From KERA News:
Bob Ray Sanders remembers the moment KERA 90.1 FM was switched on the air on July 11, 1974.
At the time, the station’s management was cautiously optimistic about starting up a public radio station in a media market with so much competition.
“People weren’t sure that it would work here,” Sanders said. “Who would want to listen to a public radio station?”
Fifty years later, 90.1 FM is still going strong, broadcasting quality local, national and international news to hundreds of thousands of North Texas listeners each day.
The early years
KERA-FM’s legacy as a North Texas establishment began with its famously humble beginnings broadcasting out of the Little Red Schoolhouse with a small but dedicated staff. The building was donated by the Dallas Independent School District and housed KERA-TV, which had gone on air in 1960.
Among the station’s first staff was Sanders, who began his career with KERA in 1969 as a reporter and eventually became the station’s manager. Back then, he said, the radio station worked in conjunction with KERA’s signature TV show Newsroom, which was known for its hard-hitting reports on Dallas City Hall, county courts and race relations.
“We challenged people, and would go on every day and every night telling people in Dallas-Fort Worth what we thought they should know about those issues,” Sanders said.