SAT 2PM / ask this old house

See the transformation that kitchen upgrades make.

SAT 8PM / guilt on masterpiece

Brothers Max and Jake run down an old man, when driving back from a wedding.

SUN 2PM / 12 angry men (1957)

Closing arguments in a murder trial; the 12 members of the jury must deliberate.

SUN 7PM / off 90

Arts, culture, and history in Southeastern Minnesota.

SUN 8PM / shine (1996)

A child piano prodigy's ambitions generate friction with his overbearing father.

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Groundbreaking Scheduled

GROUNDBREAKING SCHEDULED FOR KSMQ PUBLIC TELEVISION FACILITY

September 15, 2021 (AUSTIN, Minn.) — KSMQ Public Television will begin construction on a $5 million state-of-the-art multimedia broadcast facility by holding a ceremonial groundbreaking event on Thursday, October 7, beginning at 10:30 a.m. The new facility will be located at 107 West Oakland Ave. in Austin.

Local and state business and political leaders are expected to attend the ceremony and the public is invited to attend. There will be brief remarks by station and community leadership, weather permitting. Funding for the project is being provided by several sources: KSMQ Public Service Media, Inc.; the Austin-based Hormel Foundation; the State of Minnesota; the City of Austin; and individual members of KSMQ Public Television.

Once complete, the facility and grounds will be known as “The Broadcast Center.” The 10,200 square foot building will house the studio and offices of KSMQ Public Television and associated ventures. The building is expected to be operational during the 4th quarter of 2022.

KSMQ Public Television is a full power, federally licensed independent television station which has operated in Austin since 1972 in leased space at Riverland Community College. The station transmits its broadcast signal over a radius of 55 miles from a 1000’ tower located near Grand Meadow, MN. The new downtown facility is expected to improve efficiency allowing for more local programming to be produced.

Project management is being supplied to KSMQ Public Television by 45 North Group, Minneapolis. The principal architect is MSR Design, Minneapolis, and McGough Inc. is the general contractor. Legal representation for KSMQ is being provided by Libby Law Office in St. Paul, and Foster Garvey PC, Washington, D.C.

Media contact: Will Roozenboom 45 North Group 612.803.0944

The Covid Gap

Following our first feature of the COVID Gap: Addressing the Pandemic Racial Divide, KSMQ is continuing the conversation with Dr. Stephanie Low from Community Health Services, Inc. in Rochester, Minnesota. She and R-Town Associate Producer and Host Nicole Nfonoyim-Hara discuss the large divide in COVID hospitalizations and deaths between the white and black communities in Minnesota. Community Health Service Inc. (CHSI) is a federally qualified healthcare center, serving uninsured and underinsured communities in the Midwest and is dedicated to health equity.

News From Austin

The Hormel Institute Publishes COVID-19 Research to Aid Virus Control

Dr. Bin Liu used Cryo-EM technology to study structures of SARS-CoV-2 proofreading machine

July 27, 2021 - AUSTIN, Minn. - Dr. Bin Liu, Assistant Professor and leader of the Transcription and Gene Regulation lab at The Hormel Institute, published discoveries regarding SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. COVID-19 has infected approximately 200 million people and led to more than 4 million deaths worldwide.“This research is of broad importance to combat various emerging and re-emerging coronaviruses and will also aid in the development of effective anti-coronavirus drugs,” said Dr. Liu, who joined The Hormel Institute in 2018 from Yale University.The article “Structural basis of mismatch recognition by a SARS-CoV-2 proofreading enzyme” was published in Science (2021). It is a collaboration between Dr. Liu and Dr. Yang Yang at Iowa State University and Dr. Chang Liu at Yale University.

The study utilized cryo-electron microscopy (CryoEM), a Titan Krios considered one of the world’s most powerful electron microscopes, to study the structures of COVID-19 viral RNA proofreading machine (ExoN complex) to understand how ExoN is responsible for improving the fidelity of coronavirus RNA synthesis by removing mis-incorporated nucleotides, and how it recognizes and excises nucleotide analog inhibitors incorporated into the nascent RNA, undermining the effectiveness of first-line nucleotide analog-based antivirals. Dr. Liu plans to further study how SARS-CoV-2 replicates and transcribes RNA with the goal of developing improved anti-coronavirus therapies.“We believe our studies will be of broad interest to scientists in the fields of coronavirus, cryo-electron microscopy, replication/transcription and mismatch correction,” said Dr. Liu.Thanks to the support of The Hormel Foundation, The Hormel Institute’s CryoEM was added as part of the 2016 expansion. It is one of the world’s most powerful electron microscopes and inMinnesota, this microscope expertise is only found at The Hormel Institute. It allows HI’s cryoEM team of scientists (structural biologists) to see the structure of some of the smallest parts of our bodies – down to the near-atomic level.

Full paper is accessible at: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2021/07/26/science.abi9310

KSMQ RECEIVES NATIONAL PUBLIC SERVICE AWARD

— KSMQ Public Television received a national Public Media Award (PMA) for its 2020 media campaign “Every 1 Counts” to promote participation in the United States Census. The award was presented to KSMQ President & CEO Eric Olson during the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s 2021 Public Media Thought Leader Forum, held virtually January 26.

As part of the “Every 1 Counts” campaign, KSMQ Public Television worked with local immigration groups to record “how to” census videos in 15 different formats. KSMQ enlisted Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to be the public face of the campaign. The videos explained the purpose of the census and why participating was important for all residents.

Before creating the content, KSMQ researched differences in culture and communication styles beyond the original English language version initially envisioned. Utilizing this research, the videos were then produced for the following communities: Amharic, Anyuak, Arabic, Bosnian, Chinese, Dinka, French, Hmong, Karen, Karenni, Khmer, Nuer, Somali, Spanish and Vietnamese.

To aid in distribution of the content, KSMQ partnered with Rochester Public Schools and Austin Public Schools as well as the Minnesota Department of Education. Downloads were then made available to schools statewide, and students were encouraged to take the language-specific media home to play to their parents and/or caregivers from a laptop or smartphone.

Assisting KSMQ in the project were the Immigration Law Center of Minnesota and the Intercultural Mutual Assistance Association in Rochester.

KSMQ won the PMA in the “Community Initiative – Small Stations” category. The runner up was Lakeshore Public Media, the PBS station representing northwestern Indiana/Chicagoland.

“Every year, for the past 52 years, these awards have celebrated excellence in public media,” said Eric Hyppa, president of the National Educational Telecommunications Association. “This year, that excellence was amplified by the profoundly creative and inspired local media responses to multiple topics.”

For more information:
Matt Bluhm 507 481 2102