KILI Radio looking to serve the community another 40 years

PORCUPINE—Few radio stations, if any, have resisted and out-lasted the impacts of broadcast deregulation like KILI Radio has, while still maintaining their original Community Radio format and mission. In this case, to serve the Lakota people at Pine Ridge, Cheyenne River and Rosebud Indian Reservations. Forty years on, “The Voice of the Lakota Nation” remains strong and is looking to the next 40 years as they aggressively press ahead to raise the funds to expand.

KILI General Manager Tom Casey said “We’re hustling like crazy”. Casey said they have raised a quarter of a million dollars already, but it likely will cost a couple million dollars. Good planners always take into consideration increases in the cost of materials over the length of the campaign and Casey said they have done just that.

“We’re looking at the building being just over 4 thousand square feet. We had originally estimated it would cost $1.7 million, but now, because of construction cost increases, it could be $2.2 million.” Although, the president of the board of directors Bill Means told Native Sun News Today that is the estimate just for the building. The cost will likely be more than that because they would still need to upgrade equipment and furniture.

KILI was the first Native American owned radio station in the United States when it started broadcasting in 1983. Ronald Reagan’s policies of content control, or deregulation, began in 1981. During the 1980’s, every deregulatory policy that was passed by Congress, resulted in a buying frenzy of broadcast properties. Previous to 1981, regulations had prevented monopolization but by the early 1990’s many stations which had been previously independently owned, were purchased and became part of a group of stations under one ownership. Monopolization was called “consolidation.”

Variety in format was replaced by “niche” programming which targets a specific audience and market in order to more effectively monetize. By the turn of the century, radio broadcasting offered little to listeners that wasn’t highly researched and was failing to serve the communities to whom they were licensed and broadcasting. Much of the regulatory structure that had required them to serve their communities in order to have use of the airwaves was either removed or not enforced.

Ordinarily, being so isolated geographically would itself be a recipe for failure, as would making the effort to serve so many diverse interests across 30,000 square miles. But the 100,000 watt KILI FM station has consistently offered a variety of news/talk and music.

Casey said they broadcast to the Pine Ridge Reservation, “But we also have a translator in Rapid City so we cover Rapid City. Our signal gets to the Southern Black Hills and the Panhandle of Nebraska. So, we cover a large area and as a community radio station, it isn’t a one set deal.”

Casey chuckled describing KILI’s audience, “We have people who don’t want to listen to the tribal council meeting while others want to listen the meeting. Some people can’t wait until we do sports and we do football and basketball and other people turn it off. As a community radio station we try to hit the different facets of the community. We have traditional music but we also have all kinds of contemporary music, you know, rock and roll, hip hop, rap, blues, jazz and country. We are covering a huge area and different parts of the day different generations are listening to us. It’s a challenge. But that’s what we are. We say we are a community radio station. It’s important for us to be there to reflect the needs of the community.

There are still so many rural residents who are unconnected, a surprising state of affairs in 2023. Casey said because the community is so spread out, KILI helps to connect people. “One of the most important things is just being a community radio station, being responsive to the needs of the community. For instance, being able to connect people for individual experiences that really touch the community, like an honoring song, a birthday song, or a memorial song. We go from Slim Buttes in the southwest corner to Hisle and Wanblee to Georgetown, a small community in the far northeastern corner of the rez. So, it’s a way to connect people long distances and people struggling to get around. Whether you are in your kitchen in Slim Buttes or in Hisle or Wanblee, KILI radio connects people.”

Casey wasn’t able to say what changes might be coming the next forty years, noting the sweeping changes of the past 40, “It’s 2023 and in the 40 years the station has been in existence, we’ve gone from turntables with vinyl, to reel-to-reel, to 8-track and cassettes to CD’s and now much of our music is on the computer. In that way the technology has changed and we’ve tried to roll with that and stay up with that. The needs of the community change too. We have a website. We turn our interviews into podcasts. We are always looking for ways to connect with the community.”

Casey said there’s still so much KILI can do as far as journalism and issues that impact the community. Like any other community, Casey said rumors can start and move as fast as the speed of light, “Facebook is another communication tool for people but it’s not always real. One of our challenges is to get real factual information out to people so we aren’t part of the rumor-mill. “

KILI’s committed coverage of the last elections included interviewing before the primaries 63 of the 67 tribal council candidates live on the air, an hour interview with each of the presidential candidates and vice presidential candidates. For the general election, KILI conducted 2-hour interviews of both the presidential and vice presidential candidates and an hour interview of the 42 candidates running for the 21 council positions. “We want people to be as informed as they possibly can when they go to cast their vote,” said Casey.

KILI’s general coverage on-air and social media presence rivals any big city radio station, with 106k followers on Facebook and streaming online, and community coverage that would be a challenge for a fully-staffed organization. Casey said they’re getting ready for the Lakota Nation Invitational December 13-16, when KILI will be broadcasting 8 games a day for 4 days, a total of 32 games over those 4 days. “We will start at 8 in the morning and go until 10 at night. Live on KILI Radio.”

(Contact Marnie Cook at staffwriter@nativesunnews.today)

The post KILI Radio looking to serve the community another 40 years first appeared on Native Sun News Today.

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