Grant paves way for digital signal from KRNW

KXCV/KRNW, the 100,000-watt public radio voice of Northwest Missouri State University, has received an $85,000 grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that will help defray the cost of purchasing and installing a new digital transmitter.

The transmitter will permit KRNW, a repeater station in Chillicothe, to broadcast near-CD quality sound over multiple program streams. Mother station KXCV, housed in Wells Hall on the Northwest campus, went digital just over a year ago.

"With this grant we'll be able to replace our aging analog transmitter and deliver a more consistent public radio signal to our listeners in north central Missouri, including the communities of Trenton, Chillicothe and Princeton," said Acting General Manager Patty Holley. "This will also allow us to offer those listeners programs they are now unable to receive."

Cost of the KRNW upgrade is $154,000, meaning that the University is responsible for coming up with $70,000 in matching funds for the project, which is to be completed by September 2008.

The price tag includes $5,000 needed to purchase a second digital license from iBiquity, a company formed by the merger of USA Digital Radio and Lucent Digital Radio with the goal of creating a national digital radio system.

So-called HD (short for hybrid digital) radio requires a new-generation receiver of the sort that allows listeners to switch back and forth between simultaneous broadcasts -- Bearcat sporting events and regularly scheduled shows, for example. Few people currently own such receivers, but this is changing as prices decline and automakers begin installing digital radios in their new models.

For the near term, KXCV/KRNW will continue transmitting a single programming stream using both digital and analog signals.

Located at 90.5 (KXCV) and 88.9 (KRNW) on the FM dial, KXCV/KRNW is owned and operated by Northwest. The NPR station broadcasts jazz, classical music, news, public affairs programs, variety shows and Bearcat sporting events across northern Missouri and southern Iowa.

Currently only two other public radio stations in the state have digital transmission capability: KCUR at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and KBIA at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

The grant is the third CPB grant obtained by the station within the past six months. In April KXCV/KRNW received two "bonus" grants totaling $32,500 through the not-for-profit corporation's Rural Listener Access Incentive Fund. Those grants recognized KXCV/KRNW's efforts to provide creative, sustainable service throughout its listening area.

In applying for the bonus grants the KXCV/KRNW staff was required to demonstrate financial, technological and programming efficiencies that allow the station to cost-effectively serve rural listeners.

KRNW, which covers much of north central Missouri, first went on the air in 1993 with the help of Corporation for Public Broadcasting grants awarded because the area was underserved.

For more information about KXCV/KRNW FM, or to become a member, call 660.562.1163, e-mail kxcv@nwmissouri.edu or go to www.kxcv.org.

For more information, please contact:

Anthony Brown,
News Bureau Manager
E-Mail: abrown@nwmissouri.edu
Phone (660) 562-1704
Fax (660) 562-1900

Northwest Missouri State University
219 Administration Building,
800 University Drive
Maryville, MO 64468

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