KETR

KETR (88.9 FM), is a professionally staffed 100 kW non-commercial broadcast operation in Commerce, Texas, licensed in 1975 to East Texas State University, now Texas A&M University-Commerce.

KETR provides local and national news and information as well as music and entertainment to a potential and approximate 200,000 homes in Northeast Texas. Anchor programs include Morning Edition and All Things Considered from National Public Radio, and A Prairie Home Companion from American Public Media. KETR also produces original long-form and short-form radio programming.

KETR is committed to providing Northeast Texas citizens and the Texas A&M University-Commerce community with entertaining, educational and informative programming. The station also serves as a learning environment for university students to pursue excellence in broadcasting.

History

The history of KETR began in the early 1970s as the director of the East Texas State University radio-television program, Dr. David Rigney, developed an FCC application for an FM station that would be a teaching-laboratory for students. By the time KETR actually went on the air, April 7, 1975, Dr. Rigney had moved on. The station operated in a former classroom on the first floor of the Journalism Building, with Phil Wayne Ebensberger, a veteran Texas commercial radio broadcaster, as general manager and morning show host.