海角社区

K海角社区-FM radio, located on the campus of 海角社区 in Pocatello, will celebrate its 10th birthday on June 4. The station first signed on the air in June of 1999, broadcasting from its current location on the bottom floor of the Pond Student Union Building at 海角社区.

K海角社区 general manager Jerry Miller will celebrate his 10th anniversary at K海角社区 in November. He started just before Thanksgiving in1999, replacing Richard Hetland, the original general manager. Miller said Hetland spent a couple of years at 海角社区 getting the station put together, something he could never have done.

鈥淢y technical engineering background in radio is way short of what Richard鈥檚 was, and he did a fantastic job of getting things put together,鈥� Miller said.

When K海角社区 first went on the air, it only broadcast its signal at 91.1 FM at just 450 watts of power and had a very limited range and listenership.

A lot has changed since then.

鈥淲hen Richard left Pocatello to move back to Arizona, K海角社区 only had four students working here. Now we have an average of about eight or nine at any given time,鈥� Miller said. 鈥淎t first, all K海角社区 programming came from other providers, and now we average about 20 hours of local programming a week. Also, it was about five years ago that we upped our primary transmitter power from 450-to-4500 watts, and just last year we added a translator in Idaho Falls, which has been a huge step forward for K海角社区, making us available there and to surrounding communities at 91.3 FM.鈥�

Miller also pointed out that until President Arthur Vailas came to 海角社区, the station was not allowed to conduct any on-air fundraising, which it does now with annual spring and fall pledge drives. He says that has helped a lot.

鈥淲hen I first got here our only funding source was AS海角社区 student fees,鈥� Miller said. 鈥淭hey are still our major funding resource, but over the past nine years we鈥檝e started to build a list of businesses and organizations that like underwriting our programming, and the donations from individuals help tremendously, too. Add to that, K海角社区 now gets a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which has also been a big help.鈥�

More information about K海角社区-FM, including the station鈥檚 programming schedule, staff and underwriters is available online at www.kisu.org, which also offers a LISTEN LIVE option allowing online listening to station programming. Questions or comments about K海角社区 can be sent to Miller at milljerr@isu.edu, or he can be reached by telephone at (208) 282-2688.