WKMS History

The Beginning

In 1948 WNBS owner Chuck Shuffett gave the Murray State drama department an hour a week to broadcast plays adapted for radio.[1] It wasn’t until October 4, 1949 the first broadcast from Murray State College was heard with Murray State College on the Air. The college studio from which was broadcasted consisted of a hand-made control board located in the old economics room on the third floor of Wilson Hall.

Nathan B. Stubblefield of Murray, proposed claimant as the inventor of wireless telephony.

The title of the show would change in the 1950s into The Thoroughbred Hour and broadcasted nightly half-hour segments. The content changed from radio plays to campus information. The Thoroughbred Hour was under the direction of Charles Henry Stamps through the use of a telephone line.[2]

In 1962, The Thoroughbred Hour’s staff was split into an audio department and into a technical department under the direction of a student program director and a student chief engineer. In the early 1960s a news department was added emphasizing on in-depth–on-the-spot reporting for the southwestern Kentucky area. In 1964 an official station manager, program director and engineer was instituted and The Thoroughbred Hour. Also in 1964 special broadcasts came into being with the Homecoming Parade. The Thoroughbred Hour was extended into full our segments Monday through Friday and two hours on Sunday in 1965. During this year live broadcasts expanded and included broadcasts from the Auditorium, the Student Union Building, freshman basketball games, Dr. Wood’s Twentieth Year Banquet, and the Quad-State Band and Choral Festivals. The Thoroughbred Hour Tape Library was formed in 1966. It provided the college with a permanent record of important events. By 1967 a Board of Directors was established.

Ray Mofield, general manager of The Radio Center, The Voice of Murray State, helped develop funding for a radio station in the university budget.

Up until 1969, WKMS was originally called “The Radio Center, The Voice of Murray State.”[3] Executive assistant Ray Mofield’s pushed for a radio station for the 1965-66 college budgets. Mofield convinced, then President of Murray State College, Ralph Woods of the benefits from a radio station on campus, and as a result $15,000 was set aside for its development. In 1968 Woods applied for a non-commercial educational radio license from the FCC and requested to be located at 91.7. In 1969 the FCC granted a construction permit for WKMS to operate at 91.3, 91.7 was already taken.[4]

1970s

WKMS-FM, the broadcasting service of Murray State, signed on air May 11, 1970. President of Murray State, Dr. Harry Sparks noted this milestone and said, “With this radio station’s audience we lengthen the shadow and multiply the sphere of influence of this University. Every broadcast of whatever type is a public relations message saying something about this school.”[5] Sparks also put forth a mission for WKMS to follow, “We perceive WKMS as the window on the world for our region. It will help cast a longer shadow for Murray State University and will deliver not only news about Murray State but will also offer culturally and educationally enriched programming throughout the Murray State region.” At first the station only employed Mofield as a general manager and Thomas Morgan as station manager and was assisted by students and volunteers. As a result broadcasts were only manageable while school was in session.[6]

The Price Doyle Fine Arts Building, where WKMS moved to in 1971, and remains today, on the top floor.

The two rooms in the northwest corner of Wilson Hall just weren’t meeting the productive professional environmental needs of educational radio broadcasts Mofield had first envisioned. Mofield and other faculty of Murray State recruited about a million dollars to build the Price Doyle Fine Arts Building, the new location for WKMS. In September of 1971 the building was officially open for use. In its permanent home on the sixth floor (in the late nineties the sixth floor became known as the eighth floor), WKMS was fully equipped with offices, soundproof studios, state-of-the-art RCA equipment, and a new stereo with FM capability. In the September of 1972 WKMS affiliated itself with National Public Radio. NPR’s news programs set the standard for comprehensive and enlightening reporting. 91.3 was among the first public radio stations to affiliate with National Public Radio. When NPR was created, stations affiliated receive support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a nonprofit organization funded by Congress. With finances from CPB, the station was able to upgrade its network interconnection: a high-quality telephone line.[7] As NPR and WKMS converged, All Things Considered became the only daily newscast at the station and was an instant success.[8] In 1973, WKMS received its first underwriter for thirteen weeks from the Cleveland Orchestra. Businesses took a queue from the Orchestra and began participating in underwriting.[9] 1973 was also a landmark year as the Watergate Hearings were in progress. WKMS provided the only radio source in western Kentucky for the hearings. WKMS has since provided a service for the region in equally important moments in United States history, such airing the hearings regarding the nomination of Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court, wall to wall coverage of the Columbia Shuttle Disaster, wall to wall coverage of the beginning of our operations in Afghanistan, the Presidential impeachment proceedings of 1999, wall to wall coverage of the events following the attacks of 9/11, and wall to wall coverage of the January 2009 Central Plains and Midwest ice storm that hit most of western Kentucky and the surrounding region.[10][11]

October 1976 marked the first year WKMS started membership coordination. “Student friends” could donate three dollars, “friends” could donate five dollars, “good friends” could donate ten dollars, “great friends” could donate twenty-five dollars, and “best friends” to the station could donate fifty dollars. These membership donation applications were sent in the mail and found on the back of the first programming guide. The programming guides were a membership type of magazine released monthly at first and then seasonally. It always started off with a letter from the station manager discussing new programs added to the schedule and the reasons some others were taken away. There were statements of the current financial situation as well as a reminder of the importance of listener support. The guide would also have a grid of a regular week’s program schedule in it, and the break down of each show’s features. Later it would include features on staff, volunteers, musicians, and/or composers. In later guides it would also eventually mention the involvement of WKMS in the community and community feedback.[12][13][14]

Donna Groves, a student worker in 1984, recording the newscast in a production studio.

The advent of advanced technology took place in the late seventies with a sophisticated system of satellite interconnection of radio and televisions around the country. Before the new technology, stations were linked by terrestrial land lines that were leased from AT&T. Costly telephone lines delivered a low quality signal, and were only suitable for talk programs to be sent through. This new, however, would transmit all programs, music and talk, through satellite and, “be of the highest quality.” The satellite transmissions would also permit stereo and quadraphonic network broadcasts, therefore allowing WKMS to broadcast live stereo concerts from anywhere in the world. Consequently content for the air was enlarged and the station was given more options to choose from.

On November 5, 1979 Morning Edition premiered and became an instant hit like its counterpart All Things Considered. It also was the first show to transmit from NPR through the new satellite terminal.[15] That year WKMS received a $150,000 facilities grant from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare to increase power and upgrade studio facilities, a milestone acquisition. The station moved its transmission from the old KET tower in Farmington, KY to its present co-location with the Kentucky Early Warning System in Land between the Lakes. The 501-foot tall tower and the station’s two transmitters receive the WKMS signal from the studios at Murray State University by microwave.[16]

1980s

The eighties were a notable decade for WKMS-FM. On March 30, 1980 at 5pm WKMS boosted its power to 100,000 watts, Dick Estell from Radio Reader stopped by the studios in 1983 to help a fundraiser, and listener Joy Thomas of Murray won the “Powdermilk Biscuit” recipe contest.[17] Weekend Edition premiered on Saturday November 2, 1985. At first it was only aired on Saturdays. It took until January 18, 1987 to debut a Sunday Weekend Edition. It was at this time NPR provided a full news service for seven mornings and seven evenings.[18] Furthermore, both NPR news shows were well received by WKMS listeners.

David Gergen, former communications director in the Reagan White House, joined WKMS for a pizza party between a press conference in our studio and his evening lecture on Murray State's campus.

91.3 experienced nationwide recognition with homegrown shows that were syndicated through NPR around the country. Twenty-seven NPR stations in sixteen states (ten percent of the network at the time) picked up The Black Cats Jump; a WKMS produced show hosted by Bobby Bryan. The Black Cats Jump was a thirteen week series of hour long programs on big band music. The series featured some of the great black big band leaders, sidemen, vocalists, and arrangers. The first show was aired live on Friday October 3, 1980 at 8 p.m. Bryan was inspired to do the show with the re-release of many of the big band sides on re-mastered 33 1/3 and 45 rpm vinyl which featured the contributions of the black band leaders, sidemen, vocalists and arrangers from 1934 to 1950. He explained, “During the ‘30s and ‘40s, the big hotels and ballrooms played by white bands controlled most of the air time for big bands, and black bands simply did not get the exposure they deserved. And if you didn’t get air time, your records didn’t sell very well.” He said most every white musician copied and learned from black musicians, but the public didn’t know. It wasn’t until the likes of Benny Goodman, Charlie Barnet, Artie Shaw, and others began to integrate the bands and share the spot light.[19] Bryan later created another thirteen-hour series about Billie Holliday and the musical biographies of over forty major artists that had played with her over three decades. He named it Lady Day and the Cats. Nearly one hundred stations in thirty-six states picked up Lady Day.[20]

Jane Krabill Moore in 1983, recording live on location.

The eighties also saw the switch from vinyl records and cassette tapes to compact discs, or CDs. WKMS took the opportunity to provide the community with tips on how to buy CDs, who to buy from, what genres sounded better, and so forth. On August 21, 1988 a lighting strike set off a chain reaction that, “fried many components and circuitry,” within the transmitter. As a result the station had noticeably long dead air. Station manager Janet Kenney cleverly named it, “Sounds of Silence,” and used it to WKMS’s advantage. In the fall 1988 programming guide she addressed the situation to listeners and challenged them to recall the need they had for public radio during the silence, and reminded them of the importance of their support. The fall Friendship Festival that year easily met the fundraiser goal and surpassed it.[21]

1990s

January 24, 1990 Attorney General of the state, Fredric J. Cowan, wrote to WKMS. He commended the station for fulfilling Murray and western Kentucky with information, “that is crucial in our system of democracy."[22] WKMS celebrated its twentieth birthday that year, and as a special birthday treat, Bob Edwards, host of Morning Edition, came to WKMS for a Special Guest open house informal seminar. He also joined the WKMS staff and volunteers at the Paducah Symphony’s Concert in the Park at Kentucky Dam Village State Park.[23] On July 15, 1994 the old fine arts center, a connecting building to the Doyle Price Fine Arts Center, caught fire. 91.3 was off the air at 9 a.m. until the next day. WKMS remained unharmed, but with a few smoky studios as an exception.[24]

A Sangean HD Radio receiver in the ops room at WKMS.

During the nineties WKMS expanded airing twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week in a five state area. The creation on on-line streaming offers world wide listening opportunities. Translators have been put up to expand broadcasts to 92.1 Paducah, 99.5 Paris, TN, and 105.1 Madisonville. Two studios were also added to the station.[25]

2000 and Beyond

In the late spring of 2007 WKMS-FM provided a new digital signal which virtually eliminates noise in broadcasting such as static, hissess, pops, and fades. The new techonolgy also provides a second channel in which WKMS airs 24/7 classical music.[26] NPR and Public Radio International (PRI) now send shows through the internet. It is only a matter of minutes that a show can be received. This new process is much faster than the 1979 satellite transmission that recorded shows in real time.

WKMS and the January 2009 Central Plains and Midwest ice storm

Murray State University President, Dr. Randy Dunn with Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear during the January 2009 Central Plains and Midwest ice storm.

During the January 2009 Central Plains and Midwest ice storm, power was temporarily lost to the regional signal at the tower and HD radio digital transmission system in Land Between the Lakes and operated on its studio site auxiliary system, a low-power transmitter and line that reached most of Calloway County and the WKMS transmitter in Paris, Tennessee. By January 31, a generator obtained with the assistance of the Calloway County Emergency Operations Center and the Department of Agriculture’s Forestry Service, enabled the station to resume its regional analogue service, however the HD radio signal remained damaged and inoperable. Tower inspections revealed icing damage to a flange weld connecting the digital antenna to its transmission line, resulting in water damage to the line itself. Repairs estimated nearly $40,000 in previously unbudgeted expenditures for the public radio service licensed to Murray State University[27]. All services, including the HD radio signal, have since resumed normal operations.

[1] "30 Years of WKMS." Murray Calloway County Kentucky Chamber of Commerce 8 (Apr. 2000): 3.
[2] Cole, Elizabeth T., and Gene H. Coleman. Radio Center Handbook. Ts. Murray State University.
[3] Cole, Elizabeth T., and Gene H. Coleman. Radio Center Handbook. Ts. Murray State University.
[4] "WKMS - The Story." Celebrating 20 Years of Listener Support 5-7.
[5] "30 Years of WKMS." Murray Calloway County Kentucky Chamber of Commerce 8 (Apr. 2000): 3.
[6] Cole, Elizabeth T., and Gene H. Coleman. Radio Center Handbook. Ts. Murray State University.
[7] Cowan, Frederic J. Letter to the staff and management of WKMS-FM. 24 Jan. 1990.
[8] "NPR Milestones." Celebrating 20 Years of Listener Support 24.
[9] Cowan, Frederic J. Letter to the staff and management of WKMS-FM. 24 Jan. 1990.
[10] Cowan, Frederic J. Letter to the staff and management of WKMS-FM. 24 Jan. 1990.
[11] "Meet Jay Landers." Celebrating 20 Years of Listener Support 4-5.
[12] WKMS fm stereo (Fall 1976).
[13] Kenney, Janet. "Welcome Note." Air Fare (Winter 1988): 1.
[14] "HD...High Definition... Digital... More & Crystal Clear..." WKMS with NPR news 91.3 fm (Autumn 07): 7.
[15] "New and Different." WKMS-fm stereo 91.3 (Nov. 1979).
[16] "WKMS - The Story." Celebrating 20 Years of Listener Support 5-7.
[17] "WKMS - How The Years Go By." Celebrating 20 Years of Listener Support 9-12.
[18] "NPR Milestones." Celebrating 20 Years of Listener Support 24.
[19] Miller Welch, Karen. "WKMS Goes National with "The Black Cats Jump"" WKMS-FM (Oct. 1980).
[20] "Lady Day & The Cats." 91.3 WKMS-FM Listening Guide (Sept. & oct. 1990): 6.
[21] Kenney, Janet. "Welcome Note." Air Fare (Winter 1988): 1.
[22] Cowan, Frederic J. Letter to To the staff and management of WKMS-FM. 24 Jan. 1990.
[23] "Meet Bob Edwards." Celebrating 20 Years 21.
[24] "FIRE!" Notes from 91.3 FM (Sept. & oct. 1994): 2.
[25] "30 Years of WKMS." Murray Calloway County Kentucky Chamber of Commerce 8 (Apr. 2000): 3.
[26] "HD...High Definition... Digital... More & Crystal Clear..." WKMS with NPR news 91.3 fm (Autumn 07): 7.
[27] Tim Moore. "WKMS HD Digital Transmission System Damaged by Ice Storm"[http://isurfhopkinsco.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2293&Itemid=38].

Thanks to Katie Villanueva for her extensive research on the history of WKMS!

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Grant Funding for WKMS Activities Over the Years

After upgrading to 100,000 watts with a $150,000 grant from the Health Education and Welfare Department of the United States, WKMS has participated in several subsequent national grant activities. Both the Paducah and Paris translators were installed with matching grants from the Public Telecommunications Facilities Funding Program of the U.S. Department of Commerce. In 1981 the Kentucky Humanities Council provided funding for the station to produce an hour long drama, "The Land Between." Producer Sheila Rue received a $17,000 grant from the Kentucky Humanities Council in 1982 for her series "Crossroads."

Lochte was included in the two year CPB "Next Generation Project," training managers in business leadership practices. Producer Margaret Hunt received a CPB production grant for her series "Classical Classroom." In 1996 News Director Vince Medlock produced a series called "Straight Dope," about teen substance abuse with funding from the Benton Foundation of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The same funding sources supported independent producer Constance Alexander's year-long exploration of end of life issues in a series of reports called "Promises to Keep" in 1998, a project which included myriad activities with the Department of Nursing at Murray State University.

Alexander had earlier produced a series for WKMS titled "Connecting People and Place" with extensive oral history interviews with former residents of Land Between the Rivers. Lochte and Program Director Mark Welch participated in a three year long CPB project researching public service for rural audiences in conjunction with the National Federation of Community Broadcasters which began in 2001. In 2003 WKMS earned a CPB Rural Service Initiative Grant to upgrade its membership database systems. In 2004 WKMS Chief Engineer Allen Fowler's preparation of an application for an $85,000 matching grant from CPB succeeded and the station will leverage listener dollars to complete the work in 2005.

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WKMS Facilities

The WKMS tower is near the site of the former community of Mont, Kentucky between the Golden Pond Visitor's Center in Land Between the Lakes and Grand Rivers, Kentucky. At the top of the 500' tower there's a 14 bay FM antenna manufactured by ERI in Evansville, IN. Mounted just above them is a device called a Staticat which works to deflect lightning strikes. Down the center of the tower is a sealed copper tube called the transmission line. This line connects the antenna to two Harris 20K transmitters, primary and auxiliary, inside a concrete block building secured within a locked security enclosure.

Midway down the tower is the WKMS auxiliary antenna connected by a flexible transmission cable to the transmitters. The two separate antennas and two transmitters provide redundancy in emergencies. Also there's a "dummy load" power receptacle inside the transmitter building, which allows testing of the transmitters when there are line and antenna problems. This allows maximum efficiency in recovering from interruptions to the system such as power surges, lightning strikes, etc.

Further down the tower is the microwave receive antenna, which is calibrated to capture the studio transmitter link signal from the microwave send antenna atop Price Doyle Fine Arts tower at 15th and Olive Streets in Murray. The signal from the main studio travels from the microwave receive antenna down into the transmitter, then travels up the tower via the transmission line to the FM antenna for broadcast at 91.3 FM with 100,000 watts of power.

In addition to WKMS equipment, the tower hosts broadcast equipment belonging to Kentucky Early Warning System (KEWS) Kentucky Fish and Wildlife, Kentucky State Police, the U.S. Forestry Service and Satellink Paging.

Murray State University has a working agreement with KEWS whereby KEWS provides WKMS a transmission signal to the Murray Studios for phone telemetry, including all of the remote monitoring required to keep the system within parameters set for each broadcast station by the Federal Communications Commission, and KEWS has space for its equipment in an area of the 8th Floor of the Price Doyle Tower as well as in the transmitter hut at LBL. KEWS also shares the cost of HVAC repairs and tower painting at the LBL site. The U.S. Forestry service provides landscape clearance to maintain the WKMS tower guy wire paths and anchors without threat of invasive damage from vegetation. The U.S. Forestry service also assists in maintaining the gravel road access and occasional security matters.

Pennyrile Electric of Trigg County provides the lines to the WKMS tower site and responds to emergencies there. Frequently the source of power interruption is an event of some sort at the TVA Lyon County substation, during which Pennyrile summons TVA crews and follows up after their repair to assure WKMS restored service at its remote location.

The ultimate redundancy for the WKMS system would involve the installation of a power generator backup. Due to the cost on the equipment and its monthly monitoring needs, and the infrequency of power interruptions, the station has no current plans to acquire a generator.

WKMS rents space from Kentucky Educational Television for its translator that improves reception for parts of Paducah. The tower is within the Department of Emergency Services compound on Coleman Road. In Paris, tower space for the WKMS translator is provided by WENK broadcasting.

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WKMS Physical Plant - Murray State Campus

Wrapped around the south end of the 8th Floor of Price Doyle Tower on campus at Murray State, WKMS includes offices for producers, administration, development and membership. There are three studios; a large multi-purpose room for the music library and news production; an office for the web and operations director including operations computer terminals, and equipment racks, and the studio auxiliary transmitter; and a workshop shared by engineering staff for WKMS and MSU TV 11.

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WKMS Long-Term and Short-Term Goals

The primary ongoing goal for WKMS is to increase public service for its 27 county listening area. We believe that we can measure increases in public service by increases in listening to the station. And we believe that happens with extraordinary programming.

Another ongoing short-term goal is to convert increases in public service to revenue realized through individual contributions and underwriting support. These two income sectors affect the annual calculation community service grants WKMS receives from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. These two income sectors also determine our ability to expand signal reach into underserved areas of the Murray State University service region.

The longer term goals that depend on the station increasing revenues from our "private sector" are signal extension and digitalization. WKMS has pursued the addition of a translator to serve the Madisonville region for nearly a decade. WKMS continues to work toward that service expansion in order to push the signal further into Henderson and ultimately, Evansville. WKMS is applying for a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to install a digital transmitter alongside its current analog transmitters and to install a digital "interleave" antenna within its current analog antenna in order to eventually broadcast two separate "streams" of programming, perhaps one being all music, the other news and information.

Our longer term goals also include growth in staff, equipment and facilities. Certainly we should create distinctive regional programming to tie our station more closely to our communities. Certainly we should create more services for our region's educators, perhaps in defining greater opportunities for young people to talk with each other via WKMS air. Certainly we should reconstruct our 1970's studios, replacing all analog equipment with digital equipment, in order to accommodate programming initiatives in spoken word and live music transmission.

WKMS reviews programming annually, using national and regional research to refine our schedule. Our goals are to
~Increase regional news coverage.
~Improve quality and increase hours of regionally produced programming.
~Increase partnerships with area educational and fine arts institutions.
~Increase services available on the WKMS website.

Without the generous support of listeners, we can't do any of this. Thanks!

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