Photos Provided
General Manager Cameron Beierle and his wife, Colleen, show off the KACS studio.
By Sigourney Orstad
For the C-C Chamber of Commerce
Since 1991, KACS Christian Radio has been providing quality, family friendly Christian radio throughout Lewis County. KACS was founded by a local group of church affiliated businessmen who saw a need for a Christian station in the Centralia-Chehalis area.
Since then, KACS has expanded to nine signals, reaching areas from Aberdeen to Packwood to just south of Seattle.
General Manager of KACS, Cameron Beierle, has worked at KACS since 2003 with a mission of increasing community service through KACS and expanding the reach of KACS throughout southwest Washington.
“Community service is huge for us,” said Beierle, “We help sponsor public events, promote area charities, civic groups, churches. We provide free public service announcements – we have never charged for that.”
KACS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and has a noncommercial educational license (NCE license), meaning they can’t sell airtime for advertisements. Instead, like many NCE licensed stations, KACS has sponsors who sponsor a portion of the radio schedule in return for promotion of the sponsor’s goods and services.
Sponsorships are also tax-deductible. This is attractive for businesses because KACS is able to promote brand recognition for the business and the business doesn’t get lumped into a string of commercials.
Other than sponsorships, KACS relies on donations from listeners to keep the station operating. Listeners are keen to donate to KACS because of their extensive involvement in the community from the free Sunday afternoon concert at the Southwest Washington Fair, to fundraising for local charities by giving them a platform to talk about their needs.
KACS received this “Seed of Prosperity” dollar from the Chamber when they first opened in 1991.
KACS also promotes positive family values through their programming, offering talk show segments about parenting, health, and personal finance.
After 34 years of being on air, KACS has continued to expand significantly, with its newest signal in Winlock set to launch in August of this year.
Beierle, however, gives all the credit for the station’s success to the listeners. “We’ve been here since 1991 and we’ve grown. I think people resonate with the community connection. They believe in it and they support that. That’s how we’ve managed to stay on the air and have grown to where we are – not because of me, I get the privilege of serving here – but because of what our listeners believe in and committ to. Really all the credit goes to the listeners,” said Beierle.
KACS is on air in Centralia and Chehalis at 90.5 FM. To learn more about the KACS Network, visit their website at KACS.org.
