[JPL] KTPB prepares to sign off after 15 years

[Jazz Promo Services]

http://www.news-journal.com/news/content/news/stories/04302006KTPB.html

KTPB prepares to sign off after 15 years

By KATHERINE SAYRE

Sunday, April 30, 2006


KILGORE ‹ The voices and music of a Metropolitan Opera performance in New
York traveled to Kilgore one day in February 1991, though few people likely
heard it.

The test broadcast of fledgling public radio station KTPB FM 88.7 aired a
few days before the first official show on the Kilgore College-owned
station. It marked the beginning of 15 years of broadcasting classical
music, jazz and local news and sports.

"It's really special to get to come to work every day and do something you
feel like is really positive ‹ maybe not earth-changing, but it's really
been a blessing to do this," station manager Kathy Housby recently said
while sitting with her co-workers in a production room, sounds of classical
music floating through a nearby hall.

Now, the station is preparing for a final broadcast. Kilgore College
trustees recently approved selling KTPB's license, tower and transmission
equipment to a nonprofit Christian broadcasting group for $2.46 million. The
decision stemmed from stagnant listener donations and an upcoming cut in
federal grants, administrators say. The sale is expected to be final by the
end of summer.

A classical history

Most of the station's air-time has been devoted to classical music, a
specialty not offered by other stations in the East Texas area, several
listeners and station staff have said.

The station hosts a library of thousands of classical and jazz CDs.

Housby, who deejays under the pseudonym Kathy Roberts, has spent her 21-year
career in public broadcasting. She was hired for KTPB in 1990 after working
at a station in Wichita, Kan.

Classical music, she said, often intimidates potential new listeners. They
often think they must have a specific education to enjoy or understand it.

That's where KTPB has stepped in, she said.

"Part of the education is just letting people know they don't have to be
educated to enjoy it, at least not formally," Housby said.

In the beginning, the challenge was making it known that the station was on
the dial at all.

Jim Allen, the station's marketing director, said his approach has been
getting the station involved in community events, such as starting Kids'
Arts Fest and working on events with local art museums.

Allen, who started at KTPB in 1990, had worked at several commercial radio
stations in the Longview area with a background in news reporting. He
created the half-hour KTPB news program Daybook.

Early on, the station began recording Longview Symphony and East Texas
Symphony Orchestra performances and playing the music on air.

In 1995, the station worked for 18 months to raise $150,000 to boost the
station's transmission power, expanding the potential listenership.

Overall, station staff say, the station came to serve as a centerpoint for
cultural and arts events in East Texas, stretching from Longview to Tyler
and each city's surrounding communities.

The staff worked for two years to bring classical guitarist Robert Bluestone
to East Texas for one week to perform and visit schools in 2001. That week,
terrorists attacked the World Trade Center. Still, the performances
continued, including an outdoor concert in Longview on Sept. 11.

"I think there was a real sense for us that what we were doing that night
was trying to bring the community together," Housby said.

The sale

The station is funded by a combination of Kilgore College money, a grant
from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and donations from listeners.

This budget year includes $125,000 from the college, $85,486 in grant money,
and $80,876 in donor support.

The station reaches an area encompassing Longview, Tyler, Kilgore, Gilmer
and other cities, with a population of at least 300,000 people.

Yet, a total of 650 listeners had donated as members of the public radio
station this year. Of the members, 79 were residents of the college's taxing
district.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting put the college on notice in October
that its base funding to the station would be cut almost in half because the
number of known listeners wasn't growing, said Kilgore College President
Bill Holda.

The station gets more than $85,000 from the CPB, but the base funding was
set to decrease during the next three years from $53,845 to $26,471.

"All these things converge to make you think that ... this is not as deep a
community support as you might think," Holda said.

Since the board's decision to sell KTPB, Holda said he's received 15
e-mails, four letters and three phone calls from residents with thoughts on
the sale.

Overall, he said, it's important to ask several questions.

"What obligation does the board have to expend college funds to bring a
service well beyond its service area or tax district?" he said. "Is it fair
to cut instructional programs at the expense of keeping that service going
to people who don't contribute to the college? Is there some acknowledgement
that the college did provide quality of service to much more than its tax
district for 15 years?"

A new format

The Federal Communications Commission must approve the $2.46 million sale to
Educational Media Foundation Broadcasting. It first will hold a 30-day
public comment period after the sale is officially presented to the
commission.

EMF Broadcasting, a nonprofit organization, broadcasts two stations ‹ K-LOVE
and AIR1 ‹ on more than 180 frequencies in 44 states.

Joe Miller, director of signal development, said in an e-mail that K-LOVE
was conceived by radio personality Bob Anthony in 1980 in the San Francisco
Bay area with the goal of creating a full-time, contemporary Christian
format station that would appeal to families.

The station plays a "fresh and diverse collection" of contemporary Christian
songs by artists such as Chris Tomlin, Third Day, Rebecca St. James and
Matthew West, Miller said.

"We are listener-supported and do not air any commercials," Miller said. "We
occasionally mix up the music with short inspirational messages and
occasional commentaries from well-known speakers such as James Dobson and
Luis Palau. We do not air controversial talk shows or preaching."

Most programming is produced in Rocklin, Calif., and distributed by
satellite to local transmitters for re-broadcast.

'Sad to see it go'

Dr. Mark Atkinson of Tyler listens to KTPB's classical and opera music
driving to and from work each day and in the evening at his home.

Jazz, classical and opera fans are a small piece of the music market, so
public radio is typically his only source for the music, he said.

"For me, it was a perfect format," Atkinson said. "I'm really sad to see it
go."

Martha Paul Bennett, a Henderson resident and fan of KTPB, said it will be
difficult to lose the classical programming in the area.

"I know there are people who are very upset about losing the station,"
Bennett said. "It really put Kilgore College on the map. People really
appreciated that. And now, it's just unbelievable."

Nearby Red River Radio in Shreveport, part of the Louisiana State University
system, broadcasts some classical and jazz music along with several daily
and weekly National Public Radio programs. The signal isn't as accessible in
the Longview-Kilgore area.

For the station's staff, a question of what they'll be doing after the
station closes brought a period of silence.

"It's been something that we've been very fortunate to do for the last 15,
16 years now," Housby said, breaking the silence.

"Beyond the personal loss for us," she said, stopping to gather her
thoughts, "it will be difficult to know ... that there will not be this
outlet in the area."