Radio station in a new mode

Times are difficult, dealing with stay at home orders and restrictions can be a daunting task, but mix that with trying to get ever changing Hays County news out to those who need to know and you have almost an impossible task. Local radio station KWVH does just that on a daily basis.

“The biggest difficulty is the number of people that can go into the station with the stay at home orders,” KWVH Station Manager Mike Crusham said. “When it hit (coronavirus) most couldn’t leave home.”

Although they usually have people with backup knowledge of the station’s workings, at the present time they are without someone. One employee, Brach Thomas, keeps the station going. He is the one responsible with keeping up the hourly updates and the reduced number of shows, mainly working with the help of ZOOM meeting software.

“So far, it’s working… all programs are local…we went from 80 hours of local programming six months ago, now we’re down to 20 hours, we repeat the morning show in the early afternoon, for those that did not catch the show or its news,” Crusham said. “We’re down a lot of people.”

But some shows are produced and recorded at home and then broadcast on the station. The technology is there. Especially getting guests on radio programs but with the use of ZOOM, hookups to people at home using a phone, keeps guests like Matt Dowd, ABC-TV political analyst and Wimberley resident, Constable Ray Helm, and other experts and guests on the KWVH airways.

“Over the last three weeks there were 55 guests representing non-profits, medical experts, some businesses. Matt Dowd has been on six times the last two weeks,” he said. “Dori Bradford, Brach Thomas and Bob Flocke have been great keeping the Breakfast Taco Grande (the live morning program) live and with guests, they make adjustments on the fly.”

To make matters a little more interesting, when the severe storm hit last week, a lightning strike blew up a broadcasting production board, but it will not interfere with current programming.

The station has already been putting religious services on the air to tie the valley together, such as Easter Week recorded sermons and services from St. Mary’s Catholic Church, First Baptist Church and the United Methodist Church.

Right now one of the station’s main concerns is about receiving funds. Due to the pandemic, their spring fundraising campaign that was to have run through May 13 has been suspended. But of course funds are still needed to keep the station on the air. The floods of 2015 and it’s emergency put the station on the air, as local emerging bulletins had to be disseminated quickly through the valley. It has proven it’s worth during this and that emergency.

The station has new apparel, t-shirts and other offerings on it’s website to help residents show their radio station support by wearing the KWVH articles around town.

“We try to help businesses and other non-profits with any other information that can help people with the loss of a job, school programs, anything that was affected by the emergency. We try to cover all aspects and we’ll keep doing that until the new normal,” Crusham said. To see the new merchandise or to make a donation see the KWVH radio site at wimberleyvalleyradio.org.