KPAN Radio, Hereford Texas Radio Station

Wind turbine blades staged on West Park Avenue in August, prior to delivery to turbine pad sites in southwestern Deaf Smith County. The components are being delivered to the 324-megawatt Broadview Energy wind park which straddles the Texas- News Mexico border, stretching from south of Broadview to southwest of Bootleg. Thirty-six of the turbines are being located in Deaf Smith County with construction value of about $122 million; the installation is a project of Pattern Energy and will sell power into the California grid.

Lane Formby of the KPAN Krew interviews Lonnie Allsup, founder and CEO of Allsup's Convenience Stores at the grand opening of the new Vega store. The complex at I-40 and US 385 includes 24 gas pumps, 12 diesel pumps and a 5000 square-foot store.

KPAN Herd sportscasts may be streamed to Mac and mobile devices by using the FStream app, which is available free through iTunes App Store and http://fstream.en.softonic.com/mac.

Install FStream on your device. Set up a Favorite for KPAN, using the URL http://www.kpanradio.com/asx/kpanlo.asx. Choose WindowsLatin1 for encoding. Under the settings, the format should be AIFF. Remember, the KPAN audio stream is only active during Whiteface sportscasts - it will be silent at other times.

Two huge wind energy projects are producing power and selling electricity into the ERCOT grid of Texas. Several other utility-scale wind projects are on the table for Deaf Smith County.

Electric generation began in December, 2014 at Hereford Wind LLC, a 200-megawatt wind park owned by EDF and BlackRock Infrastructure. At a 48% capacity factor, the Hereford-EDF project produces 759,000 megawatt hours yearly. The project covers 15,000 acres of farm and ranchland, and consists of 50 2.0MW Vestas turbines and 54 1.85MW GE turbines. Total investment in the project is estimated at $340 million. EDF also operated several other wind parks in the region, including the Spinning Spur installations in Oldham County.

Power is also being produced at the 300-megawatt wind project named Jumbo Road in northern Castro County, which is owned by Mid-American Renewables; it borders the south edge of the EDF-Hereford wind park. The project has a long-term contract to supply energy to the city of Austin. There are now 250 wind turbines that stretch from the site of the old La Posta along the Castro-Deaf Smith County line to west of Buffalo Lake.

Lincoln Renewable Energy of Chicago was instrumental in developing both the Hereford Wind and Jumbo Road wind parks. Both of the projects connect to the grid through the Sharyland CREZ substation on FM 1259 southeast of Hereford.

Three other projects are currently on the table, with some site work and tax abatement discussions underway. Unity Wind LLC plans a 240MW project north of Dawn; that project also has 100MW of solar energy proposed for phase 2. Fremantle Energy proposes a project near Wildorado called Canadian Breaks LLC, with 29MW installed in Deaf Smith County; the company also plans to construct another substation in northeastern Deaf Smith County. The third is Broadview Energy LLC, which plans a 297-megawatt wind park that would straddle the New Mexico border and locate 40 wind turbines in southwestern Deaf Smith County.

The first phase of the Mariah project is in process in Parmer County, being developed by Scatec of Norway and Scandia Wind Southwest of Bovina; the first 2 phases of the project would total 800 megawatts.

Power produced by the projects are collected by Sharyland Utilities and transmitted by CREZ lines. The CREZ project interconnects Sharyland wind energy collection substations near Silverton, Nazareth, Hereford and White Deer to the ERCOT grid downstate. Other companies developing wind projects to interconnect through the Deaf Smith Sharyland substation include Tri-Global, EURUS, Chermac-Happy, and E.ON.

Margaret Formby Memorial Collection -- A project of Deaf Smith Friends of the Library, readers are able to view over 300 very early editions of the Hereford Brand newspaper. Click here to learn about and view the collection online.

To see photos of the KPAN wind build, click here.

To read the July 2008 Radio article, click here.

To read the February 2009 Radio magazine article, click here.

As of January 1, 2012, the KPAN Skystream has prevented the release of 10,243 pounds of CO2, compared to energy from coal.

Welcome to an on-line visit to the Texas Panhandle, where the people are genuine, the ground meets the sky in an unbroken line and they call the wind Mariah.....Carey. Or on some days there are other names for the wind. Where cows outnumber people 10 to 1. Where malcontents and ne'er-do-wells are still allowed daily access to loaded sidearms and live microphones. Where you can still be home on the range. Where the land is flat and the deck is stacked and the ladies.....are angels. Where money talks and men are real men and the livestock are.....real nervous.

Cruise around this old-timey website to learn more about Hereford and the complex inner workings of a powerhouse broadcasting giant like KPAN. Learn about the The Old Philosopher, Clint Formby. Visit the websites of KPAN Sponsors. Check out the Hereford Whitefaces at Sports. Catch up on the latest stuff on the KPAN TableGram, shop the Trading Post, or check precip at Weather.

When the little radio station went on the air in 1948, the army barracks you see at the left was home to a simple studio and a handful of folks who were excited about bringing the latest technology to Hereford. Now, with the fourth generation of the Formby family clicking keyboards to put KPAN on the Internet, we are still excited about the latest technology to bring radio's one-to-one communication to you, our on-line listener. KPAN still has much of the original vision of 1948, a full-service radio station for a community, daily providing music, sports, advertising, journalism, weather, ag info, opinion, markets and fun for Hereford -- and now for you, wherever you choose to log on.

Click on the logos below for links to these websites.

Friend us on Facebook - Kpan Am-fm - for daily RadioGram updates.

Bootleg Weather Site Hereford Mesonet Weather Site

Hereford Airport Weather Site West Texas Mesonet

Contact: Check Current Info page, or individual staff e-mail addresses in the KPAN Krew section, or mail to kpan@kpanradio.com.

KPAN AM-FM 218 East Fifth Street Hereford, Texas 806.364.1860 fax 806.364.5814