Tom Clendening, General Manager, KSER, joined the station in 2012 with 30 years of professional broadcast experience in management, programming, sales and marketing. James Monroe introduced Tom and told the story of the beginning of communication with Alexander Graham Bell's famous "Mr. Watson, Come here I need you" in 1876. Wireless communications was developed around the turn of the 19th to 20th Centuries by among others, Gugliemo Marconi. In 1916 an electrical engineer employed by Westinghouse began broadcasting from his garage. The station was later moved to a Westinghouse factory and relaunched in November 1920 becoming the first commercial licensed station in America. Since that beginning, radio stations are found just about everywhere.
Nearly 20 years ago, a group of local citizens succeeded in bringing non-commercial, public radio to Snohomish County. There were no public radio stations in the North Puget Sound area. Routed in the community, most of the voices on air were all volunteers. KSER has a wide variety of programs such as the Hawaii public radio program and is unique serving Everett and other communities in Snohomish County and north Puget Sound. The station has 13,000 weekly listeners and 1,000 financial providers. KSER has a transmitter in Lake Stevens on Soper Hill.
Tom has spoken to numerous Rotary Clubs in our area but this was the first time he has spoken to our Club. Everything is always free. The website hasn't changed much and that is part of the business model. Pledge drive occurs each year. In the United States, three companies own about 80% of the radio stations in the United States.
KSER's budget is around $400,000 per year. $35 dollars is the cost a becoming a member. Bigger public radio stations have budgets that are close to $7-10 million. Seattle station KIRO is close to $28 million but the cost of running the Seahawks, Sounders and Mariners takes a big portion of that income. The pandemic has caused a great deal of problems for all broadcasting stations. It's been a bit of a challenge without the volunteers in the station. Tom spoke about KXIR which is their second station with the tower on Whidbey Island so that they can broadcast to the people of that area.
Our speaker next week will be Leslie Elsemore updating the Club on the Lake Stevens Education Foundation.