The University of Texas at El Paso received a $2 million donation for NPR affiliate radio station KTEP-FM (88.5) and will provide funding for scholarships for undergraduate students.
The endowment comes from the late Margaret O. Herman, an heiress of the Hess family, inventors of the steel-toe shoe was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1930. She moved to El Paso in the early 1980s. She later died in 2018, a UTEP Communications news release read.
An endowment is a protected source of money, said Richard Pineda, Ph.D., chair of UTEP’s Department of Communication Studies.
“With our particular donor the commitment that she had was really based on her love of public radio and her belief that that was an important service that the university offered,” Pineda said.
KTEP’s Director of Development and Interim General Manager John Carrillo said the $2 million was split evenly between the university and KTEP. The other half will go towards student services, he said.
“Over the course of a year the $1 million set up in a trust will collect interest, the interest is what KTEP will have access to every year,” Carrillo said.
The gift KTEP received will be used to pay for programming and equipment, Carrillo said.
KTEP plans on improving a production facility that has not been upgraded since 1985, Carillo said.
“The funds in this first wave are going to help transform that studio,” Pineda said.
An immediate upgrade for the radio station is a mixing desk. Which is used to mix different sound sources, Carillo said.
“There’s a lot of work that needs to be done. Not only in terms of the infrastructure itself, the acoustics for the room, but also in terms of the actual equipment, which is actually outdated,” Carillo said.
Donations to a university help cover costs that tuition and state funding could not provide.
“It’s somebody saying that they believe in the work that you’re doing,” Pineda said.
Trustee of Herman’s estate Sue Becknell says the endowment will touch many lives and Margaret was an avid reader of KTEP and supporter of education, news release stated.
Julia Lucero is a contributor and may be reached at [email protected].
