I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Kim Foster. My grandma, Lottie Foster, is the owner of KWNS 104.7 FM and previously The Living Word Bookstore, both in Winnsboro, Texas.
KWNS 104.7 FM was my grandfather Richard Foster's dream. They bought it back in 1989. Sadly, my grandfather passed away in 2004, and the radio station kind of went to the wayside. In the last few years, I have been trying to get it back on track. We have had some major setbacks along the way.
In 2019, I started taking classes in Radio Broadcasting at TJC. Just before my final semester during Christmas 2020, our radio tech suddenly had to leave, with nobody actually knowing how to run the station outside of a few classes I had taken. I graduated in May 2021 in Radio Broadcasting and kept it all going. During that time, we upgraded the music from Southern Gospel to Christian Music.
In June of that year, I also married my rock and best friend. In January 2022, my lost my heart and care when he passed away, and it has taken this long for me to finally get somewhat back in gear and the radio rolling again.
In August 2024, I started back to school at U.T. Tyler as a Mass Communications Major and finally was able to stream just as the transmitter crashed. The transmitter should hopefully be back on soon. It's the next major upgrade as it's a dinosaur from the 1970s that my grandfather put together.
This brings us up to date and explains why I am typing all this. One of my classes involves writing a blog throughout the course about producing and what it means to me. Producing is a big thing to learn in the radio world: how to edit my voice, how to improve my ability to make commercials, and most importantly, how to make this station function to the best of its ability for the consumers.
I hope to continue the legacy my grandfather left me so that my kids may enjoy this later. Thank you for your time, and I hope we can all learn something as I make my way through this journey.
Hi, Eric Shelander here, from Winnsboro, TX. A veteran of ministry, and a veteran of ministry broadcasting both television and radio. I worked with GETV at Cornerstone church with John Hagee from 1993 to 1995 and with World of Pentecost in San Antonio from 1995 to 1996 in their television ministry in recording live services, editing the tapes and sending them to the television station for broadcast. from 1996 till 2008 our ministry Blessed Hope Ministries had an hour broadcast The Hour of Hope, on KSKY, 660 AM in Dallas for 13 years. We had one of the most listened to broadcast in that time even though it was late night on Saturday nights because we were sandwiched between Cha…