“Public radio 72 hours a day” has arrived on the airwaves, live from Lamar University.
On Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2006, Lamar public radio KVLU became the first radio station in the Beaumont-Port Arthur-Orange market to offer digital broadcasting and the “multi-casting” capabilities of high-definition radio technology, officials of the university and KVLU announced during the live broadcast of a ceremony celebrating the milestone.
The station now offers two additional channels of programming – Radio 2 and Radio 3 – to augment the programming of classical music, jazz, National Public Radio News and favorites like “Car Talk” and “A Prairie Home Companion” that has been heard throughout Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana.
With HD radio technology, radio stations have the capability of creating additional digital radio channels from a single FM frequency, said Byron Balentine, station manager for operations. “With HD radio receivers, listeners can hear more of what they love on KVLU,” Balentine said. The move will not only improve sound quality and bring the station into the digital age, but also will provide more opportunities for students to become involved, he said.
KVLU’s conversion to digital radio was funded by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by special funding from Capitol One, major donors and Lamar University. To mark the milestone, Balentine invited Jean Moncla, vice president and trust officer of Capital One, to do the honors of turning on the digital transmitter.
“We want to extend a big-thank you for the support your organization has provided KVLU from the beginning of our desire to go digital all the way to this point,” he said. “Your help on this has been wonderful.”
Officially launching HD Radio at Lamar were President James Simmons; Dean Russ Schultz of the College of Fine Arts and Communication; and Student Government Association President Ronnie Turner – Schultz on Radio 1, also aired on the web at KVLU.org; Simmons on Radio 2, to include jazz programming; and Turner, with the student-created Radio 3.
“KVLU is the first station to broadcast digital in this market, and we are as proud as we can be,” Balentine said in concluding the ceremony. “We hope you’ll get a digital radio and join us on the air as we present more of what you love on public radio.”
“Digital is the future of radio, and we’re very pleased to be the first to come on board with it in the area,” said Melanie Dishman, KVLU station manager for advancement. “What it means is that our listeners will have more choice.
“As digital radios become more prevalent, they will actually have three KVLUs to choose from, and we think that will have a tremendous impact on our listenership into the future. They will have more choice and hopefully, we’ll be able to increase our membership and our support by offering three times as much programming,” Dishman said.
Balentine explained: “Multi-casting will take a portion of our digital signal and divide it up into more than one channel. Listeners need an HD radio receiver capable of accepting the content on Radio 2 and Radio 3. These receivers are currently available by mail order, but they will soon become more widely available and affordable,” Balentine said. “Listeners without HD receivers will still be able to hear the original 91.3 signals on their current radios.
“KVLU will be the first station – from this day – to become a full digital radio station, offering better sound, lack of multi-path distortion in digital reception and also the ability to multi-cast, which is to take our 91.3 signal and divide it into three separate signals, which we will call Radio 1, the KVLU you’ve all gotten used to; Radio 2, which will be a jazz and classical service – we may expand that later on; and Radio 3, which will be the first time we will be able to broadcast a complete student service from Lamar through the facilities of KVLU.”
Radio 3 will feature programming produced by and for Lamar students. Under the umbrella title, “The Incubator,” students will be able to experiment with alternative programming forms while gaining real-world experience in radio broadcasting, Balentine said.
“The third channel, at first, will be somewhat limited in student involvement,” he said. “But we’ve mapped out 18 hours a week that we think we can fill with student content.
“As more students become interested, we will allocate more time for them. In the long run, we hope to provide a 24-hour student radio service on Radio 3.” The remainder of the channel will contain music ranging from alternative to contemporary and traditional folk.
Balentine began the ceremony and news conference with some historical perspective: “When FM became stereo, that was the first major innovation in FM radio after it was created in the 1940s,” he said. “The next big milestone in radio as we see it is in digital radio, just like high-definition television has come into being, there is now HD radio. About 500 stations across the nation have adopted the standard that has been set up and approved experimentally by the FCC.”
The idea of going digital originated several years ago. “In 2001, with the help of the trust department of what is now Capital One, we were able to digitize our control room,” Balentine said. “That was Step 1. Now, Step 2 has been made possible from a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, from Lamar University, from Capital One once again and from some major donors who have allowed us to build a state-of-the-art digital transmission system that goes all the way from our studio to transmitter links and processing all the way to the transmitter.
“If you’ve noticed, in the last day or so, that KVLU sounds a little better, that’s because we’re all digital all the way to our transmitter. So those of you who are hearing us on analog radio should be getting slightly better sound from us.’
Balentine added: “By getting in on the early part of this technology, we hope to allow ourselves time to experiment, make mistakes, if we have to, and have it down right by the time most people have digital radios to hear it.”
KVLU is a member-supported public radio station featuring programming from National Public Radio, American Public Media and local offerings of classical, jazz and folk music, as well as coverage of the arts.
“I think it’s important we reiterate that we were able to complete this project with funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Lamar University and private donors so that our membership funds continue to go to programming,” Dishman said.
The announcement served as a prelude to KVLU’s annual fall membership campaign, which begins Tuesday, Oct. 24.
