KTPB Kilgore

[Chuck]

As most of you know (at least those who care) Kilgore College has made the decision to sell its full power radio station, KTPB, to Educational Media Foundation. That’s the same folks in California who bring you Christian based K-Love and Air 1 on a slew of full power stations as well as translators around the country. As far as I've been able to determine, they have no plans of adding any local content to their existing satellite feeds. I hope I'm wrong on that.Realistically, all that is required these days is the ability for local origination. You don't actually have to use it. That could be as simple as a $39.00 Behringer mixer and a $10.00 mic located at the transmitter site. I believe that full power stations are also required to have an office in the City of License, and keep the Public Files available at that location during normal business hours. That shouldn't be too difficult, but there is no word at this time about where they might be. EMF is not taking over the existing studios and studio equipment as part of the deal.I'm a little surprised (or maybe disappointed) that there seems to be very little public outcry from the local residents. I know the station was not the most popular in the area by a long shot, but it gave the community something that can never be replaced. It's not many towns of 12,000 that could boast a full power fine arts station. I for one will miss that. I wonder what the College intends to do with their local sports broadcasts? It seems to me like we are losing more than we are gaining. That's too bad....

 

[Kent]

K-Love, to the best of my knowledge, airs no local programming aside from the legal ID's on their full-power stations. They also are known to petition the FCC to waive the main studio rule. Then, they house their public inspection file elsewhere, like the public library. The station will likely just be operated from the transmitter site, with what little they need for local origination right there.

 

[nuzguy]

In a not-unexpected move, the Longview News-Journal is calling for a "reconsideration" of the move to sell the station. Not going to happen, given the state of college funding, cuts in CPB grabts to the station, and a few other factors that originated both from within and without the station. It's a done deal, unless a barrel of money falls from the sky to allow the station to be totally independent from now on. And that won't happen, either.Nuzguy (still trying to get the site to give my screen name back)

 

[C414B]

Good luck, my man.I finally posted somewhere that got an admin's attention. Got a PM that said, in so many words, "Hang loose..the cavalry's a-comin'!"

 

[nuzguy]

A bit off thread here, but you're right--help IS on the way. Admin and Management both have responded to every one of my requests for assistance. The change involves such massive technical details that glitches are bound to happen. But the people running the board are moving as fast as they can, and doing remarkably well.

 

[Chuck]

I agree, the folks running this board are working over time to get things straightened out. They certainly have my thanks for doing this. It must be a huge job. When the dust settles the new forum will be a lot better than the original. I'm also glad to see old friends coming back. I've missed the discussion. I still haven't figured out why, when I log in as "KZQX," it says "Hello Chuck" and signs things that way, but I'm OK with it. It is my name, after all. Maybe the software is smarter than I am.

 

[dianaf]

Thanks C414B, nuzguy and Chuck for acknowledging our efforts. There are a lot of great people responsible for the success of this site. I appreciate all of their hard work. Diana Fleming

 

[ArcherSports]

It is sad when a public radio station goes dark (or in this case, is sold to a religious broadcaster). I'm not sure what happened here, but I would bet that it is one of two things.....1). The school's administration did not see the value in the broadcast resource or2). The listeners did not support the station through gifting. Federal money for public radio is usually only a small percentage of the operating budget. It takes strong leadership and committment to make public radio work, and that means getting out into the community and asking for support (and in turn, supporting the community).I would be interested to hear from those in the Longview/Kilgore area what involvement KTPB had. Please keep us informed. Perhaps this sale can be overturned. If Kilgore College wishes to divest itself of the station, then it should offer it to the community first.Just my $0.02John

 

[nuzguy]

The factors in the sale square fairly well with the two points you outlined. Offering the station to the community most likely wouldn't have been a viable option since the community and surrounding areas had ample opportunity to financially support the station, and for the most part didn't. A lot of people listened but disproportionately few sent checks when the time came.. It is unlikely, then, that the community itself would have been willing to support the station on its own. The selling of the station is a sad development but is not unlike the crunch facing schools everywhere--financial exigencies butting against shrinking revenue and tight budgets. A very oft repeated song these days.

 

[Chuck]

It is sad when a public radio station goes dark (or in this case, is sold to a religious broadcaster). I'm not sure what happened here, but I would bet that it is one of two things.....1). The school's administration did not see the value in the broadcast resource or2). The listeners did not support the station through gifting.

As I understand it from talking to Dr. Bill Holda, Kilgore College President, it was mostly a financial decision. He personally regrets the loss of the station. KTPB is funded three ways: 1. Direct subsidy by the school. 2. By a CPB grant, and 3. By public donations and underwriting. The Underwriting and Donations have been more or less stable, the last few years, but have not shown any growth. At the same time, station expenses have been on the rise. It’s not a radical increase, but none-the-less, rising. As has been pointed our on these and other discussion boards, getting listeners to pony up and pay for public radio is difficult at best. A couple of years ago, I was invited to do a “Guest Pledge Break” on KTPB for about two or three hours. I think we had one call that afternoon for a $50 donation. Obviously, I didn’t know what I was doing, but my point is money is hard to get by begging and pleading on the air. The really big problem is their CPB grant is earmarked to reduce itself radically this year, leaving a $50-60,000 hole that needs to be filled somehow. Some of this reduction in grant funding is based on listenership and ratings. The station had a loyal following, but it was not growing audience share. Between government funding cuts, and CPB's reluctance to reward underperforming stations, things did not look very good. The EMF offer came at an opportunistic time.Still, I wish the school administration had a long heart-to heart with the station personnel, saying "Look, we have a good offer to sell the station. We'd prefer to keep it, so we'll drag our feet on the sale and give you a year to fix the listenership and funding problems." Maybe they did that, but I don't think so. To my knowledge, this came rather suddenly. I've also wondered if a community group could have been formed to buy the station and keep it as fine arts (or at least local) radio. It would seem fair to make the gesture to a local group who could match or beat the EMF offer. That sounds good on the surface, but I'm afraid it would be a super-human task. You could probably find a group of people who could scrape up the down payment without too much trouble. The problem would be making the sizable annual payments, interest and paying for staff, operations, studio space and programming. You'd need some deep pockets to do that. I'm not saying that it couldn't be done, and I wish someone would step up to the plate to do it. Realistically though, it would be very hard to generate that kind of income with a noncommercial station in a relatively small market like Tyler-Longview. At best, it would require some major changes in programming and promotion. It would be a huge gamble with little reward in it for whoever pulls it off , past the satisfaction of knowing that the station was saved. Maybe that would be enough for the right person.

 

[nuzguy]

Very well put. A community group actually acquiring the station would have been one thing (and probably a reachable goal) but maintaining the facility by rounding up the needed funding every year would have been another story and effort altogether. Some high profile college/university stations throughout the nation have fought (and ovvasionally lost) this same battle. The survivors stayed the course because they were backed my major league and rather well-funded universities whose pockets were sufficiently deep to carry the load even when external funding and listener support were down. Dr. Holda is a good and practical man who no doubt DOES lament the loss of the station. But that's why he is a survivor in administration (where there aren't always survivors)--he knows when and where the bucks have to stop. And Kilgore College had reached that point. The board of terustees unanomously voted for the sale and Holda could carry the effort only so far to convince the board otherwise. College presidents everywhere carry on tenuous relationships with their boards of trustees, and one key to keeping their jobs as presidents is knowing when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em. With the college station there was no way out but to fold. As Chuck said, it was a dollar-driven decision. It has happened elsewhere countless times already and will continue to happen countless more times.