Campus Broadcaster Profile
Kutztown University
Kutztown University Radio (KUR) - Kutztown, PAWith it's radio roots going back to the 1960's, campus broadcasting is alive and well at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania.
Mike Regensburger tells us that the station operated as carrier current station from the late 1960s until the late 1990s. Regensburger serves as the Professional Staff General Manager and Advisor for Kutztown University Radio (KUR).
Kutztown University prides itself in being a school well-known for a broadcast media curriculum and the lack of a professionally-operated radio station was a hugh hole left to be filled as the station went dark in the early part of the decade. Regensburger told us that during this time, "a small group of faculty/staff and students remained united to bring broadcasting back to Kutztown University. They convinced the University to create a paid professional position of Professional Staff General Manager." The station was entirely rebuilt and resumed professional 24/7 broadcasting in January, 2005.
A Radio Systems AM transmitter is located atop the athletics building on campus. The university also has "... an extremely weak, almost not even worth mentioning, FM signal that we use simply to get the signal to the TV distribution department so that the signal can be broadcast on a local cable TV access bulletin board channel. We hardly promote the fact that we're on FM because it can only be heard on one or two places on campus. We do, however, much more heavily promote our AM signal since that covers the campus nicely with free-radiate AM", Regensburger said.
The station has two fully equipped studios installed by Radio Systems. The station is also equipped with state of the art automation used for their daytime jazz format and during unmanned hours of operation. Late afternoon and evening programming consists of college radio block programming.
The station covers a variety of campus and community events. Sport coverage includes games of the campus football team, the Golden Bears, and occasionally other sports if the teams make the playoffs. "We have a TieLine system to be able to do live remotes from the community or around campus."
With 5 faculty staff members involved with the station they see anywhere from 40 to 50 students involved with the station per semester, with around 30 of them participating in broadcasting on-the-air.
The station's operating budget is comprised 90% from student activity fees, 8% from the university's operating budget and 2% from dedicated fundraisers. They are open to obtaining underwriters to help support the station in the future.
They're also looking at the possibility to move up to a full powered station as well. "We have a Class A application for an FM in but it's not looking positive. Even though in this immediate area we're rural, we're still too close to big cities here in the north-east and there's not much free airspace. We may go for an LPFM if our Class A quest is a dead end."
We'd like to thank Mike Regensburger for the behind-the-scenes look at the university's station.
Kutztown University Radio Picture Tour
