After 25 years of broadcasting a wide variety of entertainment throughout Abilene and the Big Country area, Abilene Public Radio conducted a luncheon March 8 celebrating those involved from the development of the station to its success of today.
Student announcers performed a radio play that honored several of the station’s founders and told stories from KACU’s history to entertain and enlighten guests.
John Best, General Manager of KACU and Director of Broadcasting Operations, has been apart of the KACU team for 12 years and is honored to be part of this memorable time in the station’s history. He also believes the radio play will be a highlight to the luncheon.
“This radio play will celebrate the history of the station. We have student announcers that should make it both educational and fun. The audience should take a lot out of it,” Best said.
From the stations beginning, their motives have been to be a completely independent station and make a good impact on the community despite its small market, said Best.
“We are established in a market that is almost small enough not to be able to support its own station, but we did it. We did it through those who have supported us in every way. There is enough demand to even make us grow”, he said.
With hopes for a promising future, Best said that through this luncheon the station desires to expand not only through operational expenses and new endowments, but also in training students to reach full professional potential.
“We’ve already spread to the Internet but we always hope to expand. We have listeners all over the world so we want to continue to train students to be professional, and we already have an amazing team.”
Best, along with everyone involved with the KACU station, believes that the time they’ve had broadcasting through public radio is a great place to be in.
“Through out the years we have been able to appeal to so many more people through broad and eclectic programming. I think that’s the difference from where we have began; we’ve had great success these past 25 years,” he said.
