think of ways we can work together. It turned out that it was possible; we are looking forward to working with KURE. Both stations will be serving Ames as well as the communities to the north,” Parmenter said.

“Radio Rog,” as he’s sometimes called, had his first experience with radio during high school, working on air at the school’s radio station.

“I became interested in electrical engineering during high school,” Parmenter said.

Those interests led him to Purdue University, where he majored in electrical engineering and then upon graduation took a job with Hewlett-Packard that took him around the world.

But Parmenter, retired since 2001, got the idea for community radio after he invested in a satellite radio this past February.

As he and his wife were driving across the country, he heard that the government would be opening up space for people to start community radio stations in spaces that weren’t already spoken for.

“Let me tell you, there’s nothing worse than driving across the country and hearing nothing but country music and sermons,” Parmenter said.

Parmenter saw this as a great opportunity.

“I got together with a company called Pacifica, who informed me that there was already a team set up in Ames,” Parmenter said. “Luckily for us, that team folded.”

Parmenter is going to base his radio station on three main themes: knowledge absorption, health and politics. For music, he plans to broadcast some jazz, bluegrass and local talent. He will also air local high school football and basketball games in towns that had no coverage before.

“To me, having this station helps communities get to know about each other and it may help get some bills passed that communities are having issues with,” Parmenter said.

ISU students have mixed opinions about a talk radio station.

“It would be a good thing since there aren’t any other talk radio stations based out of Ames,” said Aaron Roberts, freshman in engineering.

Caleb Robb, freshman in biology, questions how popular it would be.

“The only people who will make use of it are the people with really strong opinions on certain issues,” Robb said.

Parmenter is still waiting on getting the construction license from the FCC, which he hopes to obtain by December or January. Once the FCC grants him the license, he has three years to pick a location for the radio station and get it running. He hopes to have it in operation no later than 2011.

“I enjoy helping people understand their world and injustices and alert the public about the issues going on in their lives,” Parmenter said.