On May 25, RBR+TVBR shared the story of Mario Rangel, a key employee at COVID-19-impacted South Texas Radio and the chief of the Uvalde Volunteer Fire Department in Uvalde, Tex. Rangel had just departed the elementary school his daughter attends when a gunman entered the school and opened fire.
His daughter was safe; 19 Robb Elementary students perished. Now, Rangel is dealing with a new matter impacting Uvalde.
South Texas Radio on Wednesday ceased operations.
Word of the shutdown came from Rangel himself, via a Facebook post.
Rangel, who serves as News Director at KBNU-FM “Hits 93.9”, KVOU-FM “Coyote Country 104.9” and KUVA-FM “Tejano y Más” and hosted the South Texas Morning Show on KVOU, shared, “KVOU Radio, one of Uvalde’s oldest, continuously operated business, ceased all operations on Wednesday, June 29.”
He shared how KVOU originally signed on the air in 1947 as an AM radio station by founders E.J. and Mary Harpole.
The other stations were added over the years. Moises Abraham Gonzalez acquired the Uvalde stations, along with two in Eagle Pass, Tex., where South Texas Radio’s headquarters is located, in March 2016. At the time, the company was known as Roca Radio, and Gonzalez paid $800,000 for the Uvalde trio and KEPS-AM & KINL-FM in Eagle Pass.
Now, just one month after tragedy struck this town to the far west of metropolitan San Antonio, a local voice is lost here and in Eagle Pass, too.
But, it also puts Uvalde, which received global attention following the school shooting led by an 18-year-old, at an informational loss at a key time for the town.
“Local radio is important,” Rangel said a day after the Robb Elementary School massacre. “We have an understanding of our community that drew people to our social media and to our stations today.”
On Wednesday, he took a different tone via Facebook, thanking all who have supported Uvalde’s radio stations over the years.
“It’s been a long, wonderful run, but having hosted morning shows for many years, the time has come to sleep in (at least I hope I can), I want to thank you for listening. You are truly wonderful people, as are the staff I’ve worked with throughout the years both in Uvalde and Eagle Pass.”
The closure of the South Texas Radio stations, which saw the filing of a STA request with the FCC for each station, comes despite overcoming COVID-19 fiscal impacts that heavily impacted the properties. “The pandemic led to half of our full-time on-air staff leaving,” Rangel said in May.
The Suspension of Operations filing with the Commission, filed by Fletcher Heald & Hildreth Partner Francisco Montero, notes that KINL “has lost its site and needs to move to a new site that [will] comply with FCC requirements and allocation criteria.” Then, the station will do an appropriate site search, studies and file a minor license modification request to move to a new site.
A nearly equally worded statement was filed for KVOU, too, signaling possible transmitter lease issues in both Uvalde and Eagle Pass. Economic conditions at the company were noted by the Eagle Pass Business Journal as a primary reason for the cessation of operations.
With the Uvalde stations off the air, that leaves only San Antonio AMs and Spanish-language FMs in the region as the lone broadcast radio choices.
Editor’s Note: The original version of this story incorrectly referred to Eagle Pass, Tex. We regret the error.
