Saturday night after Saturday Night Live, KPLC and all of our sub-channels will be off the air starting at midnight. We’ve set a four hour work window for this, but hope to be back on air in as little as two hours.
Weekday elections can make it harder for some people to get to the polls, but when you think of countries where you may be risking your life to vote, or walking for miles to get to a voting location, it’s a little hard to complain about having to work voting into your day.
KPLC partnered with the St. Jude Dream Home project to help defeat childhood cancer. And this community rose to the occasion, buying out all of the available tickets in record time.
To make the most of this school year, every child needs the proper tools. The list of supplies can be quite long, and for some parents, it can be a challenge to provide their child with everything they need to succeed. The national retail federation’s 2018 back to school survey estimates the average family will spend $122 on supplies such as notebooks, pencils, backpacks and lunchboxes to get their kids ready for school. It isn’t always easy to find that kind of mone...
I'm Sergeant James Anderson with the Louisiana State Police. The Independence Day holiday is upon us and I would like you to consider this: Drunk driving is illegal driving, yet from 2012 to 2016, 780 people in our country were killed in drunk-driving crashes over Fourth of July holiday periods. The Louisiana State Police, along with other law enforcement agencies in our area, will be looking for impaired drivers but we need your help. Develop a plan to get home safely...
The seasons are changing. As crawfish season draws to an end, we enter the next Louisiana season – hurricane season. And it is never too early to prepare. We urge you not to wait until we are threatened by a storm to decide what you will do, where you will go, how you will stay in touch, and what supplies you need. Anytime we are in the path of a storm grocery stores, gas stations, and home centers are overrun by people needing supplies. In many cases, we could have gotten th...
KPLC supports many community events. One that we've been involved with for years is the fundraising event for The Whistlestop's programs including Dancing Classrooms. This year's "Mad Hot Ballroom" event is a little different for me as I'll be one of the "celebrity" dancers performing. As part of this process I've gotten a first-hand look at how much work all of the participants put into supporting this cause and putting on a great event. You can support t...
Monday June 18th is a special day. It’s National Ride to Work Day, the 27th Anniversary of National Ride to Work Day to be specific. It’s also another anniversary that I’ll get to later. Ride to Work Day was created to encourage the use of two-wheel vehicles – scooters, motorcycles, and bicycles, in order to reduce traffic, free up parking spaces, and to encourage the rest of us to share the road responsibly. If you don’t plan to jump on...
As the Memorial Day holiday weekend approaches, I hope you have plans to enjoy some time with family or friends. But let's not forget the reason for the holiday. Memorial Day is set aside as a time to honor the men and women who have died while serving in the US military. I'm a fan of thanking anyone who has gone through the rigors of military training and military life to serve this great country, but our appreciation should go far beyond that for those who have given ...
Were you part of the big debate this week? No, not the world current events debate, not a political debate, the really big debate. The one about whether a sound clip is saying "Yanni" or "Laurel."
The one constant in life may be change, but many of us notice it more in the springtime. Our lawns are green, and plants are in bloom. Even KPLC takes on our sparse gardening beds in order to spruce up a bit. But the world around us is also changing. We have a number of important changes going on here in Southwest Louisiana. Sulphur has sworn in a new mayor; long-time Lake Charles Police Chief Don Dixon has announced his retirement. And McNeese and Sowela have graduated a fresh new c...
When I look through the “Wall of Appreciation” in my mind, I see the pictures of a number of my teachers hanging there. And even more pictures of my daughter’s teachers. Our teachers really do help shape us into the people we become. Many people in my extended family are, or were, teachers, including my Mother and one of my sisters. I know through them that teaching can be a tough, thankless job – one that they love anyway. As we approach the end of Teacher A...
You’ve likely heard by now that Britney Glaser is leaving KPLC in order to devote time to her 3 young children. Tomorrow she will co-host her last Sunrise. It’s fitting that her new job will be working in the program that started her at KPLC as a teen reporter – growing the next generation of media superstars. Beyond being a superb and hard-working journalist, Britney is an amazing person. The kind of person who makes you better for having known her. Her love of he...
With Trash Bash and Earth Day this weekend, the cleanest city contest, and a number of recent anti-litter initiatives, our community seems to be focusing a lot of attention on trash. We salute the various public, private, and joint efforts to deal with trash. Our local businesses, and city and parish governments, are doing more than many of you may realize. But we still don’t have a large-scale recycling plan that works for the majority of us. Whether you are an environmentali...
In a time when both companies and employees frequently complain about the lack of loyalty in the work place, it's increasingly unusual for an employee to work at a single business for 40 years. But today we are celebrating just such an accomplishment. Theresa Schmidt has been at KPLC for 40 years, and she's not ready to hang up her microphone anytime soon. In her time at KPLC, Theresa has gone from shooting her stories on film, to videotape, to digital; she's been through ownership ...
Guest Editorial: Sgt. James Anderson, Louisiana State Police Troop D This week is National Work Zone Awareness Week and I would like you to consider this: Work zones play a key role in maintaining our roadways. Unfortunately, changes in traffic patterns, narrow rights of way and other construction activities often create a combination of crashes, injuries, and, in 2016, 765 work-zone deaths in our country. Twelve of those were in Louisiana. These crashes can also ca...
April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. Note that it’s not Distracted Driving month where you get a free pass for doing that, it’s an awareness month to call attention to it in hopes that we can reduce distracted driving. According to the National Safety Council, a person is injured in a car crash every seven seconds, and someone is killed in a car crash every 15 minutes. So during this newscast two people will have lost their lives on the road. And 25...
This weekend it's time to "Spring Forward" and set your clocks ahead one hour for the start of Daylight Saving Time. For a lot of us, that means we'll spend a week trying to get adjusted as our body clocks get re-set. Many people say they really like Daylight Saving Time for the extra daylight you get in the evenings, but not many people really like having to make the adjustment. Florida is entertaining the idea of sticking with Daylight Saving Tim...
We applaud the Calcasieu Parish School Board and the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office for their announcement today of a program to have deputies in tactical uniforms making rounds at school campuses. It's encouraging to see them taking a proactive approach to school safety. The zero tolerance policy towards anyone making threatening comments or actions towards any of our schools seems necessary in our current environment. But that makes it even more important for all pare...
Traditionally people have said not to talk about two things, politics and religion. Since this is Good Friday and also the beginning of Passover, let’s go ahead and talk about both of them anyway. I hear a lot of comments that President Trump has divided us. Also that some hotly debated political issue is proof that religious people aren’t living their values. As a Christian, I will go ahead and admit that I fail. I fail a lot. I’d never tell you that I am bett...
With a couple of restaurants going out of business recently we are hearing questions about whether the economic boom for our area is over or not. There are any number of reasons why a business makes the tough decision to close their doors, and those restaurants may have been the victim of our success. Our growth has brought us a lot of new businesses, so competing for customer dollars is even more difficult. And the competition for employees can make it difficult to offer your p...
KPLC has a new partnership! Over the next few months, you’ll be hearing about the St. Jude’s Dream Home project. This will be its first year in Southwest Louisiana, and it’ll be a chance for some lucky person to win a brand-new home. Joining in with St. Jude’s was an easy decision, they are leading the way the world understands and treats childhood cancer. St. Jude’s has treated children from all 50 states and around the world, including some from right...
If you saw KPLC's Puppy Cam last week you met this little lady. Beth was found abandoned in the woods. I know of 6 other puppies found in a black trash bag in the middle of the road at night. Fortunately for them a motorist spotted them in time and rescued them. But they still need permanent homes. You also may have seen the story about the cats and dogs found in trash bags dumped near Lafayette. I just cannot understand why someone would do this. Now I'll admit that
The winter Olympics are here, and for the next two weeks much of the world will be watching together. We may find ourselves obsessed with a sport that we barely knew about before, as we were when Apollo Ono showed us how exciting short-track speed skating could be, or when we all decided that Curling is a really weird sport but fun to watch. I think there are a number of life lessons we can take from the Olympics. Like the fact that not everybody gets a medal. Even top athletes perf...
For a short month, February is certainly full of special events. We have the Super Bowl, Winter Olympics, Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day, Mardi Gras, the start of Lent, and National Heart Month. But it’s also Black History Month. History may not have been your favorite class in school, it wasn’t mine, but recognizing the contributions of our ancestors and hearing their stories can be a fascinating subject. And our history is still being shaped, in real ti...
One of the great privileges of working at a television station is getting to meet so many people. I’m honored to be able to meet and know some amazing entrepreneurs, business owners and leaders, and government officials. But I also get to meet and know people who don’t have a station in life that high. This week a frail older lady walked into a local restaurant where I was eating. She wanted to know if I could give her some money so she could go next door and get somethin...
Now that federal buildings are open again, the question on entering one will go back to the "Real ID." More importantly for most of us, getting on an airplane to fly domestically will also depend on a federally recognized identification. If you don't like the idea of the Real ID act, you will still be able to get on a plane if you have a passport. But you certainly wouldn't want to forget that at home and show up at the airport with only your driver
In my last editorial I commented that the Epiphany signaled the end of the holidays. And while that’s true for the Christmas season, there is a holiday which arrives in early January. Monday is a federal and state holiday for Martin Luther King Day, and it’s also a holiday for many companies including KPLC. As part of this holiday KPLC will once again broadcast live the MLK Celebration event organized by KZWA radio from 9 to 10 a.m. this Friday. We invite you to join...
The New Year is here, and this Saturday the 12 days of Christmas come to a close with the Epiphany. Many of us will also have a personal epiphany as we come to the sudden clarity and realization that our New Year's resolutions have already gone by the wayside.
If you’ve watched KPLC for a while, you’ve seen quite a few familiar faces come and go, it’s just part of our business and life in general. This month we are celebrating the retirement of a face you may not know, but has been instrumental to KPLC for decades. Vicki Zimmerman LaFleur is hanging up her well-worn broadcast shoes this month. In the 80’s and early 90’s, Vicki helped guide the newsroom as our assignments editor; she was a whirlwind of ac...
Thank you Southwest Louisiana for so generously giving and supporting your community in every way. As we head into the final days of KPLC's Community Christmas food and toy drive, I want to let you know that the deadline for donations is this Saturday. So if you intended to make a donation but just haven't yet, now is the time. Together we are serving over 450 families and over 1,000 children. Any donation small or large will help, and is very much appreciated.
Many of us are in full swing for Christmas. Until December 16, KPLC is conducting our "Community Christmas" drive, with a goal of providing toys for over a thousand boys and girls through age 12, and a Christmas meal for 450 local families. I purchased the non-perishable items for a Christmas dinner for less than $9, but if you can donate even a single can of food, it will help us reach our goal. This Wednesday we'll also be "Packing the Tent" at Abraham...
Tomorrow is another election day. In Calcasieu Parish, voters need to decide on bond issues for the school board. I'll continue to say that KPLC's role is not to tell you how you should vote, and we won't do that. But we will encourage you to vote. Don't let someone else decide for you.
Can we talk? I see a lot of comments and questions on social media about KPLC, and frequently get questions when I see people out and about. So what’s on your mind? Would you like to ask me about whether I’m conservative or liberal? Whether I want the station to have a bias? Do I have an agenda against President Trump? Would you like to ask me about “Fake News?” Whether I am religious, what I think about the NFL and the National Anthem controversy, d...
It's time to vote, Louisiana! Did you know there's an election this Saturday? If you are a registered voter in Louisiana, you have something on the ballot in your precinct. Statewide, we are electing a state treasurer to replace John Kennedy, who become a U.S. senator for Louisiana.
I do hate that race keeps coming up, so often, in so many ways. How we approach it from a station standpoint is always a discussion, we hope we get it right more than we miss it. Everyone gets an opinion, and mine is no more valuable than yours, but I wanted to share my thoughts on the subject. I grew up in a time of school desegregation in my hometown. In discussing those times and everything happening back then, a lady I work with, whom I respect very much, asked me "what wer...
How long did you think it would be before I said, "We dodged a bullet"? Well, here it is, last week we dodged a bullet. Our meteorology team said all along that conditions weren't right to make what became Tropical Storm Cindy into a major storm, and they were right. But it certainly could have been worse, and has been before. Sixty years ago, Hurricane Audrey devastated Southwest Louisiana. Part of the problem was that the storm sped u
Prepare to be offended. Or maybe not. But this is your tool to avoid it. Your remote control. Wednesday night at 8 p.m. NBC will air an episode of The Carmichael Show that you may or may not want to see. If you haven’t seen the program yet, it’s a comedy based on the fictional family of creator Jerrod Carmichael. The program has taken on a number of controversial issues. This week’s episode features a racial slur, said more than one time. It come...
