CCC Radio Station to Broadcast CCC and CHS Sports

KTCC radio will return to the air beginning on Thursday, Sept. 4, at 7 a.m.  Located at 91.9 on the FM dial, the station will broadcast from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week (or until sports programming is complete).  CCC broadcasting students, under the direction of department chair Rod Thomasson, will manage and operate the station which has an approximate broadcast radius of 40 miles.
Although the station will continue with the classic rock format, a major change this year will be the addition of over 100 sporting events featuring Rich Epp doing play-by-play for Colby High School football, volleyball, basketball, wrestling, baseball and softball.  Epp will also be doing play-by-play for CCC Trojan volleyball, basketball, wrestling, baseball and softball contests.
“The CCC students enrolled in the broadcasting classes will be assisting with color commentary, technical aspects and some play-by-play during coverage of the games,” said Epp.  “The college will be providing the most extensive coverage of northwest Kansas sports in the history of the station.  I believe this will provide a great learning opportunity and ‘hands-on’ experience for the students.”
Epp will be providing live coverage of the Colby High School football game at St. Francis on Friday, Sept. 5.  He will begin the pre-game show at 5 p.m. on 91.9.  Then, on Saturday, Sept. 6, he will be covering the Lady Trojan volleyball matches which are scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m. against North Platte Community College; at 1:45 p.m. against Northwest Community College (Powell, Wyo.); Lamar Community College at 4:15 p.m. and McCook Community College at 5:30 p.m.
Epp is a longtime sports broadcaster who was one of the first graduates of the CCC program in 1972.  He has been broadcasting northwest Kansas sports for over four decades and is widely recognized as one of the best play-by-play announcers in the tri-state area.  He began his career as a broadcaster in 1971 at KLOE Radio/TV as sports director, covering high school and CCC sports.  In 1976-78, he went to Illinois to cover Big 10 football and basketball for the University of Illinois and then returned to the Colby area in 1979.   In addition to his many awards and honors, he has twice been selected as the “Sports Broadcaster of the Year” by the Kansas Association of Broadcasters.   Although he has extensive broadcasting expertise, Epp has also worked in sales/advertising and as part of the station management at a radio station in Nebraska.  He served as Public Information Officer with the Kansas Department of Commerce in Topeka and in the fall of 1989 became the Press Secretary for Governor Mike Hayden.  He returned to Colby as Sales Manager of KLBY-TV where he handled all station sales and some on-air programming.  In 1997 he and his wife Judy began J-R Marketing which handles radio and television advertising for several businesses.
The broadcasting department at Colby Community College includes the radio station and a television station which can be viewed on S & T cable channel 118.  For more information about the program or sports coverage schedule, contact Rich Epp at 443-1994 or Rod Thomasson at 460-5454.