KRTE now on the air

Since mid-March and the departure of KYET, the airwaves in Williams have been silent. However, now by tuning to KRTE 89.5 FM "the Route," you can hear Williams’ new radio station. Located at the Mountain Side Inn, KRTE, offers a wide variety of programs.

KRTE’s main goal is to be the community voice of north central Arizona, with a service area from Payson to Kingman.

"We wanted to bring a station to Williams because it didn’t have one," said Bob Moore, who is operations manager of the new station. "We wanted to bring the northern community something different.

Bob Moore is operations manager for "The Route."

"In northern Arizona, there’s a lot of country stations, so we play a smooth variety that everyone can listen to."

KRTE plays jazz, swing, big band, classical, a mix of rock and blues, and they also have local news programs.

"We primarily have music and informational programming," Moore said.

KRTE gets all of its news from USA radio and is a non-profit station, owned by a Christian bible college. The Route 66 Magazine is also a sponsoring partner. Although the magazine and the radio station are not affiliated businesses, Moore is also the editor of the magazine.

Amazingly, the station is one of 12 stations in the country that is operating at this level of sophistication, Moore said.

"It’s state of the art equipment which makes for a very clean and pure sound," he said.

The station has the technology to program shows in advance. No one even has to be working on site for programs to run smoothly.

Over the next few months, KRTE will be trying out new things and working out all the kinks and glitches. KRTE has future aspirations of adding translators for a farther broadcast. They also hope to become connected to the internet.

"This is mainly to appeal to the European market," Moore said. "Tourists will be able to say hello to their friends back home."

KRTE will also be acquiring remote capabilities, which will allow it to broadcast live at community events.

"We are really striving to be a community station," Moore said. "We really want to hear what the community thinks."

Right now KRTE offers a 30-minute local program, but hopes to expand that as interest rises. If someone has community news, which includes church events, sporting events or anything else, they are invited to call 635-0200 or even come in and record a message themselves.