Susan Raybuck, founder of KWVH 94.3 radio station, spoke to the Rotary Club of Wimberley on last week. She told the club how the idea for a community radio station came to her following a tragic weather event in New Braunfels, where she teaching at the time, that resulted in the deaths of several students. Her family had lived in Wimberley since 1986, and she realized that small towns were particularly vulnerable when it came to timely, emergency broadcasts.
Following her retirement, she enrolled in Texas State University where she earned her Master’s Degree in Mass Communication, and professors helped guide her through the arduous process of applying for a license to operate a radio station. Raybuck gathered a knowledgeable team of broadcast volunteers who were working toward that goal when the 2015 flood impacted Wimberley. The team stepped up the process to get an emergency permit, and with loaned equipment began broadcasting within days of the flood. Wimberley could get fast recovery - related information.
In 2016 the station was built on Old Kyle Road in the Lumberyard Retail Center near downtown. In 2021, KWVH received the Texas Association of Broadcasters Award for Public Service for the vital news and assistance provided to citizens during the February 2021 winter storm that crippled the area and the subsequent electric grid failures. As a noncommercial station, it is funded by donations and grants. Local nonprofits, area schools, sports teams, musicians and businesses have come to rely upon the services provided by Wimberley’s local community radio station.
