KZSM — And a community radio legacy

Today’s column begins an occasional series examining community radio and exploring the background of KZSM.org.

Community radio is not new to San Marcos. KIND, an unlicensed low-frequency station, operated from 1997-2000. During this period, they provided talk and entertainment twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Their program hosts came from San Marcos and the surrounding area and were responsible for their own broadcasts. Among those hosts, “Metal” Mark Moniz brought in fans of Heavy Metal, featuring bands from San Antonio as well as better-known groups.

The low-frequency station made an impact early on, when KIND co-founder Joe Ptak, host of “Heads Up San Marcos,” “cold-called the mayor (Billy Moore) and did a 45-minute live interview even though our legality was only protected by a Federal District Court.” This unprecedented interview generated a wave of publicity, and after that “we immediately exploded in popularity and listening.”

KIND earned additional attention and praise during the Halloween flood of 1998, when the staff cleared out the flooded station, picked the cables out of the water, and fielded constant phone calls, broadcasting continual reports to warn people and direct them to safety. KIND’s commentary “created a level of community spirit and humor” that helped people cope.

Ptak recalls the openness and variety of KIND’s programming. “What we had was one playing field, and everybody got to play on the same field. The diversity of our community is what made KIND radio so special.”

The court ruling that kept the unlicensed station on the air was eventually overturned, and KIND went off the air in 2000. Licenses are still difficult to obtain, but web broadcasting is available to anyone with equipment, and the spirit of community radio came back to life in 2017 with KZSM.org.

Metal Mark Moniz returned to the airwaves from 10 p.m. to midnight Thursdays, and KZSM.org’s larger studio space allows him to feature live as well as recorded metal.

And you can again hear live conversations with Mayor Jane Hughson nearly every week on our Monday and Friday noon news special, though now she calls us.

Recalling KIND, Ptak says, “Our mission was to give immediate, intimate access to news of environmental, social, cultural, political, and artistic relevance to our community, with as many local voices as possible included in that process.”

For KSZM.org, the medium is different, but the mission continues.