KCCU

KCCU signed on the air in July, 1989, after a four-year wait to receive a Federal Communications Commission construction permit.

The establishment of a public or educational radio station in Lawton had been a priority of several citizens and Cameron University administrators for many years. Notes have been traced back to files as early as the 1970's. It was decided that it was too expensive and the idea was tabled.

In 1985, Dr. Don Davis, President of Cameron University, Dr. Jack Bowman, Dean of the Fine Arts Department, and Tony Allison, Chairman of the Communications Area of the Fine Arts Department, decided to hire a broadcast instructor. The instructor would be given the task of building a broadcast program and establishing a public or educational radio station to serve Lawton.

Mark Norman was hired in 1985 as an instructor/director of broadcasting. A series of broadcast courses was developed, and the establishment of a radio station was placed into motion.

The establishment of a radio station is a slow and timely process. First, a frequency must be found in the community of license. As luck would have it, a noncommercial station in Oklahoma City decided to return its 89.3 FM frequency construction permit. Cameron decided to apply for the 89.3 FM frequency. The FCC awarded Cameron the frequency in early 1988.

A decision was made to establish an NPR station. The next step was to find money to build the station. A grant application was made to the National Telecommunication Information Administration for $111,000 to help fund the station's construction. A matching grant from the McMahon Foundation of $50,000 made the application possible. Lawton was one of the largest non-served areas where the Corporation of Public Broadcasting (CPB) wanted to establish a station.

The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education owned a tower in just the right location east of town. An agreement was signed and the tower was secured. A part of the basement of the administration building was selected and remodeled as the studio area. It was the former home of the computer department on campus. The area was gutted and a new facility was built to house the station.

In July, 1989, KCCU signed on the air to serve the Lawton area. A satellite antenna, which was purchased and installed on the roof of the administration building, delivered NPR programming to our audience. During the first year, only one full-time staff member, Norman, and a dedicated group of Communications Department students operated KCCU. Mark Koonce, Jeff Hagy and Floyd Wilson were the first students to help during the first year of operation. The first year, the station operated for 18 hours per day from 6 a.m. to
midnight.

As time passed, the station received more support from the community. More listeners and more financial support helped the station grow. KCCU won several awards during the first year of operation. The establishment of the station was listed by The Lawton Constitution as one of the top ten events of the year and one of the top ten events of the decade in the Lawton arts community.

KCCU added a full-time program director, Michael Leal, in February 1990, to help with the growing need for a more stable operating staff and the expansion of the station's operation to 24 hours per day. Doug Cole replaced Mike Leal in 2007 after running a one man operation at KOCV in Odessa, Texas. Charles Thurston joined the university at about the same time as the campus media engineer and started working as the KCCU engineer. In 1993, the station added a full-time news director, Doug Swanson, to lead students in the local news effort. Debra Taylor replaced Doug and served in that capacity until 2007 when Cynthia Sosa took over the role temporarily. David Meyer took the helm as News Director in 2008. An underwriting director, Dave Sandstrom, was hired in 1996 to help with the fund-raising support. Dave retired in 2000 and was replaced by Terry Anderson. Deborah Astley joined the staff in 2000 as the office manager. When Deborah departed Mirian Smith took over the office duties until her husband’s career moved the family. Paula Medina managed the front office until 2009. Sharon Hawkins took over the position in June 2009. In 2007, Mark Norman moved to OETA in OKC and was replaced by Ted Riley who came from KXCV/KRNW in Maryville, Missouri, where he served as Director of Broadcast Services for Northwest Missouri State University.

A Wichita Falls underwriting staff member, Nadia Sikes, joined the KCCU team in 2001 to work with business in this new market for KCCU. Kristin Gordon filled a newly created position as the, Production Director in 2001. Her position was established to help provide public service announcements, live morning weather and other additional listener services needed with the expansion of KCCU to five full power stations. Veronica Hodgson followed when Kristin’s soldier husband transferred. Cynthia Sosa followed Veronica and serves today as KCCU’s Morning Host and Public Service Director.

In early 1995, KCCU converted the station operation to a digital audio vault. This system allowed for the use of computers to record and playback all programming aired on KCCU. NPR also expanded to digital audio and gave the station new digital equipment to allow for a broader program schedule while reducing the number of staff members required to keep the station on the air 24 hours per day.

Two other major milestones were attained by KCCU. A translator station was established in Altus in July 1992, and an additional translator was established in Ardmore in July 1993. In Altus, Ken Fergeson of the National Bank of Commerce was the driving force behind the establishment of KCCU-Altus. Both of these communities wanted public radio in their communities and worked to help KCCU raise the funds to build the translators in their communities. In Ardmore, the Noble Foundation was a major contributor in the establishment of the station. In 1998, KCCU increased the Ardmore station's power to 25,000 watts from the 250-watt translator. The power increase made the Ardmore station the most powerful in the three station network. The cost of the power increase was funded by the Southern Oklahoma Memorial Foundation of Ardmore, the Community Activities, Inc. Foundation of Ardmore, and other donations from Ardmore citizens. After nine years of waiting for a license KCCU signed on a new station serving Wichita Falls in March of 2002. KCCU signed on another new station in Western Oklahoma in November of 2002.

In March, 2002, KCCU signed KMCU on in Wichita Falls, broadcasting on 88.7 FM at 3,000 watts of power. KYCU signed on the air in Western Oklahoma (Clinton-Weatherford-Elk City) on 89.1 FM at 40,000 watts in September, 2002. Since all these stations are full power, full service stations, all must have call letters different from KCCU, even though the stations repeat the basic programming aired on KCCU. In January of this year KCCU completed our border to border expansion with the addition of KZCU on 95.9 FM. KCCU has helped to fulfill the goal of Cameron University to be an interactive university.

Our overall goal is to seek out those who are not listening to public radio and to provide that service where possible. KCCU has increased the station's weekly audience to over 40,000 listeners. We have averaged around 1,400 financial supporters each year. Our goal is to increase the numbers of listeners to 50,000, and our financial supporters to 2,500 by 2010. The latest expansion into Northwestern Oklahoma should help us reach this goal.


KCCU: An Award Winning Station

KCCU has received many awards since 1989. Three particular awards have demonstrated the quality of the staff and service provided by KCCU. KCCU won the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasting Education Station of the Year Award two years in a row. The award was presented to the station in 1992 and 1993. The award was presented to KCCU using the criteria of service to the community, involvement in the community and involvement of students with the station.

In 1995, KCCU was nominated by Goodwill Industries for the Governor’s Excellence Award for the service KCCU provides to the community. KCCU was the only radio station in the state to be selected to receive the award from the Governor in 1995. KCCU won the award again in 2007.

KCCU has won other awards that have been presented since 1995. Students who produce programming for KCCU have won several Oklahoma Broadcast Education Association awards for newscast, best public service announcement and best feature news program. The OBEA is a statewide student organization that presents awards to students for broadcast projects they produce.

The station was selected by the American Legion as the Radio Station of the Year for Oklahoma in 1997, and again in 1999, for our coverage of veterans' affairs.

KCCU's highest arts honor to date was the presentation in 1998 of the Governor's Arts Award for our coverage of arts events. The award was named after the longtime Lawton newspaper reporter, Bill Crawford.

On January 31, 2009, KCCU News Director David Meyer earned two journalism awards from the Oklahoma Society of Professional Journalists. He came away with second place in the Radio General News Reporting category for a story he produced about the cleanup of Altus after straight-line winds devastated the community
in June 2008. Meyer also earned an honorable mention in the Radio Features category for a story about Lawton’s 2008 Chautauqua celebration.

Meyer also earned the highest news honor to date for KCCU in April 2009. He earned three regional Edward R. Murrow awards from RTNDA (Radio Television News Directors Association) in small market radio. KCCU competed against other radio stations throughout Oklahoma and Texas with a news staff of two or less. He won in the Hard News Feature category for the Altus storm clean-up as well as the Feature Reporting category profiling Oklahomans recalling the events of 9/11 and where they feel the country stood seven years later. Meyer also won the Best Use of Sound category for profiling the Lawton Amateur Radio Field Day weekend in June 2008, where ham radio enthusiasts and emergency radio professionals converge for 24 consecutive hours of on air-communication. The entries will now move forward to national judging with winners to be announced in June.
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KCCU signed on the air in July, 1989, after a four-year wait to receive a Federal Communications Commission construction permit.

The establishment of a public or educational radio station in Lawton had been a priority of several citizens and Cameron University administrators for many years. Notes have been traced back to files as early as the 1970's. It was decided that it was too expensive and the idea was tabled.

In 1985, Dr. Don Davis, President of Cameron University, Dr. Jack Bowman,... (read more)