| KOPN History 1981 |
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1981: On July 20, KOPN's transmitter is blown down in a storm, but
by dismantling the tower from the now-defunct Channel 56 and
transporting it piece by piece from Callaway County, the station
is able to resume broadcasting in just six days. In September,
KOPN sponsors Columbia Jazz Week. "Caravans," a program devoted
to international music and discussion, debuts. Throughout the year,
KOPN expands its literary efforts as well. Continuing its prison
outreach work, the station assists in publishing the Journal of
Missouri Prisoner Literature and Art. KOPN radio players Dead Air
produce six radio comedies during the year. KOPN also helps to
originate the American Audio Prose Library project, an attempt to
preserve the art of oral storytelling by interviewing and taping
some of America's most famous writers reading their own works;
Norman Mailer, Tillie Olsen, and Stanley Elkin are included.
July 20, 1981 75 mph
"Prairie Hurricane" topples KOPN's tower from Paquin Street high-rise
apartment building.
KOPN Changes Format
Well friends, for the past eight years KOPN's format has remained
much the same. Our emphasis has been on variety and on bringing
you alternative points of view. Beginning April 1, 1981, we will
change formats.
June Palmquist, Station Manager, puts the change this way: "We want
to keep pace with America. Everyone knows that the direction has
changed, WE want to GET IT RIGHT, if you know what I mean."
The first format change will come about as KOPN begins production of
a four-year series of anti-Communist programs for free distribution
to 1,000 Missouri radio stations. "We think there's a great demand
for this kind of programming," says Phil Wax, Program Director. These
programs will be funded through a billion-dollar grant from the
Department of Defense. Each week, the program will focus on another
nation that is threatened by a communist takeover.
The KOPN engineering staff will ask the FCC to permit a change in
call letters from KOPN to either KIBM or KMX.
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The format will also change with a 50 percent increase in religious
programming. "There's a lot of money to be raised in this area and
KOPN wants it," says Arlene Seirfet, Development Director, adding,
"Polls today show that God and Jesus are the two most admired men in
America, and we want to give Americans what they want."
New programs to be added include Hallelujah Missouri, The Right
Way, and I'm Saved-You're Saved.
Many current programs will be taken off the air , including Zebra
Sunrise, Saturday's Children, The Feminist News, and The Braze
Hussy, which have been categorized as "immoral trash" by the Moral
Majority, newly-acquired consultants to KOPN.
New personalities to be added to the program schedule include Paul
Harvey, Phyllis Shlaffly, William Buckley and Jerry Falwell.
Liberty Lobby will be aired morning, noon and night.
Sincerely,
April Fool
Operations Manager |
Taken from KOPN's April 1981 program guide.
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