Our community radio station, KTAL-LP, 101.5 FM, is a vibrant community resource people will only appreciate more and more deeply as local news and discussion in other media continue drying up.

In late 2013 a fellow advised Kevin Bixby, of Southwest Environmental Center, that a low-power license would become available here. (My December 21, 2014 column notes that although such small stations didn’t interfere with others’ broadcasts, the FCC long banned such stations from existing close to bigger stations on the dial, but eventually agreed to license them.)

We wondered if we could start a radio station. Fortunately, expert Nan Rubin, who’d started several, retired around then – to Las Cruces. With her guidance, we spent years gathering funds, equipment, licenses, potential show hosts, a physical location, and broadcast-tower space, and finally went on the air in late June 2017.

KTAL-LP (after the familiar greeting, “Que tal!”) streams on its website, www.lccommunityradio.org, and broadcast an FM radio signal you can receive with line of sight to our tower. That’s most of Last Cruces and along the Interstate North and South. We help Las Cruces talk to itself – politically, culturally, artistically, musically, and otherwise. While national news tells you all about Trump and Biden, we also talk about who’s running for school board or city council, and talk with those candidates during election, and with those office-holders – and their critics – during their tenure. We also talk with local nonprofits, charities, writers, actors, theaters, businessfolk and a neat variety of others. Ironically, national news tells you about everything except the local level – which is the only one you have significant power to affect!

A recent event reminded me of challenges we rose to. One was COVID. That impeded our work. For a while, no two people could be in the station together, so a lot of shows got recorded. Then we initiated a COVID local reports series that alerted people not just to what the CDC was saying but to what was happening locally, what was open, closed, or canceled, how full the hospitals were, what emergency services were doing and offering, how the hungry and homeless were faring, and other local pandemic developments. When the Las Cruces Public Schools decided to hold graduations for each high school at the Field of Dreams, with kids driving up (in extremely decorated cars, some with way too many people in them) to receive their diplomas, the school board invited us to do play-by-play, on radio, describing the vehicles and which kids were getting their diplomas and what the kids had said. Doing that was unique, exhausting, and quite gratifying.

We’re all volunteers, with an extremely low budget. We invite more of you to propose and host a show – whether musical, cultural, educational, or journalistic – and/or listen to our existing shows, volunteer as a host or behind-the-scenes techie, and donate or underwrite, to help us keep performing a community service we’ll all value even more in five years or ten. We even added a fine local sports show (Thursdays) a year ago. Architect and Former City Councilor Greg Smith discusses local arts and developments Tuesdays.

As a participant, I want to utter a huge “THANKS!” to the community, for increasing support, and a promise that we’ll persevere and improve. As a show-host, I invite you to come tell us about your charity, cause, ideas, or political position.

As a listener, I’m in awe. Tune in!

                                              – 30 --

 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 21 December 2025, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper's website and will presently appear on KRWG’s website (under Local Viewpoints). A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version of this Sunday column will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM / http://www.lccommunityradio.org/).

[We probably could get one of those news / betting sites to make odds, but I would bet that the AG will find an OMA violation, although there’s no certainty. If such is found, our commission doing any better with a second chance is kind of a long shot. But we should all persevere. ]