Category: News and Events

Wisconsin Community Media, in conjunction with the Alliance for Community Media’s Midwest Region, has announced their annual award winners for the 2023 Best of the Midwest Media Fest. The Sun Prairie Media Center is happy to announce that no fewer than 20 original shows created for either KSUN, KIDS-4, or 103.5 FM The Sun Community Radio are set to receive awards at the fest, which will be held in Madison on Thursday, May 4. The total represents 13 percent of all awards to be given out at the event. Included in the 20 awards are three “Best in Show” winners: SPMC’s coverage of Sun Prairie West vs. Sun Prairie East football, the Mark Gonwa-produced radio program “Bluesology,” and “Voyageur Canoe Excursion,” a documentary filmed by Tim Hatfield at the Historic…

As the Cardinals and Wolves baseball and softball programs embark on their first historic season as two schools each fielding two teams, the Sun Prairie Media Center is pleased to announce that it is planning on live radio coverage of 32 games The games will be broadcast live on 103.5 FM The Sun Community Radio, with coverage split evenly with eight broadcasts per team. A full list of scheduled broadcasts can be found at sunprairiemediacenter.com/playball. The Sun Prairie Media Center is currently looking for sponsors for this coverage. If you are interested in supporting the live coverage of baseball and softball games, please contact Jeff Robbins at jrobbins@cityofsunprairie.com for more information. A big thanks goes out to all the volunteer announcers who have agreed to call the games on 103.5…

Sun Prairie residents will have some important decisions to make when they head to the polls on April 4. And the Sun Prairie Media Center is offering programming to help residents make those decisions. The SPMC has already recorded two in-depth programs related to this spring’s elections: On February 24, the two candidates for municipal judge, incumbent Tom Hebl and challenger Brent Eisberner, engaged in a “Talk of the Town” format that covered a variety of topics from caseloads to common offenses to penalties. Then on February 28, SPMC director Jeff Robbins moderated a SPARC-hosted event that included all candidates from municipal judge to SPASD school board to the mayor and city council candidates. (Anyone running unopposed gave short statements and did not engage in any formal debate.) Then on…

The historic first year of having both Sun Prairie East and Sun Prairie West athletics continues and the Sun Prairie Media Center is thrilled to announce that it will be broadcasting the WIAA playoff basketball games for both schools. The Sun Prairie Media Center is your exclusive home for video and audio coverage of all WIAA playoff basketball games, boys and girls, Cardinals and Wolves. Video coverage will be on KSUN with audio coverage on 103.5 FM The Sun Community Radio. The girls’ playoff bracket gets underway first as Sun Prairie plays . . . Sun Prairie! Yes, in an unexpected seeding oddity, the #13 Sun Prairie East Cardinal girls will visit the #4 Sun Prairie West Wolves girls on Friday, February 24 at 7 PM. The winner of that…

Another Groundhog Day in Sun Prairie has come and gone. Thanks to the loyal volunteers at KIDS-4, we will have memories from this event. KIDS-4 crewmembers Evie & Avery got up bright and early to brave the cold weather on February 2 and headed down to Cannery Square to see what Jimmy had in mind for the upcoming weeks. This year is the 75th anniversary of the Groundhog Prognostication in Sun Prairie.In case you missed it, Jimmy communicated with Mayor Esser that we will have six more weeks of winter this year! If you still want more, you can see pictures from the event here. The video footage that was captured will air on KIDS-4 throughout the month of February.

A new year brings reasons to reflect as well as reasons to look ahead, and that is what Sun Prairie Mayor Paul Esser does in his annual “State of the City” address. The first of the 2023 “State of the City” presentations is now available to access through the Sun Prairie Media Center’s on-demand player at sunprairiemediacenter.com/ksun. Hosted by “Talk of the Town”’s Chris Mertes and Steve Sabatke, the two-hour program’s theme is “Sun Prairie on the Horizon” and goes in depth on major impacts that upcoming projects, plans, and initiatives will have on the community. Topics touched on include diversity, transportation, housing, the mayor’s uncontested re-election campaign, taxes, growth, and, of course, sidewalks. “Talk of the Town,” as well as all SPMC programing, can also be accessed on demand…

Are you interested in Sun Prairie local government? Would you like to be paid to watch city meetings? Then the Sun Prairie Media Center has an opportunity for you! The Sun Prairie Media Center offers live televised coverage of multiple city meetings ranging from Common Council to Parks and Recreation to Sustainability. Most all meetings are televised from the city hall’s Council Chambers using on-site microphones and robotic cameras. No lugging equipment around – you just need to show up! The position also entails launching the “hybrid” portion of the meeting for anyone participating in the meeting remotely. If you can navigate to a website, you can do this. All training will be provided. Almost all meetings take place in the late afternoon and early evenings. This is a perfect…

The historic first year of having both Sun Prairie East and Sun Prairie West athletics continues and the Sun Prairie Media Center is thrilled to announce its broadcast schedule of upcoming boys and girls basketball games for both schools. The Cardinals girls’ team is coming off a 2021-2022 season during which they won a share of the Big Eight conference title before falling to Arrowhead in the sectional semifinals. Meanwhile, the boys’ Cardinals team is under the tutelage of first-year head coach Steve Maselter, who is taking over from Jeff Boos, who coached the boys hoops team for 27 years including last year’s run to the the sectional finals. Of course a great deal is changing for the 2022-2023 team due to the split into two varsity teams. For example,…

KSUN and 103.5 FM The Sun Community Radio will be joining over 70 stations across Wisconsin in airing a U.S. Senate debate between Senator Ron Johnson and Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes as well as a gubernatorial debate between Governor Tony Evers and challenger Tim Michels. The debates will be sponsored by the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Foundation, which has a more than 32-year history of hosting debates. The debates will be moderated by Jill Geisler, longtime Wisconsin news professional, WBA Hall of Fame member, and author. “The WBA Foundation is honored to provide these important debates to Wisconsin’s voters as part our 32-year history of using our debates to promote the civic and political process.” said WBA President Michelle Vetterkind. “Airing these debates helps us to fulfill our mission of providing…

Think you know your stuff? Now’s the time to prove it. The Friends of the Sun Prairie Media Center are hosting the second annual Trivia-Palooza trivia contest! What is Trivia-Palooza? It is a live, on-air, ten-hour trivia contest happening live on 103.5 FM The Sun Community Radio from 9 AM-7 PM on Saturday, October 29. Besides 103.5 FM, interested participants can also play along on the Media Center app, on tunein.com, or at sunprairiemediacenter.com. Registration to play Trivia-Palooza is now open! You can sign up to play for free at sunprairiemediacenter.com/trivia. You must be registered to play and you must be 21 to register. But you will want to play. Each hour of the contest will have a theme to its questions, a different special guest, and each hour will have special…