8/17/2009 2:52:08 PM Steve Johnson, DSC Public Relations Director

Potter to lead Dixie State Athletics in New In-House Broadcasting Agreement

(ST. GEORGE, Utah – August 17, 2009) Dixie State College of Utah's intercollegiate athletics radio and television broadcasts will have a new address beginning this season as the DSC Communication Department's Dick Nourse Center for Media Innovation (CMI) will serve as the broadcast home for all Red Storm sports. The formal announcement comes less than two weeks before Dixie State's football opener vs. Adams State slated for Thursday, Aug. 27, at Hansen Stadium at 7 p.m.

The new radio home of DSC athletics will be 103.1 KURR-FM, which is currently a 2,000-watt commercial radio station with coverage throughout southern Utah and southern Nevada. CMI has partnered with Simmons Media Group, which owns KURR, for use of the frequency through a local management agreement. KURR-FM is licensed to Hurricane City, with tower and antenna on Seegmiller Mountain on the Arizona Strip south of St. George.

In addition to the radio coverage, CMI will also provide live streaming audio of all DSC athletic events through the internet, while D-TV (formerly KCEC-The Community Education Channel) will continue to televise Red Storm home athletic events on a taped-delay basis.

“We look at Dixie State College as a brand we can promote,” says CMI director and DSC Assistant Communication Professor Phil Tuckett. “We now have the control to promote that brand and make DSC and coverage of DSC athletics the best it can be.”

John Potter, who has served as the voice of the St. George Roadrunners for the past three seasons and handled play-by-play duties for DSC women's basketball and baseball in 2008-09, will assume the role as the lead play-by-play announcer for DSC football, men's basketball and baseball, in addition to his current role in the DSC Athletic Department. Meanwhile Tuckett, who played football at DSC in the 1960's and recently retired after a near 40-year career at NFL Films, will serve as the radio color analyst for football.

On the television side, Paul Bulkley, who has 10 years of sports broadcasting experience and serves as general manager and program director for DSC radio, will take over the play-by-play duties for the D-TV broadcasts. Bulkley will be joined on the television broadcasts by current DSC communication student Andrew Spainhower, who will be one of the many DSC students who will be gaining valuable hands-on experience through the educational mission of the CMI program.

“One of the advantages we enjoy is that we are able to control the production of the broadcasts and give our students practical application of the skills they're learning in the classroom,” Tuckett said.

Tuckett added that the long-term goal is to have an all-sports radio station at DSC, complete with games, coaches shows and sports talk programs, which will be interspersed with coverage of campus and community events.

“Dixie State Athletics is proud of our affiliation with CMI and the role they will play in the overall development of our media outlets,” DSC Athletic Director Dexter Irvin said. “I can foresee a 'Red Storm' network of stations and outlets powered by our affiliation with CMI.

“To be able to put our television and radio with one entity strengthens our objectives of electronic media availability,” Irvin continued. “CMI possess the capability to handle all of our electronic media needs unlike anyone in the area, and we are counting on them as great partners in our future.”

DSC athletics had been a staple on KDXU 890 AM for over two decades before the current contract expired this past spring. Tuckett, along with his CMI staff and DSC athletic representatives, approached the two major radio companies in the area with the hopes of creating a partnership with CMI. Tuckett noted, however, that a conclusive agreement could not be reached.

“Our intent was to give the other stations in the area a chance to partner in this endeavor,” Tuckett said. “Our short-term goal was to create a joint partnership. However we do have the resources to take over the radio and television broadcasts, which was our long term goal.”

Tuckett went on to say that the plan is to program KURR to be a full-service, community access radio station managed by DSC. The station will have the capabilities to broadcast live from various events around the DSC campus and the community, meaning that community members and businesses can contract for blocks of time to broadcast topical and educational programs.

“We're excited and eager to launch into something that we had eventually planned to do in the near future,” says Tuckett. “KURR is a college community station that can bring both entities together and I feel this is a step in the right direction.”

(West Jordan, UT/) #

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