Almanza speaks to Rotary Club
By GREG A. COLLINS

Manny Almanza, a veteran employee of KTPB Radio 88.7 FM at Kilgore College, was the guest speaker at Kilgore Rotary Club on Wednesday. He discussed his radio background, the station’s history and some of the directions where the local non-commercial station may be headed.

Almanza is a noted sportscaster in the Kilgore area and has handled the play-by-play work for Kilgore College football and men’s and women’s basketball for nine years now. He was born in Ft. Riley, Kansas, the son of a career military couple, but was raised in El Paso.

He graduated from high school in El Paso, spent a couple of years at the University of Texas and then graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso, better known as UTEP.

After college, he spent several years in teaching at an Alamagordo, New Mexico Christian School before getting into public radio in El Paso. After about five years at that station, he had a chance to move to Kilgore and, after some deliberation, accepted the position of Operations Manager at KTPB in 1995.

“At the El Paso station, I did some sports coverage on the side and was intrigued by it,” he said. “When I came to Kilgore I was the Operations Director, a jack-of-all-trades who knows a lot but is master of nothing. Sports broadcasting was not a focus of mine in the beginning, until the summer of 1997 when the sports broadcaster who had been doing the games took a similar position at Arkansas State University.”

Asking the station manager what he should do, he was advised to try sports broadcasting for a year and then the situation would be reviewed.

“That was nine years ago, so I don’t know if I am still auditioning for the job, whether the test is still occurring or whether I am the sports anchor for KTPB,” he joked.

Almanza is joined by Mark Fried, music minister at Forest Home Baptist Church, for football games. He also has partners during basketball season as well and, for many, has become the voice of Kilgore College athletics.

The college has had the airwaves for 15 years and nine of those the Kilgore area has been able to hear Almanza. Since 2000, however, Internet listeners have also been able to hear KC athletics as the school reached an agreement with the Texas Sports Regional Network to stream games over that media.

Fried went to a music gathering in the State of Washington, and a man there – a KC graduate – told the music minister that he listened to the broadcasting team each week over the Internet to hear KC games.

Also, the station upgraded its power in 1997 to 63,000 watts which makes it one of, if not the, most powerful station covering a conference school. And, in 2002, the station went to 24-hour broadcasting which makes it even more attractive to Kilgore area listeners.

Also, KTPB has teamed with KZQX, 105.3 FM, in Kilgore to broadcast games in the Kilgore area. If 88.7 has a contractual agreement that will not let it broadcast a sporting event live, then KZQX offers its station for the broadcast. The stations are similar and fall under the same FCC guidelines, so they are very compatible and have a strong working relationship.

“Our next step, although it is very early in the process, is to stream video over the Internet from sporting events,” Almanza said. “And, we continue to work to enhance our local broadcasting efforts. We are proud that much of our air time is local programming, and we are always working to make it better.”

KTPB also got a new location in the last year. The building which formerly headquartered the station was torn down to make way for the new Rangerette Dormitory. KTPB temporarily moved into the old Region VII Building across the street until its new building, an added building onto the Region VII site and a structure directly across from The First Presbyterian Church, was completed. They moved into that location in October.

“It is very nice, and we are thankful to the college and the construction crews for making it so nice,” he said.

In other Rotary news, Dr. Bob Baker said the flags would remain out until it is dry enough to put them up. He said that could be as late as this weekend.

Honored for anniversaries in February were Dr. and Mrs. Bob Baker, Mr. and Mrs. Sammy York and Mr. and Mrs. Gene Keenon.

The RYLA students who spoke two weeks ago, four from Kilgore and four from Sabine, were warmly received by the club and were excellent in their comments about their weekend. All of them said it was cold, the food was good and that RYLA was one of the best things they had ever done.

Wednesday, club members will give Classification Talks.

The Kilgore Rotary Club meets each Wednesday at noon in the ballroom of the Meadowbrook Country Club. Guests are always welcome.