Remembering KWTR

[bturner1]

All Weather Radio Station. You might wonder if there was such a station. The answer is yes.



The station was KWTR 1560 in the Austin, Texas metro. It was run by the Lower Colorado River Authority. It operated non-commercially.



The station joined the National Weather Service in Austin for the first five minutes of each quarter hour.



This was followed by a 10 minute segment that included Lake and River levels and I recall hearing fishing reports. There was always a 5 minute weekly feature that ran each hour that day. There were PSAs about conservation, safe boating, weather (lightning safety, severe weather terms, about low water crossings and so on) and perhaps a littering PSA. There were promos for the 4 features that changed each day.



The features included Gardening, Fishing and other such topics.



I know the construction of 1560’s upgrade went way over budget. I won’t name names but I know one of the engineering teams working on the station had a habit of fixing things just well enough for them to be back out to fix it again in 2 or 3 weeks (as they did at the station I worked for until the owner dropped them). Perhaps this is why KWTR was only on the air 8am to 4pm, 7 days a week.



As far as I know, there was no marketing for the station whatsoever and I doubt many every found the station or listened. After a year they sold.



Was it successful? I think not. It was set up to fail with a minimum hour schedule. I am not sure it could have been viable financially but it was a good left field example of radio thinking outside the box.

 

[Mediafrog+]

The station was KWTR 1560

KWTR was on 1530 in the mid 1990s. That frequency has been home to a number of different stations and calls starting with KGTN.

1560 has always been KTXZ, IIRC.

 

[Kent]

I remember it existed, but I can't remember ever hearing it.

If it was run as a non-profit, it might not've been an outright failure as its goals might not've included making money or selling advertising. Having said that, successful stations don't usually die after about a year.

 

[bturner1]

I would think their mission would have been to be on the air more than 8am to 4pm. I'm guessing there was not the budget to do things as planned. Initially it was to alert people living by LCRA waterways in the event of emergency as well as the visitor. I was fairly impressed with the format and it seems it was intended to be non-commercial. I always figured something changed with the higher ups and they chose to sell the property. I gathered it was a one person operation.

I suppose they could have sold sponsorships/underwriting but I never heard any.

 

[Kent]

I would think their mission would have been to be on the air more than 8am to 4pm. I'm guessing there was not the budget to do things as planned.

As I'm sure you know, 1530 has always been a daytimer. At present, it shifts to a critical hours pattern at Eastern Time sunset, I believe, due to WCKY. I can't help but wonder if that was part of the reason it only operated from 8 AM to 4 PM. One would think it could've just lowered power like it does now and could've continued operating later in summer hours, but, maybe, the operators didn't think it was worth doing. I also suspect, when attempting to reach visitors, it didn't have much reason to reach them late in the day. I know some water sportsmen won't let darkness keep them from their fun, but most probably didn't have radios with them when they were out. Budget was likely a factor that kept the station from operating at its full capacity, but that station had a lot of challenges from the getgo. I remember hearing it was moving from Georgetown to Creedmoor and being surprised because it was still going to be a bad facility that wasn't likely to benefit from the investment. It just seemed like like throwing money into a pit.

Initially it was to alert people living by LCRA waterways in the event of emergency as well as the visitor. I was fairly impressed with the format and it seems it was intended to be non-commercial. I always figured something changed with the higher ups and they chose to sell the property. I gathered it was a one person operation.

At the time, it was required to have an operator on duty. That probably factored into its schedule, too. One person could operate the station full-time on a straight 8 hour schedule.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

As I'm sure you know, 1530 has always been a daytimer. At present, it shifts to a critical hours pattern at Eastern Time sunset, I believe, due to WCKY. I can't help but wonder if that was part of the reason it only operated from 8 AM to 4 PM. One would think it could've just lowered power like it does now and could've continued operating later in summer hours, but, maybe, the operators didn't think it was worth doing. I also suspect, when attempting to reach visitors, it didn't have much reason to reach them late in the day. I know some water sportsmen won't let darkness keep them from their fun, but most probably didn't have radios with them when they were out. Budget was likely a factor that kept the station from operating at its full capacity, but that station had a lot of challenges from the getgo. I remember hearing it was moving from Georgetown to Creedmoor and being surprised because it was still going to be a bad facility that wasn't likely to benefit from the investment. It just seemed like like throwing money into a pit.



At the time, it was required to have an operator on duty. That probably factored into its schedule, too. One person could operate the station full-time on a straight 8 hour schedule.

If you wanna get nit picky, its a daytimer since its a Class D, but its got 220 watts... so its a daytimer with night power