The phones were ringing off the hook last week at 88.9 KETR, but it wasn’t listeners requesting music. Instead, the station fielded calls asking about the static in their speakers.
Transmitter failure knocked A&M-Commerce’s 100,000-watt public radio station off the air Aug. 21.
Bill Oliver, KETR station manager, said a sudden increase in electricity through the transmitter, either from lightning strikes or from a power surge, blew up several transmitter components over the three-day period.
During the failure, Oliver said Web site traffic was up.
“We continued broadcasting our regular programming online at our ketr.org Web site and on cable channel three in Commerce and Cooper,” Oliver said.
Repairs were completed Friday afternoon and 88.9 FM was back on the air, one day before the station was set to broadcast the first Lion football game from Pittsburg, Kan.
“Once we got past the first hour, I was pretty comfortable we were good to go for the long haul,” Oliver said. “On my drive to Pittsburg I went through Paris and listened until the signal started breaking up on the other side of Hugo, Okla.”
Cost estimates for the transmitter replacement were unavailable at press time.
Oliver extended appreciatioin to listeners for their patience and thanked those who helped get the new transmitter up and running.
“My personal thanks begin with engineer Robert Goodwin for his tireless efforts diagnosing the damage and repairing the transmitter.,” he said in a message on ketr.org. “In addition to three cheers for Robert, I also want to thank Texas A&M-Commerce President Dr. Keith McFarland, Vice President for Institutional Advancement Sylvia Kelley, Purchasing Director Bert White and Facilities Director David McKenna for letting KETR respond on an emergency basis.”
The Corporation of Public Broadcasting estimates KETR’s potential audience is 180,000 listeners.