WKMS History
In the western parts of Kentucky resides the small, but booming town of Murray. When folks think of Murray they easily recall it to be the home of the Murray State Racers, or they think of it as the doomed town set on the New Madrid Fault Line, and sometimes they recall it to be the home of Nathan B. Stubblefield, “The Father of Broadcasting”. To understand the foundations of WKMS, one must understand Murray’s golden boy Stubblefield, who happened to be a hermit-melon-farming-inventor. In 1892 Stubblefield was the first to broadcast a human voice through the ground using low frequency magnetic waves, via “wireless telephone”. In 1902 he made various voice and music broadcasts through his invention to five different places on the court square in front of one thousand people. Later that year he patented his invention. He went on to Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City to present his wireless telephone1. While credit to the invention of the radio is paid to Marconi, Fressenden, and de Forest historians have a tendency to overlook Stubblefield’s accomplishments. However, the people of Murray haven’t forgotten and have paid tribute to him in many ways. The Murray State physics club was named after him, an exhibit that honors his work day after day is up and running in Wrather Museum, and WNBS, an AM radio station in Murray, dedicated its call letters to his name.
It is here the story behind WKMS gets started. In 1948 WNBS owner Chuck Shuffett gave Murray State students an hour a day to broadcast, “The Thoroughbred Hour” under the direction of Charles Henry Stamps through the use of telephone line from room 302 in Wilson Hall. Up until 1969 WKMS was originally called The Radio Center, The Voice of Murray State. Executive assistant Ray Mofield’s pushed for a radio station for the 1965-66 college budget. 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 megacycles 6, as it turns out 91.7 was already taken. There were a few set backs in getting WKMS up and running, but it surely didn’t hinder its success. 
Mofield received permission from Kentucky Educational Television (KET) to share a new tower; however, planning WKMS was delayed because it took a while for KET to decide on Farmington for the location of its western Kentucky transmitter. The new tower was 10 miles from Murray. In the spring of 1969 there was another set back over a dispute with WPSD-TV. They were concerned their reception would be interfered with the new radio station, so it was regulated that WKMS limited its effective radiation power to 13,000 watts. So bad things happen in threes, right? What do you think the chances are, the night before its premier the transmitter in Farmington would get struck by lightning? As it happened the odds were against WKMS’s debut, and after the lightning strike it was uncertain whether the station would be able to meet its first deadline. Eighty years later and yards away from the site the hermit-melon-farming-inventor Nathan B. Stubblefield first experimented his “wireless telephone”, WKMS-FM, the broadcasting service of Murray State, signed on air May 11, 1970.
Then, next President of Murray State, Dr. Harry Sparks 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.” 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.” With encouraging words from Sparks and the events leading up to its first broadcast, the station’s sign on sounds epic, but a depiction of current student Jay Landers implies it not to be, “It was kind of anti-climactic, really. The sign-on came virtually at the end of the spring semester, and within a few short weeks, we promptly signed off for the summer months.” 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.
In those days WKMS was limited to a few hours of airtime, due to shortages of content, and aired Mondays through Saturdays from 4pm to 10pm using reel to reel “tapes”. The first schedule included Music in the Evening from 4:05pm-6pm and in half hour segments through out the day. The program featured easy listening and light classical music. Monday and Wednesday evenings at 8 was special hour and a half of classical music from the Murray State University music department that was produced in the station’s studios. News was presented three times a day with world and national news at 4pm, fifteen minutes of world, national, regional, campus, and sports news at 6pm and at 9:45. 
At that time WKMS subscribed to United Press International. The Goon Show, a comedy program from the BBC, was broadcasted on Saturdays at 8:30pm. World Report, also from the BBC, was scheduled on Tuesday night at 8:15pm and BBC Science at 9pm Fridays. Literary and critical nature shows included The London Echo (Wednesdays 9:30pm), Book Beat (Saturday 9pm), and Nest of Singing Birds a series of English verse (Wednesday 7pm). In those days WKMS was affiliated with the National Educational Radio network. In the wake of the successful civil rights movement African-American programming was also included. The Drum, “which contains news round-up of events in black communities across the nation as well as editorial comment from the black press and interviews,” were broadcasted Tuesdays at 9pm and The Black American, a children’s program to educate, “the black man’s role in American history,” was set for 8pm. Dateline Africa was heard on Thursdays at 8:15pm.
For two years 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, a 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 with a new stereo FM capability. A weather service was added to the subscription with United Press International.
In the September of 1972 WKMS became a face more recognizable by present day listeners, as it affiliated itself with National Public Radio. NPR’s news programs set the standard, even back then, for comprehensive and enlightening reporting. Their programming consisted of news, culture, and information. 
WKMS was among the first public radio stations to affiliate with National Public Radio. NPR was born May 3, 1970, the same year as WKMS (great minds think alike). In the 1920s non-commercial “educational” stations were common; however, during the Depression era with the combined pressures of commercial radio, educational radio was nearly wiped out. With the coming of FM broadcasting in 1945, the FCC set aside several frequencies for educational broadcasting, consequently there was a re-kindling interest in non-commercial radio. Public radio gets some financial support from the institutions that own the station. Most educational institutions or private foundations are most likely to own. Much of the support from the institutions comes from tax revenue; however endowments, grants from foundations or the federal government, and listener donations are also the lifeblood of 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 to the best quality network interconnection: a high-quality telephone line, and with quality production and show content from NPR, WKMS was on its way to the success it is experiencing today. As NPR and WKMS converged All Things Considered, created the previous year by NPR, became the only daily newscast at the station throughout the ‘70s and was an instant success. It was recorded by 1998 there were 593 member stations in 48 states including Guam and the District of Columbia.
Jay Landers was the first student program director and he incorporated live broadcasts of Murray city council meetings, play by plays for games at the field house, meetings of the University Regents, Murray State’s Spring Commencement, and twice a week the Music Department would have faculty or student recitals. 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 their public radio home. 1973 was also a landmark year in the history of our government as the Watergate Hearings were in progress. WKMS provided the only radio source in Western Kentucky for the hearings. It has since provided the news source for the region in equally important moments in our nation’s history such as 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, and wall to wall coverage of the events following the attacks of 9/11.
October 1976 marked the first year WKMS started membership coordination. If you were a student friend you 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 guide 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 was always a statement of the current financial situation as well as a reminder of the importance of listener support. The guide also had 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 or volunteers, or musicians and composers. It would also mention the involvement of WKMS in the community.
The programming guide would be released to cover every two months of the year, but later that changed to seasonal distribution. Looking through the first guide in 1976, a picture indicated that the station was by this time using vinyl and eight tracks. By year’s end Murray’s public radio home was broadcasting nineteen hours a day and had a full time professional staff of five.
In 1978 Bruce Smith assumed responsibilities of station manager, and had the first on-air fundraiser called “Soundfest” later to be called “Friendship Festival” and now labeled “Spring/Fall Fundraiser.” Soundfest’s first fundraiser raised $2,500 in nine days. In the April-June programming guide a headline read, “Public radio to enter space age.” It claimed that in the next year broadcasting will enter the Space Age through a sophisticated system of satellite interconnection of radio and televisions around the country. This was very big news because at the time stations were linked by terrestrial land lines that were leased from AT&T. They were costly telephone lines that delivered a low quality signal which were only suitable for talk programs to be sent through. This new unfathomable technology would change all of that. All programs, music and talk, would be transmitted 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.
Also in 1978 Bill Phillips signed on the air with Bible readings at six a.m. In 1979 KCLU protested reading the bible over the air, but the listeners supported it and told the station to leave it on. On November fifth 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. NPR also released Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz in ‘79. 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. On March 30, 1980 at 5pm WKMS boosted its power to 100,000 watts.
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. There was a sense of duty from inside Bryan to share black musicians’ contributions to jazz. 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.
Back in 1960, a man up north needed a part time job to pay for his tuition to the University of Minnesota. He became a parking lot attendant in 1960-1962. In the fall of 1963 he took a job at the University radio station for $1.85 an hour, fifty more cents than his car parking job and it was indoors! 
In 1974 this man was a freelance comedy writer. His greatest creation was the fictional Lake Wobegon, “the little town that time forgot, that the decades cannot improve, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above-average.” Lake Wobegon became the staple of a two hour show called A Prairie Home Companion hosted by that man himself, Garrison Keillor. It took six years for Prairie Home to make its national debut in 1980. The show became an instant favorite in western Kentucky.
A September/October program guide in 1980 gave tips on how to take care of annoying reception problems that tend to occur during the winter months. It said in order to increase the strength of an external antenna- -shaped flexible wire one should arrange it so the wires form straight lines, to put antenna and receiver near an outside wall and upstairs if possible. For eliminating signal noise the guide suggested to ground the radio by setting it on an external water pipe or good conductor that goes into the ground, remove receiver from fluorescent lights, and plug the receiver into its own socket.
In 1981 Mark Welch became Programming Director, and through a series of leaving and coming back, Welch currently holds the position today. Dick Estell from Radio Reader also stopped by WKMS studios in 1983 during a fundraiser, and listener Joy Thomas of Murray won a “Powdermilk Biscuit” contest. Powdermilk Biscuits are, “made from whole wheat raised by Norwegian bachelor farmers in the rich bottomlands of the Wobegon valley, so you know they’re not only good, they’re also pure mostly the biscuit with that whole-wheat goodness that gives shy persons the strength to get up and do what needs to be done; biscuit mix in the big blue box or biscuits already baked in the big brown bag with the dark stains that indicate freshness. Heavens, they’re tasty and expeditious!” Well, that’s the way Garrison Keillor describes them. They are a weekly “advertisement” supporting A Prairie Home Companion. A picture of the Powedermilk Biscuit winnings was found and I observed not only “pure biscuits” being eaten, but on the center of the table was a jar of “pure honey” the continuity was humorous indication of Garrison Keillor’s style.
In 1985 compact discs were coming out. A 1988 program guide had mentioned that the station had learned a thing or two about building a CD library with three years of experience. The guide gave tips on how to buy, who to buy from, what genres sounded better, and so forth. 1985 marked the year Weekend Edition premiered on Saturday November second, and was only aired on Saturdays. It took until January eighteenth, 1987 to debut a Sunday Weekend Edition. It was at this time NPR provided a full news service for seven mornings and seven evenings. Earlier on January fifth Performance Today also made its premier. WKMS was going through some programming changes that year too. Because of a cost increase A Prairie Home Companion was dropped. Presently, the show can be heard on both Saturdays and Sundays.
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 her advantage. In the fall ’88 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.
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.” 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 May the fifth. He also joined WKMS staff and volunteers at the Paducah Symphony’s Concert in the Park at Kentucky Dam Village State Park that same day. On July 15, 1994 the old fine arts center, a connecting building to the Doyle Fine Arts Center, caught fire. 91.3 was off the air at 9 a.m. until the next day. WKMS remained unharmed with a few smoky studios as an exception.
WKMS hired its first secretary in 1986 and in 1988 Kate Lochte was hired to split the position with Mary Ann Barrow. Little did they know they had hired a future station manager. Secretary was the only job open at WKMS when Lochte moved to Murray. Previous to WKMS she had experienced most aspects of radio broadcasting in a small-market with a 3,000-watt FM service in southern middle Tennessee during the mid-seventies. Lochte’s jobs at this station were: janitor, bookkeeper, news director, reporter, salesperson, ad writer, producer, drive time on-air announcer, graphic designer, show host, remote producer and host of “The Trading Post” a swap and shop gig. 
Settling into the public radio scene was not a huge change for her. She was quick to realize the similarities between small market commercial radio and public radio and the common need to be actively engaged in community affairs in order to serve their audiences.
In 1992 Kate became the interim-station manager, and in 1994 she was, “officially blessed” as station manager. Under Kate WKMS expanded to airing twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week in the five state area. She started on-line streaming that could be heard in at least twenty-seven countries. 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. Lochte also over saw the arrival of an analog transmitter and in the early summer of 2007, a new digital signal. Instead of NPR and Public Radio International (PRI) sending shows through the satellite transmission that was set up in 1979, shows are now being downloaded through the internet. This is much faster than the satellite transmission because that system was recording shows in real time. Now it is only a matter of minutes that a show can be received. It is easier on the staff too because if a show is distorted or flawed we can get a new version of that show instantly.
In late October of 2007 a second channel was added and called HD-2. Currently it runs classical music twenty-four hours a day seven days a week, but polls of listener suggestions for the new channel are being taken. Tending to public listening needs is what public radio is all about. Therefore the new channel will be able to expand WKMS to effectively and efficiently fulfill public radio listeners’ needs. In WKMS fashion, it is an early-adaptor of new technology and is a regional leader in sending out a digital signal, "It's going to take a while for digital radio to catch on," said Kate Lochte.
It is because of volunteers, listeners, and staff, WKMS has come such a long way. Unfortunately $2,500 isn’t enough fundraiser money to sustain the public radio station; in2007 the spring/fall fundraiser goal was $100,000 in listener support. It was used wiselytoward all the new technology that weare holding 
in such high regard today. It has been fifty yearssince radio broadcasting has gone under any transformation,so it will be slow to adapt. The analog signal is receivable by everyday radios, but it takes a special antenna, or receiver, to be able to listen to the crystal-clear digital broadcasts. Digital radios are now offered in car installations and available as table top and home entertainment solutions. Eventually “normal” analog radios in alarm clocks and stereos will become obsolete. We have to wait, though, until enough stations convert to digital to see that happen.
Years from now, when someone reads this they will be laughing about how Stone Age analog was, and the idea of waiting for digital receivers to be an everyday commodity. When we look back, however, we think how unbelievable a radio station could operate in two rooms with only 13,000 watts using reel to reel audio “tapes.”39 year old WKMS technology has alien like 
characteristics in comparison to infant WKMS, but it is something to be proud of. Nathan B. Stubblefield set a standard for innovation and optimism in 1892. WKMS had followed that in each decade past and with each decade to come. Public radio is growing and keeping up with the times. There are always sweat beads of worry from the elder audience, as they hand over support responsibilities to the next generation. With great programming, growth in technology, passionate personnel, and a continued response to listener needs WKMS will see to it that public radio does not lay to waste over time.
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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