Inside HPPR

High Plains Public Radio announces two changes to its weekend program line-up. Starting this Saturday, February 29, HPPR will feature the two-hour program American Routes, hosted by award-winning musicologist Nick Spitzer. American Routes covers a broad spectrum of American music: blues and jazz, gospel and soul, old-time country and rockabilly, Cajun and zydeco, Tejano and Latin, roots rock and pop, avant-garde and classical.

Public radio on the High Plains is possible only through the giving spirit of all those who join hands to support HPPR.  And between now and December 31st your support will be doubled, dollar-for-dollar, thanks to the generous helping hands of a special year-end member match. Additional gifts, membership renewals and new memberships of any amount are all eligible for this dollar-for-dollar match.

If you are 70½ years old or older, you can take advantage of a simple way to benefit High Plains Public Radio and receive tax benefits in return. You can give up to $100,000 from your IRA directly to a qualified charity such as HPPR without having to pay income taxes on the money. This popular gift option is commonly called the IRA charitable rollover, but you may also see it referred to as a qualified charitable distribution.

This law no longer has an expiration date so you are free to make annual gifts to HPPR this year and well into the future.

On Thursday, Nov. 21, High Plains Public Radio was presented with a very generous check from the Community Foundation of Southwest Kansas.

The grant was for engineering expenses for KONQ in Dodge City, Kansas.

High Plains Public Radio is excited to announce the hiring of its new executive director, Will Murphy, who brings over 30 years of public radio experience to the High Plains region.

Murphy was selected by HPPR's board following a search over the past few months. 

It’s one thing to be inspired. It’s another thing to act on your inspiration. Four decades ago, when your friends and neighbors across the High Plains provided the support to make your public radio listening possible, they had some seed of inspiration, some source of motivation that prompted them to act and pledge their support. It might have been about realizing the need to support the service they use. It might also have been about believing in the value of having public radio service available to everyone in their community.

 Inspiration can come from many sources – great works of music, art and literature, spiritual experiences, witnessing the good works of others, biographies of leaders and innovators, rousing speeches and talks, travels to new lands.  

Here at High Plains Public Radio we work to bring you moments of inspiration – great and small – each day, across the year. They may come from …

We can’t think of a better way to spend Thursday mid-mornings than with Skip Mancini and her regular feature “Growing on the High Plains.” (Or if Thursdays at 10:30 a.m. (Central) doesn’t work, try Saturday mornings at 8:35 (Central).) Either way, you’ll be glad you did.

Each week Skip brings more than tips and advice on how to coax living things from out of the challenging High Plains soil; she has a story, a piece of sage advice, a bit of history, or a general good vibe to pull you through to the end of the work week.

Cokie Roberts, the longtime NPR journalist who died early this week, was “one of a handful of pioneering female journalists — along with Nina Totenberg, Linda Wertheimer and Susan Stamberg — who helped shape the public broadcaster's sound and culture at a time when few women held prominent roles in journalism.” So NPR reported on Tuesday.

High Plains Public Radio and the Cerulean Gallery announce the artists for the upcoming exhibition to benefit HPPR on Oct. 17-20 at the Cerulean Gallery in Amarillo. 

"POSTCARDS FROM THE HIGH PLAINS," a juried exhibition by the Cerulean Gallery and High Plains Public Radio (HPPR), was open to artists from Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska.

Visitors to HPPR’s Community Calendar may have noticed something new this week. The Amarillo Convention & Visitor Council is sponsoring the calendar, which lists events across the High Plains. To post your event click here.

Whatever your plans for this holiday weekend, we hope you will keep HPPR, either on the air or online, nearby. Allow us to share a couple of musings on Labor Day:

> Time Tells Its Own Story: A Labor Day Fable (From a 2012 column by Adam Frank):

The number of visitors to High Plains Public Radio’s website — www.hppr.org — is more than 60 percent higher than this time last year, according to a search of online data conducted this week. Not surprising. HPPR.org is a place where people of the High Plains (and others) can access the latest news, our thought-provoking features, and stream our two services — the music and news of High Plains Public Radio or the news and information on HPPR Connect.

High Plains Public Radio captured three awards in the 2019 Kansas Association of Broadcasters contest. Our winners were:

• Editorial/Commentary

1st Place: Little Spouse On The Prairie: Deep Fried Fun by Valerie  Brown-Kuchera

  HPPR's Radio Readers Book Club's 2019 Fall Read began this week. The new theme is "Navigating Uncharted Waters — Past, Present, & Future." We’ll be exploring the ways in which our childhood and life experiences inform our worldviews. Are we products of nature or nurture? Many intriguing questions will be explored.

This week saw a somber one-year anniversary in the High Plains.

On the evening of Aug. 1, 2018, Garden City Community College football player Braeden Bradforth died of heatstroke, according to an autopsy.

Sam Zeff, a reporter for public radio station KCUR in Kansas City, has followed Bradforth’s story since earlier this year.

The on-air portion of HPPR’s "Summer of Renewal" membership campaign concluded Thursday evening.

It’s summer time – your renewal time.  

Summer is renewal time – taking vacations, catching up on reading, tending a garden, enjoying hobbies, getting to long-awaited projects.

Make renewing your HPPR membership a part of your personal summer renewal so public radio can be there with you when things start getting really busy again.

Update: HPPR Connect, 94.9-Amarillo is back on the air. Thank you loyal listeners once again for your patience! 

UPDATE: Tuesday, July 9 - HPPR Connect 94.9 in Amarillo is back on the air! Thanks again for your patience!

And don't forget, you can always stream HPPR Connect or HPPR at hppr.org.  

The Kansas News Service, a collaboration of HPPR, KCUR, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics, has a question for you: What’s your question?

So meta, right?

More precisely, the Kansas News Service wants to know, “What questions do you have about modern life in Kansas?” Your questions could very well turn into news stories.

How’d you spend Thursday?

Was there a cake? Party balloons? A little dancing?  

No? Well there could have been.

On June 27, 1945 — 74 years ago — the Federal Communications Commission set aside space on the FM dial for noncommercial educational use. Thus, one-fifth of FM channels — the ones on the left of the dial (88-92MHz) — are dedicated to noncommercial use.

Thanks to everyone who visited High Plains Public Radio’s Garden City offices Thursday. The occasion was  the Garden City Area Chamber of Commerce’s June After-Hours event.

Our guests were treated to the musical stylings of  Ruth Ellen Lynch and Stephen Johnson, two of HPPR’s talented staffers.

Here are a few photos and videos from last night:

KTOT 89.5, serving Spearman, Perryton, Pampa and Canadian, Texas, is currently off the air while air conditioning units are being repaired.

Service is expected to be restored by the end of the day Wednesday. 

Thanks for your patience. 

We hope you’ll join us Thursday, June 20, for an open house at the High Plains Public Radio offices in Garden City. (210 North 7th St., Garden City, KS)

We are the site for the Garden City Area Chamber of Commerce’s June After-Hours event.

Please come by between 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Don’t miss a musical performance by HPPR’s Ruth Ellen Lynch and Stephen Johnson from 5:30-6.

My 12 months with High Plains Public Radio are a vivid illustration of the close relationship between this community-focused radio station and the community it serves.

This weekend the “TEXAS Outdoor Musical” makes its 2019 debut.

The first performance of the season is Saturday, June 1, at 8:30 p.m. The location is the Pioneer Amphitheater in Palo Duro Canyon. More information about this classic production in its 54th season can be found here.

Exciting news, right? Well, there’s more.

About one-third of Americans listen to at least one podcast a month, according to a 2019 survey. That figure represents a significant increase in the number of podcast-users over the previous year, reports The Infinite Dial, a survey conducted earlier in 2019.

“It’s about time for a fishing show.”

With that, Luke Clayton kicked off his weekly High Plains Outdoors segment last weekend.

What followed was a description of a recent trip to Texas’ Lake Tawakoni “to catch a bunch of ‘eater’ size blue catfish.”