Photo by Tom Michael
The KRTS tower being built in 2006. A tower similar to this will be
erected this spring in Gardendale, due north of Odessa, bringing a
strong public radio signal to the Midland/Odessa area.
Radio for a Wide Range
by Barbara Novovitch
W
hether you’re a rancher working cattle
in the West Texas desert or a fisherman
trying to net that salmon from a boat in
Bristol Bay, Alaska, public radio may well deter-
mine whether the news is at your fingertips – or
at your ear with a mobile app – in remote parts
of the United States.
Telecommunication advances, widespread
public radio and mobile apps have made news of
science, health, business, politics – the world we
care about and live in – available 24/7 to the
most remote corners of the nation – and often
even to the most remote corners of the world.
Beethoven, Gigli, Willie Nelson or Lady Gaga
are also there for us to hear, depending on the
musical tastes and variety favored by the station –
and usually all are there, at one hour or another.
The stations also frequently stream their
broadcasts online, so that listeners can listen
through their computers, a plus where internet
access is available but radio reception is not.
Some people may wonder why the brouhaha
about public radio and whether it receives public
funds is so fierce. This may be open for discussion
in population centers where sources of informa-
tion and dollars are plentiful. But in rural areas of
the United States, public radio is the lifeline many
people depend upon for news, debate, mental
stimulation and entertainment.
As more Americans give up city or suburban
life and move to sparsely populated areas, they
demand public radio. And those who never lived
in the cities are discovering they also appreciate
the larger community offered by public radio in
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areas like Far West Texas, northern Minnesota,
Arizona and Alaska.
Marfa Public Radio in Marfa, Texas has three
dozen volunteers and three full-time staff who
help cue the news broadcasts, conduct the local
“Talk at Ten” interviews, relate tales of local his-
tory, narrate “Nature Notes” about the natural
world, do book reviews and create recorded
music programs from classical to contemporary.
Calling itself “radio for a wide range,” the station
serves Brewster County (6,184 square miles of
desert and mountains that is home is 9,300 peo-
ple), Presidio County (3,856 square miles border-
ing Mexico with a 7,888 population) and Jeff
Davis County (2,265 square miles and a 2,342
population). And counties and populations
beyond. The region is known to some as ‘The
Last Frontier,” a name that is also claimed by the
whole state of Alaska.
One of Alaska’s “wide range” radios is
KDLG in Dillingham, a city of 4,922 people on
Bristol Bay in the Bering Sea. Dillingham is only
33.6 square miles (plus 2.1 square miles of water).
KDLG covers an area the size of Ohio, program
manager Jason Sear says. Much of its program-
ming is also repeated about 400 miles north in
Unalakleet for some 10 villages of Native
Alaskans, population between 700 and 800.
The Dillingham station has a special toll-free
number for callers within Alaska who want to
telephone during its popular afternoon “Open
Line” show. That call is often the only time listen-
ers can exchange family news on birthdays or
other special occasions, Sear said.