Dump button at college radio station KCSU. Photo: J. Waits

College Radio Watch: Hastings College to Sell KFKX License to Christian Broadcaster and More College Radio News

By Jennifer Waits on July 29, 2016 in College Radio, College Radio Survivor

It didn’t take long for Hastings College to decide to sell the license for college radio station KFKX-FM. As we reported, the student radio station was shut down and went silent a month ago. At the time, the school was vague about its plans for the license. This week, however, the college submitted paperwork to the FCC asking for the license to be assigned to Community Broadcasting, Inc., which operates religious radio stations. According to its Asset Purchase Agreement dated July 21, 2016, the sale price is $37,500.

Community Broadcasting Inc. has asked the FCC for a main studio waiver in the hopes of originating its broadcasts from its KSIV-FM studio in St. Louis, Missouri. According to its request, “CBI is a non-profit, charitable corporation organized under Section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code. CBI is the licensee of a number non-commercial educational stations. These stations are part of the Bott Radio Network (“BRN”), also a not-for-profit entity, which provides programming to them from CBI’s headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas.”

The Bott Radio Network is a religious broadcasting group that includes 42 radio stations across the United States, according to an accounting of broadcast interests included with the KFKX application. The Bott Radio Network website states,

Bott Radio Network’s purpose is to serve the Lord’s people and to help strengthen each Christian family in our listening audience. Bott Radio Network is an arm of each Bible preaching local church and, as such, will encourage each listener toward a closer walk with the Lord. Bott Radio Network presents the finest Bible Teaching and Christian News & Information programming in America…Bott Radio Network now operates over 100 broadcast signals with a combined coverage of 51 million people in 15 states. They are Arkansas, California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming.”

Colorado Station Tours

I’ve had Colorado on my mind, as I’m busily writing up my tour reports from the six college radio station visits from my Colorado vacation. This week I wrote about visits to Colorado College radio station The SOCC and to Colorado State University station KCSU. Additionally, on episode 56 of the Radio Survivor Podcast, I recap my trip to Metropolitan State University of Denver’s student-run radio station Met Radio and share some audio highlights from my interview with two of its student leaders.

Although I’m happy to have seen so many stations (I have three more left to write up), I still wish that I’d been able to see more. By my count, there are at the minimum 18 college radio stations in Colorado, with Denver and Colorado Springs the hot beds of activity, with at least four college radio stations in each city.