For the most part, the people who listen to or watch or read what the media has to offer have an impersonal relationship with media outlets.
After all, it's just a TV station, or a radio station, or a magazine or newspaper, or website. You visit them briefly and move on with your day.
But KMUW is a little bit different. Many people say that they listen throughout the day-- certainly in their cars while driving, but also in the background at their workplace, streaming through their computers. In the evening the station’s musical programming provides a sort of soundtrack to many folks’ relaxation and recreational time.
Gradually, over the years, this station has added programming that makes it more and more informative and entertaining to thousands of area listeners. That has been the result of deliberate decisions by KMUW’s management. At the top of that team has been General Manager Mark McCain. For 19 years, Mark has guided KMUW into its maturity as a trusted and valued media companion for so many listeners here in south-central Kansas.
News of Mark’s retirement this week has led me to pick up my old banjo. After so many on-air fundraisers in which Lu Anne Stephens and I cajoled Mark into joining in with my silly KMUW parody songs, it seems fitting that I sing him out with one more:
Should Mark McCain e’re be forgot?
Here at KMUW?
No, Mark, you’ll be forgotten NOT,
Round here we’ll still be lovin’ ya!
