EDUCATION: KRCU FUND DRIVE ALLOWS EXPANSION

When KRCU FM 90.9 started in 1976, the public radio station broadcast with 10 watts from a cranny beside the stage in Academic Auditorium.

Station manager Greg Petrowich was 7 then but has been told the signal reached "almost to Capaha Park if the wind was blowing."

Last week, the station announced plans to buy a new transmitter and antenna that next year will extend its coverage area from 588 square miles to 1,605 square miles. The signal may reach as far north as Ste. Genevieve, Mo., and the potential audience will expand from 71,000 to 102,000 people.

The latest Arbitron survey puts the station's weekly audience at 8,300, of which about 600 are active members who provide financial support.

Now in its fall fund-raising drive, KRCU for the first time promises to stop raising money and return to regular programming once its goal of $27,500 is reached.

"We hit it and we quit it," says Yana Davis, KRCU's development director.

About $15,000 was raised from existing members before the drive began on Saturday. Wednesday afternoon, $3,800 from the goal, Davis predicted it will be reached today.

KRCU this year will have its most successful drive in history in terms of net proceeds, Davis says, a result he attributes, at least in part, to the new approach.

This also is the third drive that the station has not offered premiums -- CDs, mugs, and the like, given out in return for becoming a member.

"That cost $2,000 to $3,000 per drive," Davis said. "Instead of talking about mugs and T-shirts, we're talking about the quality of our programming and people are responding."

Budget grows

When Petrowich became the station's operations director in 1991, KRCU's budget was about $160,000, and Southeast Missouri State University accounted for the entire amount. This year KRCU's budget is $420,000. University funding has increased slightly, while listener contributions, business underwriting and a Corporation for Public Broadcasting grant account for the rest.

Davis says listeners, who provide 20 to 25 percent of the station's budget, have enabled the station to expand its programming dramatically. In 1991, the station's only syndicated shows were "Morning Edition," "Performance Today" and "All Things Considered." Since then the station has added weekend news shows, the popular "Car Talk," evening symphony shows, Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion," the humorous game show "Whad'Ya Know?" and the business-oriented "Marketplace."

Home-grown programs

The station has long presented home-grown programming. Dr. Alan Journet, a biology professor at the university, was one of the station's first on-air volunteers. His idiosyncratic mix of classical and not-so-classical music was called "From Bach and Beyond" in 1981.

He offered his services to the station after listening to a recording of Handel's "Water Music" skip for 15 minutes on the air.

Not too many others would have been disturbed back then.

"I think (the signal) went across the street," Journet said.

Now KRCU has upgraded its computer systems and is taking advantage of new CD technology to market its series on Verdi featuring "Sunday Night at the Opera" host Barbara Herbert. The show has been picked up by some public radio stations around the country. The station also is trying to market "Your Folk Connection," another locally produced show.

KRCU receives no money from stations that take the shows but is able to sell underwriting on the basis of wider listenership.

Internet use

The Internet also is a tool the station plans to use. When KRCU posted its live coverage of the recent debate between the Missouri gubernatorial candidates to the Internet, a St. Louis public radio station pulled it down and ran it.

"We're hoping we can start partnering more with other public radio stations and sharing coverage," Petrowich says. "The Internet allows us to share so many resources."

The new transmitter and antenna will be on an existing radio tower north of Cape Girardeau. The station will increase its power only from 6,000 watts to 6,500, but the height of its antenna will triple.

"In FM, height is everything," Petrowich says.

The purchase of the transmitter and antenna is possible because of a $105,000 grant from the federal Public Telecommunications Facilities Program. KRCU will make up the remaining cost of about $35,000.