KMOS PBS Awarded Grant for Equipment Upgrade to Enhance Emergency Alerts

By Nicole Cooke, August 6, 2024

The view from KMOS tower, (courtesy KMOS PBS).

 

KMOS PBS has been awarded a $880,000 grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to upgrade its equipment, which will provide enhanced emergency alerting for Central Missouri. 

KMOS was one of four stations to receive a grant during the CPB’s latest funding announcement for the Next Generation Warning System grant program, funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

KMOS will use the funding to replace the 25-year-old antenna on its tower in Morgan County and add other new equipment at the station on the University of Central Missouri campus. 

A temporary antenna will be installed so viewers don’t lose access to KMOS during the replacement process.

The upgrades will make KMOS capable of broadcasting in ATSE 3.0 or NextGen TV. Josh Tomlinson, KMOS director of broadcasting services and general manager, said the new capabilities will “open up a whole new world for what we do as broadcasters.”

“We'll still provide our great service that we do with our live linear streams, and we'll also be able to explore new possibilities with datacasting,” Tomlinson explained. “We're looking to start partnering with the local emergency agencies and the state emergency agency to see if there are ways we can work with them. We want to make sure that we keep the ‘P’ in public broadcasting.”

In 2022, FEMA selected CPB to establish and administer the NGWS grant program to help public media stations create a more secure public alerting system through upgraded equipment and training. The program prioritizes stations serving rural, tribal, and underserved communities.

KMOS reaches about 1 million households in Central Missouri, and about 70% of viewers live in a community of 2,500 people or smaller. Tomlinson said about 15% of the viewing area is below the poverty level. Combined with the lack of broadband access in rural Missouri, obtaining high-speed internet can be a challenge for many people in the 38 counties KMOS serves. 

“With this grant, we're able to ensure an uninterrupted broadcast of not only the things that KMOS puts out but also its emergency alert messaging – the tornado warnings, thunderstorm warnings, tornado watches, thunderstorm watches, child abduction alerts,” Tomlinson said. “It's still all broadcast over the air and it still means those people are able to get those emergency alerts when they need them. This grant will allow us to continue and hopefully enhance that mission.”

Tomlinson said the recent grant will cap a five-year, $2 million project to rebuild the station’s transmission chain, which included recommissioning the tower line, installing new tower lights and a new elevator controller, and other structural work. The project was funded entirely by grants and viewer donations.

“This grant brings the new antenna on, and all of that work will put us in a place where the next 20 years, our broadcast is as solid as it could be,” Tomlinson said. “It's just like having a brand new station.”

For more information about KMOS PBS, visit KMOS.org.