Doyle named interim general manager of radio station KASU 91.9 FM

August 6, 2008 -- Michael B. Doyle, a member of the radio-television faculty since 1985, has been named interim general manager of KASU-FM, the public radio service of Arkansas State University. Doyle leads a staff of five full-time radio professionals and five part-time student producers. His appointment became effective July 1 after the resignation of the former manager, Dr. Bob Franklin, who left to take a position with the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

“KASU is an asset to the community and a cultural treasure for the region served by our license holder -- Arkansas State University,” said Doyle. “Our dedicated staff will emphasize our strengths and develop new opportunities to enrich the lives of our listeners.”

Doyle started his radio career as a part-time student announcer at KASU working nights, weekends, and during the summers while earning a bachelor’s degree in radio-TV, graduating from ASU in 1974. The station had become a member of National Public Radio in the early 1970s, and Doyle’s involvement with the NPR station took place during its transition to a 100,000-watt stereo station. He served as a full-time farm news director and announcer from 1974 to 1975.

From 1975 to 1984, Doyle worked at commercial AM and FM stations in the area as an announcer, commercial copywriter, advertising sales representative, news reporter and operations manager. After a year at KBTM in Jonesboro, he helped launch KSRB, a first time local radio service in Hardy, Arkansas, working there from 1976 to 1978. He spent the next five years, until 1983, working at KRLW in Walnut Ridge. Doyle is a native of Lawrence County who attended public schools at Hoxie and Strawberry. He is a graduate of Hoxie High School.

In 1984-85, Doyle attended Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, where he earned a master’s degree in mass communications. While there, he worked at KOSU-FM, the university’s public radio station. He joined the ASU department of radio-TV as an instructor in 1985-86. In addition to teaching various courses in the curriculum, he has coordinated the department’s internship program. This involves placing junior and senior students with radio and television stations, production houses, and advertising agencies throughout Arkansas and the mid-South. Doyle has also taught advertising courses in the journalism department. He developed that department’s course in media planning.

For more than a decade, Doyle has helped KASU-FM as a volunteer, co-hosting with staff members during the station’s semi-annual membership drives. He is also the producer and host of  KASU’s “Music from the Isles,” an hour of Celtic music, airing each Saturday morning from 5-6 a.m. and each Sunday morning from 9:30-10:30 a.m.                   

###