SEMO's public radio KRCU makes frequency change in Carter County

KRCU, Southeast Missouri State University's public radio station, heard in Cape Girardeau at 90.9 FM, can also be heard beginning at 1 p.m. Thursday on KDMC 88.7 FM in Ellsinore, Missouri.

KRCU general manager Dan Woods said the university will drop the 91.3 FM frequency it currently uses when it moves farther down the dial at that time.

The changes are part of KRCU's signal expansion project.

"The transfer to 88.7 will give us a clearer signal," Woods said Tuesday and pointed out there is still more to come with the project.

"We're not done yet," he said, saying the station is asking the Federal Communications Commission for a power increase from 88.7 FM's current 12,000 watts to 100,000 watts, a process he thinks may take a couple of months to complete.

After the anticipated power jump, KRCU's programming will reach nearly 80,000 listeners in Poplar Bluff, Van Buren, Ellsinore, Doniphan and Piedmont in Missouri and northern Arkansas.

Southeast's Board of Regents greenlighted the expansion in September 2019, with the purchase made by a donor who wished to remain anonymous.

Annual operating costs for KDMC, the university said, will be covered through corporate underwriting and individual donations.

KRCU is owned and operated by Southeast with studios located behind Academic Hall on Southeast's main campus in Cape Girardeau.

KRCU went on the air in 1976 as a 10-watt FM station, increasing power to 100 watts in 1981 and by 1994 to 6,000 watts.

The station has been at its current power level of 6,500 watts since 2002, according to Woods.

The station transitioned from a student-run radio station to an NPR member station in November 1990. The station expanded its coverage area in 2006 to the Farmington area, making the move to Ellsinore the station's second major expansion.

Jeff Long is a part-time faculty member at Southeast Missouri State University.