July 07, 2008 02:44 pm
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By Debbie Robinson
news@joplinglobe.com
Ozark Christian College has announced plans to sell the broadcast license of its FM radio station, KOBC, to Educational Media Foundation.
The college has filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission asking for approval of the sale. Leasa Frye, OCC’s director of media and public relations, said the FCC should reach a decision in two to three months.
The radio station became operational about 30 years ago to train students in radio ministry, Frye said. Since then, the station has emerged as a 24-hour-a-day Christian music channel and has been used less for training students, she said.
When Educational Media Foundation, based in California, expressed interest in the acquisition, Frye said the college approved.
“It seemed like a good match,” she said. “We wanted to keep it with an emphasis on Christian music.”
Joe Miller, director of signal development for Educational Media Foundation, said the company will continue offering Christian music.
Miller said the company has two formats, Christian music for families and contemporary Christian music for young adults.
The company has more than 200 stations across the country and is always looking to reach new listeners, Miller said.
Miller also said the company will offer Christian music similar to what is being played now.
“KOBC is one of the more successful Christian music stations,” Miller said. “It ranks among the top stations in the country and that’s one of the things that attracted us.”
The 60,000-watt station will provide the power to reach listeners regionally, he said.
Company officials have been in discussion with the station’s employees about continuing with the new management, Miller said, but no decisions have been made.
Terms of the prospective sale were not released, but the FCC typically releases the information once it has made a decision, Miller said.
Rob Kime, general manager of the station, said no decision has been made about whether the station’s three full-time employees will remain.
“It’s still pretty early,” Kime said.
Kime also said the emergence of computers in the 1980s changed the nature of students’ interest. Instruction now can be done on the Internet, he said, and his class last semester in radio ministry drew just two people.
“There is still a chance there will be some radio training,” he said. “A lot of it depends on what facilities are available.”
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