A primary objective was to provide satisfactory rural coverage throughout the "milkshed" of New York State extending from the Niagara Frontier to the Capital District, and north to the Saint Lawrence Valley. The network would be headquartered in Ithaca, near the geographical center of this region and home of the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University, the state's land grant institution. With the help of engineering consultants Dr. Miller McClintock, Murray Crosby, and William S. Halstead (the latter two would later develop an FM stereo system), six hilltop transmitter sites, each over 610 m (2000 ft) AMSL and spaced roughly 80 km (50 mi) apart across line-of-sight paths, were identified and acquired for the project. Based on 50 μV/m (34 dBμ) rural service contour predictions, these stations would have a combined coverage area encompassing 118,000 farms, 76 percent of the total farms in New York state at that time. Space for RRN's studios and offices was leased in the existing Ithaca Savings Bank building at 306 East State St. in downtown Ithaca, and General Electric, which then manufactured broadcast products at the Electronics Park plant in nearby Syracuse, was chosen as the prime equipment supplier. Applications for the six FM construction permits were filed with the FCC in mid-July 1947 and granted three months later.