February 14, 2015
MARSHALL, Texas (2/10/15) - East Texas Baptist University is drawing closer to broadcasting from its first fully-licensed, FM broadcast facility. The Federal Communications Commission granted ETBU a construction permit which allows the Christian Liberal Arts university to construct an FM radio station for the purposes of broadcasting "over the air" to the Marshall/Harrison County community.
"As part of the construction permit ETBU has locked in the call letters and frequency for the station," said Dr. Dennis Robertson, professor of communication and one of the principle authors of the FCC application. "The frequency is 94.9 FM and the call letters are KXBU."
"We have had broadcast studios on campus since 2006, and a radio station online since 2008, but we did not have a broadcast license or a frequency on which we could broadcast a signal to Marshall and adjacent East Texas communities. The construction permit allows us to make our radio station a true broadcast facility by installing the transmission equipment required for 'over-the-air' broadcasting," said Dr. Robertson.
The KXBU antenna will be mounted on one of the light towers at Ornelas Stadium, home of Tiger football. The 80-watt station will have a reach of five miles in every direction from the antenna. In that five-mile radius, there are approximately 26,000 potential listeners to KXBU.
According to Robertson, faculty in the Communication Studies Department are working with the FCC, radio engineers, and ETBU administration to begin construction as soon as possible. Plans call for re-wiring the broadcast studio, installing FM amplifiers, exciters, and a transmitter, in addition to the construction of the FM antenna bay with studio-to-transmitter senders and receivers that enable the FM broadcast to reach the antenna for distribution.
Although the FCC allows 18 months for the construction process to be completed, the Communication Studies Department hopes to have the station on-the-air by September 1, 2015.
Dr. Robertson shared, "this is the first fully-licensed, FM broadcast facility in ETBU's history. The application process took more than two years, with two different applications filed, to secure 94.9 FM and KXBU as our own radio broadcast facility. Students studying in the Digital Media program will receive hands-on experience in programming, news broadcasting, and performance art as members of the KXBU broadcast team. The experience will be priceless."
"Graduating with a degree in our Digital Media program, coupled with real, on-air experience at KXBU, will give our graduates a hefty advantage when it comes to securing that first job out of college," Dr. Robertson said. "Many of the great radio and television broadcasters got their first 'professional' experience working for their campus radio/television station. We are thrilled to soon be able to offer that experience to our own students here at ETBU."
The format for the new radio station is under discussion. Currently the internet radio station, Level 1209, streams songs from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.