NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO STILL GROWING AT SEMO

National Public Radio is sounding better and better these days, says Susan Westfall, general manager of KRCU, the local NPR affiliate.

Two years after ushering in National Public Radio on the Southeast Missouri State University campus, KRCU continues to make improvements at its studios in a former apartment building at 338 N. Henderson.

New equipment has improved studio operations and made for "better quality sound," Westfall said Tuesday.

On top of that, plans are under way to install a new transmitter and broadcast tower to boost power from 100 watts to 6,000 watts. The station is 90.9 on the FM dial.

In celebration of its second anniversary as an NPR affiliate, the radio station is hosting an open house today from 4-7 p.m. Westfall said the public is invited to attend and tour the facility.

With little fanfare, KRCU has continued to progress in recent years from a routine campus station to a state-of-the-art operation.

"We are probably one of the best secrets in Cape Girardeau, so we are hoping to change that," said Westfall.

To that end, the station started publishing a newsletter earlier this year. The newsletter is distributed to several hundred people.

Westfall said KRCU has a new on-air studio and a production studio. "Both of those are fully complemented with state-of-the-art broadcast equipment."

Westfall said the on-air studio is "sort of the heart beat, the center of the operation."

Ultimately, she said, the station plans to establish a live-performance studio from which to broadcast performances, perhaps before a live audience.

"Down the road, we'd like to produce a live variety show that showcases Southeast Missouri people," said Westfall.

Some live performances may be broadcast from the station next spring, she said.

The new on-air and production studios were developed with funding from a $121,000 federal grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The university provided another $60,000 for the project, Westfall said.

The grant money also includes about $70,000 for boosting the station's broadcast power. That entire project is expected to cost nearly $130,000, Westfall said.

The remainder of that cost is expected to come from private contributions and the university, she said.

Originally, plans called for boosting power to 2,200 watts, but Westfall said university officials decided this summer to seek an even stronger signal in order to cover a larger listening area.

Plans call for construction of a 230-foot tower at the Henderson Street facility and a transmitter building. The actual transmitter and antenna will be purchased with part of the federal grant, Westfall said.

Currently, KRCU has an antenna on top of Academic Hall and a transmitter room in the auditorium section of the building.

"It's not ideal for anybody," Westfall said of the current arrangement. "It's just not convenient."

The station is currently waiting for approval from the Federal Communications Commission to proceed with the project of boosting its signal.

Westfall said she hopes the station will be broadcasting at higher power by the end of next spring or early summer.

Currently, KRCU's signal barely covers Cape Girardeau County. By boosting its power to 6,000 watts, the station could reach much of a five-county area, she estimated.

With the increased power, KRCU would likely be heard from Perryville on the north to Sikeston on the south, and at least as far west as Marble Hill, Westfall said. The signal would be directed to the south and west, with the Mississippi River basically being its eastern boundary.

A low key, fund-raising effort, begun a year ago, has raised about $18,000 so far, Westfall said.

The Southeast Missouri University Foundation is also involved in fund-raising efforts for the station, she said.

Westfall said a "build-a-tower" campaign may be initiated in which individuals and companies could each buy a piece of the new tower at $250 a foot. "It will be sort of a fun thing," she remarked.

Since last fall, 120 new members have made contributions to the station. In all, the station now has a couple of hundred members.

Westfall said she believes the station can sustain such support on an annual basis. "I feel confident that support will be there."

In fact, she said, the support so far indicates "that Southeast is ready for a culturally oriented, non-commercial radio station."

Although the station has no numbers as to its audience size, Westfall said nationally it's estimated that about 10 percent of the population listens to public broadcasting stations.

KRCU currently broadcasts from 6 a.m. to midnight, Monday through Friday, and from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

But Westfall said the station hopes to be broadcasting 18 hours a day, seven days a week by year's end.

Westfall said the station operates with about five full-time and part-time professional staff and approximately 15 students. In all, its annual operating budget from the university amounts to more than $100,000, she said.

Operating a quality station costs money, Westfall said. "It (the budget) shows sort of the caliber of what we are doing."