TEACHER OF THE YEAR – 2007-08

Tyler ISD….Elementary Teacher of the Year-Heather Gentry, Bonner Elementary

Secondary Teacher of the Year-Julie Haley, Hubbard Middle School

Winona ISD…Scott Evans, Winona High School

Lindale ISD…Sandra Liles, Early Childhood Center

Troup ISD…Jill Smith, Troup Middle School

Arp ISD….Tiffany Taylor, Arp Junior High

Bullard ISD….Rita Woods, Bullard Intermediate School

TJC Volleyball Coach Dana Hatch to Retire

Coach Dana Hatch, the only women’s volleyball coach in Tyler Junior College history, has announced her resignation as the College’s volleyball coach, effective July 1.

Hatch, who started the program from scratch in 1996, has been one of the most successful volleyball coaches in the NJCAA. Prior to the 2009 season, Hatch was eighth in wins among all NJCAA Division 1 active volleyball coaches. She captured 347 wins in fourteen years at TJC with a .602 winning percentage. Including her high school coaching career, Coach Hatch has won over 600 volleyball matches.

All-Americans coached by Hatch include Angela Robinson (honorable mention, 2009), Leticia Kuhn (1st team, 2007), and Felicia Thompson (honorable mention, 2002).

She won two Conference Championships (2002,2007), and one Regional Championship (2002). Coach Hatch’s 2002-2003 squad was her most successful team on the court, winning the District Title and advancing to the NJCAA Division I National Tournament. The squad finished with a 41-13 record, which still ranks as the most wins in a season in school history.

“I couldn’t have picked a better place or people to have spent the final years of my career. I believe Tyler Junior College allowed me to be the best possible coach that I could be.” Hatch said.

“I deeply respect the job that Coach Hatch has done for Tyler Junior College and our athletic program,” said Athletic Director Dr. Tim Drain. “She brought a tremendous amount of passion and fire to her job, and she loved working for TJC. She obviously succeeded on the court, but her influence off the court with her players and the life lessons that she taught is what I will always remember and value. I wish Dana and her husband Larry all the best in their future endeavors, including continuing their Trail Creek Christmas Tree farm in Lindale (trailcreekfarmfun.com).”

Hatch served as teacher and coach at Chapel Hill High School during the 1995-96 school year. She previously served as teacher and coach at Austin High School in Austin, 1992-95; and as teacher and coach at Tascosa High School, Amarillo, 1979-1992.

She was named the Mizuno Coach of the Year and the Austin American-Statesman Coach of the Year in 1992; was the Texas Girls Coaches Association All Star Coach in 1985 and 1988, was the Texas Girls Coaches Association volleyball chairman in 1990. She was the Texas Girls Coaches Association Coach of the Year in 1992-93. Hatch was honored with a Special Achievement Award by the Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame in 1980 and 1982, and has served as clinic speaker and volleyball camp clinician for a host of clinics and coaches associations.

Dana Hatch Tyler Junior College Record Through the Years

1996-1997 3-17
1997-1998 17-18
1998-1999 27-14
1999-2000 29-17
2000-2001 29-17
2001-2002 37-16
2002-2003 41-13
2003-2004 27-19
2004-2005 22-18
2005-2006 25-22
2006-2007 22-21
2007-2008 34-6
2008-2009 15-16
2009-2010 19-15

TOTAL 347-229

LeTourneau Names Terri Deike New A.D.

Just four months after Terri Deike was named LeTourneau University’s senior woman administrator for athletics, she has now been named the new Yellow Jacket athletic director, according to Executive Vice President for Business and Administration Bill McDowell on Tuesday. Deike’s promotion is effective immediately.

Deike, who came to LeTourneau from the University of Texas in Tyler, will keep the title of senior woman administrator in addition to her promotion to athletic director.

“We are excited to have a person with Terri’s abilities, experience and passion,” McDowell said. “Terri Deike is genuine. She’s the real thing. She loves people, loves athletics and knows what it means to build winning programs. I am delighted to have her lead the athletic department for LeTourneau University.”

Prior to coming to LeTourneau, Deike was the head women’s basketball coach at UT-Tyler where she amassed a 90-61 record, including guiding her teams to ASC East Division Championships in 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2007-08. She earned the ASC East Co-Coach of the Year after the 2005-06 season.

While at UT Tyler, Deike was responsible for leading the school through the four-year NCAA provisional membership process. That helped gained active membership status as a result of reports, policies and procedures created and instituted under her leadership.

Deike, a veteran of the East Texas high school basketball ranks, coached at Whitehouse, Hallsville, Belton and Overton, spending 22 years as varsity head coach before becoming UT-Tyler’s first head coach. She spent 11 years at Whitehouse, where she guided the school to the District Championship in 1990-91 and 1993-94. Her 1991-92 team was District Runner-Up. Deike’s 1995-96 and 1997-98 teams won the Bi-District Championships.

“I am honored to be named Athletic Director for LeTourneau University and look forward to working with the staff to move the department into a new era,” Deike said. “We have a great coaching staff dedicated to the overall educational and athletic experience of student-athletes. President Lunsford has a vision and passion for athletics that will enable us to reach new heights.

“I believe God has prepared me for this role after 30 years of public school coaching, teaching, and athletic administration duties and I am grateful for the opportunity,” she said.

Deike and her husband, Dale, have two children, Dylan and Taylor. Deike’s husband works for Anadarko Production Company. They live in Tyler.

Navarro Ends Apaches Season

Unfortunately, the third time was not the charm for the Tyler Junior College men’s basketball team Saturday night, as they fell to Navarro 69-59 in the quarterfinal round of the Region 14 Tournament at UT Tyler’s Herrington Patriot Center. The loss to the Bulldogs is the third on the season for TJC and ends their year with a 18-11 mark. With the win, Navarro moves on to Sunday’s semi-final round where they will take 11th seeded Lee College and look to advance to their fourth straight Conference Championship game.

Malcolm Moore led the Apaches in the loss with 24 points and eight rebounds, but was the only TJC player in double figures. Shooting woes hampered the Apaches all night, as they shot a mere 33 per-cent for the game.

In other quarterfinal round action on Saturday, top seeded Paris cruised past Jacksonville 70-52 and Trinity Valley escaped Lamar St. 73-67. Those two teams will face off on Sunday at 6pm with a trip to the title game on the line.

Why can’t I get your station 600 am before 7:30 in the morning?

Yours is a question we get frequently at this time of year as the sun begins rising later and setting earlier. You didn’t specify where you live in the area so my answer will be general in nature. But put simply, as the sun rises and sets, KTBB, like most AM radio stations, changes its power and the direction in which it more strongly radiates its signal.

A little technical information. Radio Frequency energy (RF) in what is commonly called the AM band (535 kHz to 1700 kHz) has a characteristic called the skywave. During the day, ionization of the atmosphere by the sun suppresses the skywave and your receiver detects only the groundwave. But at night, when solar energy is gone, the skywave is “free” to travel great distances. As a result, the skywave of a station in Tyler, Texas can cause severe interference for a station in a state as far away as either coast. The skywave effect diminishes with an increase in frequency (dial position). Therefore, a station that is low on the dial like KTBB at 600 kHz will have a very significant skywave component.

To deal with this physical property of AM radio, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allocated radio stations in the U.S. in such a way that some stations are fully powered both day and night, a great many stations are only on the air in the daytime and the rest operate at a higher power by day and a lower power by night.

KTBB is in the last group of stations. Our daytime power is 5,000 watts. Our nighttime power is 2,500 watts. We change power at local sunrise and local sunset. As you know, that time changes with the changing of the seasons. As I write this, our power-up time on KTBB is 7:30 a.m. and our power-down time is 7:45 p.m. As I mentioned, those times change as the seasons change.

As if that weren’t enough, KTBB, like most AM stations, uses a directional antenna system. Simply put, we radiate our signal more strongly in some directions than in others. This, too, is to provide protection from interference to stations in other communities that also operate on our frequency (600 kHz) as well as to stations in other communities that operate on frequencies adjacent to ours (580 kHz, 590 kHz, 610 kHz, and 620 kHz). Our directional pattern changes for daytime and nighttime operation at the same times that our power changes. Our pattern is such that we do not radiate as strongly to the east toward Longview at night as we do in the daytime.

The question that always follows is, “Well, can’t you do something to raise your power.” And the answer that must follow is, “No, we can’t.” The AM Table of Allotments for the United States is a giant jigsaw puzzle. What we do will affect our neighboring AM stations, which will affect their neighbors and so on. So what we have is for all intents and purposes fixed. I hope this answers your question.

You can view a table listing of the AVERAGE HOURS OF SUNRISE AND SUNSET by clicking on the link below:
http://www.ktbb.com/sunhours.php

I appreciate your interest.

Paul L. Gleiser
President

What happened to David Smoak?

ANSWER
David Smoak left KTBB for reasons that we cannot disclose at this time.

Bill Coates is now hosting SportsTalk every weekday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. on KTBB FM 92.1. Bill is an experienced, talented, network-quality sports broadcasting professional with over 30 years in the business and over 19 years at KTBB. Bill brings and encyclopedic knowledge of professional, collegiate and high school sports together with an easy, inviting conversational style. We are excited to have Bill on the air in a long-form format and we expect him to take SportsTalk to a new level in the coming months.

What measures have you taken to stay FCC “clean?”

I was wondering to what measures KTBB has taken in light of the FCC’s recent power trip.

In recent months, the FCC has been cracking down on certain shows and programs in various areas in the country. I realize that the programming on KTBB and the other stations that your company owns shouldn’t have problems with program content and shows such as “Bubba the Love Sponge” and “Howard Stern” will never make it to the Tyler market. With that said, I am sure that pressure from the FCC has affected your stations in some form or fashion.
Continue reading What measures have you taken to stay FCC “clean?”

I applaud you on your advertising being local and tasteful!

You all have a very classy site. The images are always crisp and there is a minimum of nonsense throughout. You have a good sense of what is news and what is hype – unlike your source (ABC) some of the other media outlets, local and national.

I especially applaud you on your advertising being local and tasteful – and free of the ultra annoying doubleclick, Bonzi Buddy, weatherbug

and google addcents offerings. It’s a reflection of the radio station/broadcast in that there is a level of professionalism immediately apparent.

Question: Is it hard to maintain this higher standard in this day of flashing, obnoxious ads and content? Do you feel that there is a higher reward and/or return in such a high standard? Or does your web market simply make it impossible to do otherwise?

ANSWER

Thank you for your kind words and for taking the time to share them.

We have done our best to make http://www.ktbb.com the best possible reflection of our commitment to high standards on the air at Newstalk 600 KTBB.We want there to be a seamless relationship between what we do on the radio and what we do on the web.

We decline opportunities to sell advertising on KTBB AM 600 nearly every week. Most of the ads we decline are selling things we can’t in good conscience inflict on our listeners. Examples include products that purport to enhance sexual performance, get-rich-quick-in-the-comfort-of-your-home schemes, miracle weight loss products, multi-level marketing programs and other products and services that are fraudulent, close to fraudulent or in bad taste.

Less frequently, we decline advertising on KTBB AM 600 because the commercial is overly loud or is in some other way obnoxious or offensive.

We attempt to apply the same standards to our websites, including http://www.ktbb.com. We pursue good content, we try to present it in a useful way that is pleasing to the eye and easy to navigate and we do not pursue advertising revenue opportunities that we don’t control.

Therefore, you will not see “hit the monkey” ads or pop-ups or Google ads on ktbb.com.

It is more gratifying than I can tell you that you noticed.

Thanks for coming to the site and thanks for sharing your input with us.

Paul L. Gleiser
President

I understand that there was a major “changing of the guard” in the area?

I understand that there was a major “changing of the guard” involving several key radio stations in the area. I don’t remember all of the call letters for these stations but one station was KOOI, which we listen to here in Tyler.

How does a deal like this change and affect our market? Do you think that there will be format changes for these stations?

Also – I understand that your company had been interested in a share of that deal… is that true?

Thanks for your time

ANSWER
Yes, some changes in ownership have recently taken place in the Tyler-Longview market.

Waller Broadcasting sold several of its radio stations to a company called Access.1 Communications. Access.1 is headquarted in New York and they own stations in several other markets in addition to Tyler-Longview.

The stations that Mr. Waller sold include: KOOI 106.5 FM, KKUS 104.1 FM, KYKX 105.7 FM, KOYE 96.7 FM and KFRO 1370 AM.

It is impossible to know what, if anything, Access.1 will do with respect to changing the formats of any of these stations. That will depend on their best judgment as to the value of the respective assets in their current setup vs. what they believe they might do to enhance the value of the assets by doing something else.

And yes, Gleiser Communications, LLC very vigorously pursued purchasing many of these stations when Mr. Waller offered them for sale. Ultimately, we were not able to come to terms that made sense for us and Access.1 was able to make a deal that made sense to them.

For our part, we continue to believe in radio as a great medium for both listeners and advertisers. And believing that, we also believe that strong operators in our market serve to drive all of us to do a better job.

Toward that end, we wish Access.1 well and we welcome them to East Texas.

Thank you for your input.

Paul L. Gleiser
President

TVCC Cuts Ties With Arrested Coach

KTBB sports has learned that suspended Trinity Valley Women’s basketball coach Bill Damuth will not be returning to his position at the school. Damuth had been on indefinite suspension after being charged with resisting arrest following a game at Blinn Junior College on February 10th.

Assistant Coach Elena Lovato will now coach the nationally-ranked Lady Cardinals on an interim basis for the remainder of the season. The team is currently 24-5 overall on the year and 15-2 in conference play.

TVCC will close out the regular season Wednesday at Kilgore and will be the number one seed in next week’s Region 14 tournament.

NFL Unveils Logo For 2011 Super Bowl

The North Texas Super Bowl Committee and the NFL unveiled the logo for Super Bowl XLV on Thursday morning, displaying Cowboys Stadium in the background with the Vince Lombardi Trophy sitting on top of the Roman numerals for the game.

There is a new logo for every Super Bowl, but starting with the 2011 Super Bowl, the theme of the logo will basically remain the same. The only differences from year to year are the stadium backdrop and the Roman numerals for the game.

NFL officials looked at eight designs before recently finalizing their choice. The NFL didn’t present it to North Texas officials until last week.

“It’s a unique mixture of icons that represents what this whole thing is all about. It’s well done,” said Bill Lively, the president and CEO of the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host committee. “We’ve approached our mission not just for 45 but for many, many [Super Bowl] games to come.”

The NFL also announced it’s changing its postseason logo system and trophies.

The AFC and NFC Championship Game trophies will change from a brown base with an ‘A’ or ‘N’ on top of it surrounded by players layered on a wall, to silver trophies in the make of a football.

Playoff logos also will change to reflect the football as a trophy.

All of the new logos and trophies will take effect starting with the 2010 season.

“We feel that 45 is a special year,” said Mark Waller, chairman of marketing for the NFL. “It feels like it’s the perfect time to launch it.”