Logan Ramsey
Editor-in-Chief
POCATELLO– Jamon Anderson has been at the ISU owned public radio station called KISU-FM for sixteen years and he said that throughout his career he’s seen new equipment give way to a cleaner broadcast and a better station.
Anderson, KISU Program Director, said that in the early days of his employment it was, “easy to tell it was a fledgling station.”
Throughout KISU’s twenty year life, they’ve run a mix of music, news, entertainment and information shows, but Anderson said the programming wasn’t the issue with the station. The issue was primarily the broadcast quality, among other problems.
“There were a lot of things that needed to be figured out with the personnel, the equipment, methods, scheduling, etc. All of those things are what a station needs before it can enjoy consistency,” Anderson said.
“Our goal is to have consistency in our (broadcast quality),” Anderson said.
Anderson was a board operator when he first started, and he said that with upgrades in equipment, much of his old job is now automated.
According to Anderson, “90 percent” of the work the board operator did took place in one minute when they would begin broadcasting a show, so there was more room for someone to make an error.
“If someone wasn’t in their place at the right time to push some buttons then we’d miss that recording and subsequently we’d miss the broadcast,” Anderson said.
These errors often resulted in repeat programs instead of new material and Dead Air, when no audio is transmitted on the broadcast, which Anderson said is, “not great for a radio station.”
When this would happen, Anderson said it would cause “unrest” among the staff.
Anderson said this happened, “because we all had a job to do and we counted on each other and I think everyone at the station had a goal of making the station sound better and more consistent.”
During Anderson’s time as Program Director, KISU has worked to address the issues they faced in the early days of their programming and Anderson said the work has paid off.
Anderson said that thanks to new equipment, Dead Air is almost unheard of on their station and some of that margin for error has been eliminated which has led to them having a more quality broadcast.
“It was difficult to juggle everything at once but that’s where our automation has helped us,” Anderson said, later continuing, “today I think we enjoy a very professional sound.”
Anderson also said KISU was now lucky to have a staff with a “deep knowledge” of their jobs and what they require.
“We’re lucky to have people who have such a deep knowledge base that they can accomplish so much in so little time,” Anderson said.
One of these staff members Anderson praised was Dave Molitor, Student Media Development and Sales Coordinator, who he said has been able to make up for budget cuts to the station through underwriting, which is how public radio stations do their advertising.
Molitor said that even with the small staff they still manage to keep KISU going and producing great content.
“We have a small group here,” Molitor said, later continuing, “we all wear more hats than what our job title says because that’s what we have to do to make this station great.”
Anderson said he was proud of where they’ve been able to take the station in terms of broadcast quality and that, “I think we’ve achieved the goal of consistency.”
