KUNR celebrates 50 years of Nevada public radio

Susan Skorupa, Reno Gazette-Journal

Sunday, Oct. 6, 2013 | 2 a.m.

It was just a small news story in a Reno newspaper in October 1963.

“The University of Nevada took on a new ‘voice’ Monday. It’s broadcasting with a power of 10 watts from the Reno campus.”

Yes, 10 watts. The new radio station was KUNR, at 88.1 on FM dials. Listeners within a 13-mile radius of the university could pick up the signal beaming from the transmitter on the roof of the Church Fine Arts building on the UNR campus.

In its earliest weeks, the station’s schedule included music ranging from folk to classical, introduced by a team of five student announcers. At least once a day, there was a five-minute news summary prepared by journalism students.

That once-tiny station this week celebrates 50 years on the air in public broadcasting, providing news, commentary, music and educational programming.

It started in 1962, when university President Charles Armstrong asked the board of regents to put a radio station on campus. They agreed, and on Oct. 7, 1963, the first program was broadcast.

“The first day — I do not remember the hours — we went on in late afternoon,” said Mary English, then Mary Robins, the first station manager. “I spoke, J. Patrick Kelly, the big boss, spoke, and Don Potter, in charge of A/V (audio/visual) spoke.

“We had student announcers; there was not enough money to pay professional announcers,” English said.

English came to Reno from a Kalamazoo, Mich., radio station, recruited by the university for the manager position.

“Public broadcasting had just begun and was not even called that,” she said. “It was not unusual to open at 10 watts; at 11 watts, the FCC had different regulations ... I can’t say what was the difference, but it was good to start at 10 ... probably not so strict.”

The first offices were in a loft in the Church Fine Arts building.

“We had to climb a ladder to get to it,” English said.

The station was part of the university, but it was not a campus radio station, as such. It was to be for the community, English said.

“The whole broadcasting community in Reno was very welcoming,” she said. “We were not competition for them, and they were pleased to have an educational station.”

In 1963, that 13-mile broadcast radius probably covered a good part of the city, said David Stipech, KUNR’s current general manager.

A few years later, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. Public radio stations such as KUNR began showing up on American campuses, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting came in to being.

“There was a lot of experimentation going on; the university seemed to be the place for the new medium being explored,” Stipech said. “There was a lot of classical music and education emphasis.”

In 1969, KUNR expanded to 1,000 watts and installed a new transmitter on Nye Hall, Stipech said. In 1981, the station began its affiliation with NPR — National Public Radio — and its programming.

“Those early ’80s were the early years of public broadcasting in both radio and TV,” said Tim Jones, emeritus director of university arts at UNR and KUNR station manager from 1980 to 1987. “For a while, the education building was home to both (KUNR and KNPB Channel 5).

“I remember one of the first on-air fundraisers when I was there,” he said. “It was also carried on the local community-access TV station.”

The entertainers performed for the cameras in the future studios of KNPB, and KUNR carried the live audio.

“Eventually we were taking equipment to Pioneer (Center) to do live broadcasts of the Reno Philharmonic and to the old ice house on Fourth Street where performers did jazz, folk, bluegrass,” he said. “If something was happening, we took our microphones there. It was part of the excitement of public broadcasting, making it something special for the audience of Northern Nevada.”

Jones credited an “incredible staff.” Rex Gunderson was news director, he said. Susan Haase was development director. Chris Morrison was “a walking library on classical music.” There were so many others.

Mike Reed, later dean of UNR’s College of Business, did a Saturday afternoon music program.

“He came in with a stack of records,” Jones said. “We had a huge record collection in the back, on vinyl. Compact discs came in the mid ’80s; satellite broadcast helped later.”

Fifty years after the first broadcast, English is still proud of KUNR.

“I had very specific standards and goals and things I wanted the station to do,” English said. “I did not have anything to do with it except to begin it, but it has gone exactly the way I hoped it would ... I think of it as my ‘baby’ station. It has grown and developed quite nicely.”