Next month will mark the 30th anniversary of the Ark-La-Tex nonprofit, Red River Radio. 

“Over the years, our mission has remained the same, to provide the best possible news and music unfettered by commercial profit concerns,” Kermit Poling, general manager of Red River Radio, said. 

In three decades, Red River Radio has grown from a small, single daytime NPR affiliate to a 24-hour network serving the community with news, music and unique local programming. 

“Our flagship station, KDAQ, first went on the air Dec. 20, 1984, at 5 p.m.,” Poling said. “[Louisiana State University -Shreveport] was offered the opportunity to hold the license, and the university provided a location on campus to accommodate the studios, the well-known ‘temporary buildings’ that housed the station from its creation until December of 2012.”  

Attorney Donald Weiss was known as “the father of the local public radio notion,” and he, along with Robert Peterson; Neil Erwin;  Dr. Grady Bogue, then LSUS chancellor;  and Dr. Dalton Cloud, then head of the LSUS communications department, worked together to make the station a reality.  

“There was a large sign-on party held at the University Center,” Poling said. “Mayor John Hussey issued a proclamation; Dr. Donald Mullally, the chair of National Public Radio, came to make remarks welcoming the station into the system, and Dr. Bogue announced the countdown.”  The initial radio station staff included General Manager Tom Livingston, Program Director Alyne Boren, Operations Manager Robert Smith and Membership Coordinator Anne Scarborough. Mark Pizzolato was the original ‘Morning Edition’ host, and he is still heard on the air as a dedicated volunteer. Gordon Harris was the original ‘Classical Music’ host. “The sign-on was covered extensively by both local and national media,” Poling said. 

“Initially the station was on only during the daytime, but it wasn’t long before it became a 24-hour station. The initial audience area was estimated at 850,000,” Poling said. “With the addition of our three satellite repeater stations in Alexandria, El Dorado and Lufkin, that number increased to 2.2 million people. Alexandria and El Dorado both went on the air within a couple of years. Lufkin signed on in 1991. All the sign-ons were in December. There is also a small translator at Grambling that went on in 1996. With all the new stations, a new name was chosen for the network: Red River Radio. The network covers Northwest Louisiana, Central Louisiana, East Texas, South Arkansas and even reaches parts of Western Mississippi.”

Former Development Director Susan Reeks remembers the people who were so instrumental in making Red River Radio a success during her tenure.  

“Steve Howell was our board chairman during my stint as interim general manager, and he just did an outstanding job. He just has a great heart, as do others like Judy Williams, the late Dr. Archie McDonald, Dr. Dave McCarty and his wife Emma, Anne Gremillion. There are just too many good people to list, but I still love them all. It was one of the best times of my life,” she said. 

Reeks recalled some of her interviews.

“Some of my favorite memories were accompanying Dr. Helen Taylor when she was interviewing people for her regional radio documentary show ‘Prysm,’” Reeks said. “We did everything from traipse through Shreveport’s oldest cemetery, Oakland Cemetery, to touring abandoned saw mills in Alexandria, to watching a rare white tiger stalk a zoo keeper at the Alexandria Zoo. Those were good times.”

“Red River Radio received some funding to help tell more local stories and expand homegrown programming. This remains the most important focus of my work today, interviewing voices in our community and telling the stories in our backyard we may not hear about otherwise,” Kate Archer Kent, news producer, said. 

Poling said in 2007 a milestone was reached when they became the first HD Digital Radio broadcaster in the area.