This is, without a doubt, a year of changes for KEOL. There are big changes that will impact the operations of KEOL forever in the works. Then, there are small changes that are not directly impacting KEOL’s operations. However, all of the changes are helping KEOL to better fulfil its mission: serving the students, faculty, and staff of EOU, as well as the community members of the Grande Ronde Valley.

The small changes are ones like adding an Instagram account (@KEOLLaGrande), doing more remote broadcasts, including more live band interviews, and updating our website. Obviously, if you are reading this, you have most likely seen the new website layout, if not, check it out: www.eou.edu/keol. A big thank you goes out the Chris Jennings for helping us get it up and off the ground! Part of this new website is going to be a blog. It will be a way for DJs, and management, to interact with the listeners. Whether it is an album review, or concert review, or station update, or just a DJ recounting something that happened in the station that week; it will be a fantastic opportunity for DJs to connect with listeners, or vice versa.

If you have missed our recent live broadcasts, whether it was a remote or band interview, there has been a lot going on, and more for the future. We started the school year with a live interview with the band Down North, and they are coming back this January, hopefully! When it comes to other bands that were here in the station, we had locals Sum People (well, Scott Nearing and Marshall Turner) come in prior to their Halloween show. We are hoping that when they drop their new EP, to have them come in for a complete station takeover. A band out of Los Angeles, decoded, also stopped in on their way to Boise. Finally, for bands, we had two members in from The Mark Sexton Band, before their show at Bud Jackson’s. Our live band interviews are not the typical interview either, they generally spend about an hour on air with our DJs.

 
Mark Sexton (Right) and Alex Korostinsky (Left) two members of Reno’s Mark Sexton Band

We have also been perfecting our skills with the remote broadcast equipment. Most recently, we broadcasted the EOU Men’s and Women’s basketball games with DJs Curran and Nicky Dynamite calling the games. I am excited to announce that this is something that is going to happen with every home conference game! Also, we have been partnering with La Grande Main Street and have had live broadcasts from Small Business Saturday, as well as the holiday parade. Coming up, on New Year’s Eve, Main Street is hosting a block party downtown and KEOL will be providing the music, utilizing turn tables, and it will all be live on KEOL!

Preparing for the La Grande Main Street New Year’s Eve Block Party

Now, those are just our small changes. KEOL has recently been rewarded the money for external hard drives, so that we can start digitizing our CD collection. As of right now, we are not sure what is going to happen to the physical media, whether it goes into storage, or gets sold as surplus, that is still something that needs to be figured out. We are also looking at purchasing the equipment to start digitizing the vinyl collection. This is the same as with the CDs, we do not know what is happening to the physical media. All we know is that usage of physical media has declined drastically in an ever increasing digital world.

Finally, the biggest change of all: KEOL is moving. It is hard to describe the feeling that overcomes me when I type those three words. It’s a mix of sadness and fear, but something else as well. I am overwhelmed with pride for how successful KEOL has been. We have been in this building since 1990, longer than I have been alive. As of right now, there are no concrete plans about where KEOL is going to move to, there are ideas and concepts, but no set plans yet. That means that people still have time to voice their opinion about KEOL. The only set in stone plan, as of now, is that KEOL has to move. As more information comes up, that I can share, I will share via my weekly blog posts.

The bungalow KEOL has occupied since the early 1990s