National Public Radio Plans Upgraded Coverage in S.E. Colorado

High Plains Public Radio in Garden City, Kansas is expanding its coverage in southeast Colorado.  The National Public Radio broadcast operation has provided various music, news and entertainment programs since 1980 and in Prowers County since 1983 beginning with a 25 watt translator device mounted atop a grain silo.

Deborah Oyler and Kathleen Holt Discuss Promotion Plans

For just over 20 years, Prowers County residents have listened to HPPR programming, as radio station KCSE, using a 250 watt translator which has been mounted on the KLMR-FM tower near the city’s water storage tanks.  HPPR is ready to take the next step, financed from several grants, to expand their coverage in portions of southeast Colorado by increasing their power output to 4,000 watts.  A series of translators has been established for the HPPR stations which brings their signal as far north as the Nebraska-Kansas border, into the Oklahoma panhandle and into Texas, reaching Amarillo, Bushland and Washburn listeners.  The additional wattage will expand the KCSE signal as far as Coolidge, KS to the east, as well as for listeners in Wiley, McClave, Las Animas and the outskirts of La Junta.

Deb Oyler, Executive Director of the broadcast facility and Kathleen Holt, Strategic Projects Coordinator at High Plains Public Radio, met at Lamar Community College January 30, with a local support group and interested citizens to determine the best means of introducing the expanded coverage which will impact Prowers, Bent and Kiowa counties.  Holt explained that HPPR received $35,000 in matching funds for a federal grant of $107,000 which allowed the upgrade to be completed.  The El Pomar Foundation and the Gates Family Foundation donated $10,000 and $25,000 respectively.  She explained the original broadcast license was sought by the Esgar Family Foundation years ago, which in turn, gifted it to High Plains Public Radio in Garden City, KS with the idea that a signal would be available in the Prowers County area.

Holt detailed a promotion which would connect area listeners to the station, “We intend to take some photographs of some of our listeners describing their favorite programs on KCSE which would be highlighted through local publications.”  She added that a three part campaign would span several months to kick off the increased broadcast power.  “We have held local ‘house concerts’ which can be held in a public area, or literally in someone’s house, depending on the number of people who attend,” she said.  A spring event will be developed around speakers detailing local heritage history and an early fall campaign would involve roundtable discussions among groups of people, connected by similar themes.

Holt said the HPPR staff will work to develop local contacts for input on these suggestions and best dates available to promote the new broadcast equipment and additional coverage through the five county region.

By Russ Baldwin