Education

Commentaries

WKMS welcomes community members to self-voice self-authored compositions that express opinion, introspection or humor on topics of interest and importance to our audience. If you have an opinion, interest or review you'd like to share with WKMS listeners, please see the guidelines below. The views expressed in commentaries are the opinion of the commentator and don't necessarily reflect the views of WKMS.The station will review every script before it is recorded with respect to:Libel or slander.Content that is more promotional than provocative.Accuracy.Personal attacks and ad hominem attacks.Political or religious content that promotes rather than informs.Appropriate usage, language and form for civil discourse.The station will assist authors with:Making appropriate edits.Bringing the communication to proper time length, generally about 600 words or 3 to 4 minutes of spoken word.Recording the communication in the WKMS studio (unless other arrangements that yield equally acceptable audio are agreed to).Editing the communication and placing it in the WKMS schedule.WKMS will require authors to provide the station a final script that will be filed in the news department and will be placed on the station's web site.WKMS will need authors to provide a suggested introduction for each communication as well as a standard announcer outro script that includes author name, general place of residence, and whatever other personal information might lend authority or authenticity to the communication.WKMS will schedule produced communications and inform the author of time(s). Generally these are aired three times each, but the rotation is solely at the discretion of the station.WKMS will refuse to air communications that violate rules of the Federal Communications Commission for non-commercial, educational stations. Further, WKMS will refuse to air communications that would, for any reason, undermine its goodwill with the audience it serves.If you find these terms agreeable, please email msu.wkmsnews@murraystate.edu to schedule a time in a studio to record.

Station Manager Kate Lochte on WKMS at 40

WKMS | By Matt Markgraf

Published May 11, 2010 at 11:53 AM CDT

By Kate Lochte

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkms/local-wkms-901215.mp3

Murray, KY – When WKMS began in 1970, Murray State University envisioned that it would spread the word about higher education in the region to a much wider audience, and WKMS continues to serve as the University's beacon for lifelong learning, with your steadfast support. Thank you.

Programs like Talk of the Nation Science Friday, Speaking of Faith, Earth and Sky, and Pulse of the Planet are specifically educational in nature, but the rest of our schedule is educational in mission. Keeping you informed, inspired and surprised with music and news is what we're about.

We offer you a comprehensive history of the station at our website, here. You can browse it to learn how 913 has grown with your community these four decades. Although growing up is never done, you know turning 40 is one of those big milestones. Sometimes it involves a mid-life crisis, but we'd like to think of what WKMS is going through right now as a growth spurt, actually. And here's why.

The HD2 Classical Music Channel is providing you another 24 hour radio station - on the air for those who are using HD receivers, online at wkms.org, and on the air for FM listening at 92.5 Paducah and 105.1 Madisonville. The new 90.9 WKMD, Madisonville is broadcasting a stronger signal to the northeast, and WKMT, Fulton, is about to come on the air booming a stronger signal at 89.5 to the southwest. So we're different than we were a year ago, much less 40 years ago when WKMS started as a 13,000 watt broadcast service on a KET tower in Farmington.

And it's great that we share this 40th Anniversary with NPR. Murray State became a member station at NPR's very beginning. WKMS is going to spread its 40th anniversary celebration over the coming year, starting with this special edition of Front Page and concluding on May 11, 2011.

During this time we will also be involved in a national project called Leadership for Philanthropy, funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Murray State University and in part, your contributions. This will involve mentors working with us to assess the station's essential role in our region. We will seek out your thinking about some "big ideas" that will guide us into the future, including a process of winnowing down the principal issues affecting our region and how we may be of service in addressing these.

We will also be involved in emerging planning with National Public Radio and stations across the Commonwealth about how public radio stations in Kentucky serve in times of public emergency. News Director Chad Lampe and I will discuss our station's ice storm experience during a national meeting of Public Radio News Directors in Louisville next month.

WKMS and other public entities across the state applied for FEMA grant assistance following the ice storm. We sought support to purchase a generator to provide backup power for the main transmitter site in LBL. These grants have not yet been determined.

We may need to seek funding in the next grant round of the Public Telecommunication Facilities program of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce. This program, called PTFP, has helped WKMS to put four transmission systems on the air in the last 20 years, as well as supporting the replacement of the guy wires supporting our LBL Tower. If you have occasion to speak with members of our U.S. Congressional Delegation, I hope you'll thank them for supporting funding for PTFP because it has provided the impetus for WKMS expansion and endurance.

Thanks again for all you do for WKMS. We hope this 40th anniversary year serves as a stepping stone to a substantial second 40 years of public radio for new generations of listeners.