When people of the Joplin community turn on the television, they can turn to KGCS for its programs.

Missouri Southern’s television station KGCS is licensed to broadcast on channel 21, according to KGCS general manager, Judy Stiles.

Stiles said the station operates as a service of the department of communications and a training area for students to learn hands-on application to broadcast media.

KGCS and its staff are responsible for a variety of programs and content, including coverage of Joplin City Council meetings and Southern’s graduation commencement ceremonies.

The station’s programs are currently aired in standard definition, but staff and students are preparing to make the switch to hi-definition.

This means the audience will soon be seeing better quality image on the air.

While this will result in programs’ sharper image quality, Stiles said it will also include changes on the technical side in the station.

Helping with updating equipment are Trever Davis and Nathan Achey with Southern’s IT department, said Stiles and Bill Hunt, director of creative services at KGCS.

“Trever Davis and Nathan Achey, they have been a tremendous help to KGCS,” said Hunt. “We could not do this without them.”

According to Stiles, updating equipment such as the master control board, will allow work to be more semi-automated, as well as implement the HD quality.

Once programs are recorded, staff and students at KGCS look at the schedule to know what is supposed to air throughout the day, and they will run programing in the evening from the studio.

Currently students are using DVDs to load programs to air, but the new master control board will be computerized and server-based, Stiles said.

Programs can be scheduled through the server, but students will still monitor from the control room to keep the human element.

This change will not only make the station more semi-automatic, but it will move KGCS in pace with the rest of the broadcasting industry.

Since KGCS is licensed to serve the Southern and local community, it gives viewers another program/station with high quality imagery to deliver information.

Stiles said it also aims to give students opportunities because once they graduate, they will be trained for jobs in their career field with equipment that is up to date with industry standards.

Senior mass communication major Zach Dobbs, president of Southern Broadcasters, said he hopes that these changes will also allow for more creativity in the shows that are filmed.

“I’m looking forward to learning everything I can, because by the time I leave Missouri Southern, I want to make sure I have a basic grasp on all technical things before I move on to my career,” said Dobbs.