Beginnings of KUWR Radio at UW

    KUWR Radio began in early 1963 when Jack Rosenthal, vice president of the Wyoming Association of Broadcasters and general manager of KTWO in Casper, wrote to the university dean of academic affairs. “For several years, the broadcasters of Wyoming have keenly felt the need for a source of college-trained personnel with a professional broadcasting background,” he wrote.

    A month later, the University convened a meeting of the newly-formed broadcasting curriculum committee.[1]  At the time, a consultant, Dr. Harold Niven, president of the Association for Professional Broadcasting Education, pointed out that Wyoming was the only state not having a professional broadcast program.

    In 1964, John F. McMullen, a graduate of the Indiana University and the University of Illinois, was hired to head the curriculum and develop the station. He had more than a decade of radio/TV broadcast experience.

    Under McMullen’s direction, the university remodeled the rooms in the tower of the Student Union for studio space. A legislative appropriation of $15,000 went into the effort.

    Equipment needs, however, were met by generous gifts from various broadcasters. KTWO not only donated a brand new audio console, but the station officials hand-delivered it to the station during the spring of 1966.

    With the broadcasting major in place, the university officials asked Associated Students of the University of Wyoming (ASUW) if students had any interest in a student-run station. ASUW held a referendum during the spring of 1966 and following strong student approval, the student government allocated funds for purchase of a transmitter, a tower and a small record library. That fall, the FCC granted the UW Board of Trustees a license for the station that was to be run as a 10-watt non-commercial educational station entirely by students. The station went on the air Sept. 14, 1966.  The station could be heard only in Laramie on  91.5 and through the dormitories on campus. 

    Because the space and equipment was used primarily for instruction, the station only went on air at 4 p.m., each afternoon, concluding its broadcast day at 2 a.m., the next morning.[2]

    Initial staff included Dave Minshall, a junior broadcast major from Lander, as station manager; Jim Hayes, Casper, program director; and Ken Haines, Mitchell, S. D., news director.[3] Minshall left after several weeks and Ken Haines became manager. Later, from 1969-1970, the station was managed by Alan Bowker.

    In 1978, the power of KUWR was increased to 50 KW. The transmitting antenna was located on a leased tower at Pilot Knob, east of Laramie.  The channel was changed to 91.9 for minimum interference.  The change allowed for the signal to be received in Cheyenne. With the power increase and mountain top antenna location, the station expanded through translator locations around the state. 

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