Bott Radio expands Springfield signal

Bott Radio Network June 27 launched a new radio signal at 104.3 FM to serve the Rockaway Beach and Branson areas, expanding BRN’s Bible teaching and Christian news and information format.

“We have a wide variety of programming, and we try to represent the mainstream of evangelicalism – everything from Baptists to reformed to independent to Presbyterian,” said Paul Schneider, area manager for KSCV 90.1 FM in Springfield.

KSCV’s signal is picked up by other area BRN translator stations, such as 104.3 FM and 94.1 FM, which launched in April from Hermitage.

BRN also plans to launch additional translator stations – 103.9 FM in Branson, 92.3 FM in Lebanon, 107.3 FM in Monett and 1570 AM in Hollister – by the end of the year.

John Beck, network development manager for BRN’s headquarters in Overland Park, Kan., said that a translator is a smaller FM radio station.

“It picks up a received signal from a parent station, in this case a Springfield station, receives it and then retransmits it on another frequency at a lower power. It’s meant to fill in a coverage area,” he said, adding that each translator station’s broadcast can reach a radius of about 20 miles around its tower.

The new signals help boost the Springfield station’s signal.

“If you’re on top of a hill you can receive our Springfield station clearly down into Arkansas. But if you’re down in a valley, forget it. So that’s why we’re putting in these translators, to fill in the valleys with some signal,” Beck said.

KSCV 90.1 has been broadcasting from Springfield since April 2001. BRN acquired the station, previously known as KAKU, from American Family Association for $1.25 million, along with the permit for another station in the Jefferson City-Columbia area.

Bott Radio Network, founded in 1962 by Dick Bott Sr., operates 29 stations in eight states, serving 23 markets. It is a 501(c)4 not-for-profit corporation, and a noncommercial radio station that operates by receiving tax-deductible sponsorships from area businesses.

[[In-content Ad]]