89.5 KTSY Manager's Memo

I never dreamed it would ever happen.  There is now only one thing left on my to-do list at KTSY and I’m about to check it off. I need to write and record my last Manager’s Memo.

My office is packed and ready for shipping. Bank accounts, passwords, lunches, email account, going away gatherings, friends and colleagues called, lists and lists of information that has been living in my head, all checked off. Only one thing remains; to say thank you to you.

Unfortunately, the past few weeks have been about me and I’m always uncomfortable with that, because I’ve never believed it. It’s always about what God is doing through us, together. So to my outstanding staff, my operating board, my friends, my family and to the thousands and thousands of you who make up the KTSY Family, thank you for the past twenty years. What an amazing opportunity and adventure you’ve given me. I will cherish these days in Idaho always. I pray God will continue to bless you and keep you in His arms.

And if we don’t meet again, know that I’ll be looking for you in heaven when we finally hold the biggest KTSY Family reunion ever. Look for the signs.

For KTSY, I’m the deeply grateful Mike Agee.

Solomon obviously understood the bittersweet when he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. “There is an appointed time for everything. There is a time for every event under heaven.” Then he explains there is nothing better “than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime.”

April 1st, which always seemed appropriate to me by the way, I will celebrate the 20th anniversary of my arrival in Idaho and the beginning of my work for the KTSY Family. Twenty years of ups and downs, weeping and laughing, mourning and dancing, searching and losing, living our lives together on the great adventure that is KTSY.

But as Solomon reminds us, season’s come and go. Those of you old enough to have experienced it can already sense the bittersweet.

The 20th anniversary will be my last at KTSY.

Those are hard words for me to write. But Wanda and I feel God has new things for me to do. One of my lifelong dreams is to be a teacher. The Texas college I graduated from has invited me to manage their radio station and teach in the Communication Department; to be a professor and share my experience with the next generation of communicators; to do both of the things I love at the same time. And I have accepted.

But it is bittersweet. We love Idaho. We love KTSY. But we believe God has KTSY’s future in mind, as well. The adventure will continue. Thank you for allowing me to come this far with you.

Spring is coming.

I peered into my wife’s flowerbed this morning and under the dead leaves and this new dusting of snow, I saw spring stirring. Little buds of daffodils and tulips are beginning to peek from the soil.

It seems like there might be signs of new life amongst the debris of our economy, as well. New businesses opening, new homes under construction again in the subdivisions near my home and some good news occasionally in the paper and on TV news. But I believe another spring is on its way as well. One I long for with all my heart.

John says in Revelation 21 that he “saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away.” And he “saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.” Then he heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and he shall dwell among them and they shall be His people and God Himself shall be among them.”

Take heart. Spring is coming again. Soon, very soon, I pray.

“Look what I’ve got! It’s a Super bowl ring!”

I looked up from the checkout line at the Nampa Costco to see one of the checkers showing off a monstrous gold and diamond ring that to a football fan is unmistakable. I heard her ask the way more than six-foot receiver looking gentleman standing at the next counter what year and he said “1985.” That would make him a Chicago Bear and a member of a championship team that included Walter Peyton, Mike Singletary, Richard Dent, Jim McMahon and William “Refrigerator” Perry.

The night before, I watched the BSU Broncos win their second Fiesta Bowl Championship, making the Treasure Valley and Bronco Nation very proud and attaining one of their primary team goals, winning a BCS Bowl game.

Two teams, who worked and sweated and contended for a shared goal and achieved the prize. I tell you this to ask a few questions on my mind recently. What are my goals? What prize am I contending to attain? And what am I willing to do, to give up, to strive with a group of like-minded people to achieve? They feel like good questions to be asking early in January.  I’m just wondering what prize you’re striving for.

For KTSY, I’m General Manager Mike Agee.

2010. We’re beginning a new year and a new decade. That’s hard to believe, since a week or so ago we were worried about the Y2K bug and the end of the world when all of the computers in the world ground to a halt. Seems humorous now, knowing there is more processing power in the cell phone in my pocket than those computers contained.

The children of Israel were embattled by Babylon and were in the depths of despair from the trouble that surrounded them, much of it of their own making. And then Jeremiah spoke for the Lord. “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not calamity, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all of your heart.”

I’m thinking that’s a great way to start a new year and decade after a difficult season. To understand He has a plan for me and has my future in His hands. My only concern is to call upon Him in prayer and seek Him with all of my heart. The One who loved me so much He sent His only Son so that I might have life everlasting.

For KTSY, I’m seeking Him with all of heart and still General Manager Mike Agee.

My shopping is mostly complete. The decorations have been up for weeks. Most of the parties have been attended. The boys will be home from college soon and I will be taking a few days off. The Christmas holiday bustle is in full swing in the Agee home.

In the midst of it, though, I’m trying to find some quiet moments to reflect and renew. This holiday, among all the others for me, is the most precious. It’s filled with childhood memories of my mom, aunts and uncles trying to fill the empty spaces my father left. It’s memories of my first Christmases with my bride and best friend Wanda as we began our life together. It’s filled with the squeals and frenzy only your children can bring to Christmas morning, even too cool college boys.

But this Christmas, as a grown-up with a few scars and grey hairs, I’m beginning to understand, I hope, the concept of Immanuel, God with us. We have a God, who loves us so very much, who became one of us, to serve us, to take our punishment and provide a path back to eternity for us. Christmas is a celebration of His arrival and the beginning of that sacrifice.

Immanuel, God with us. I can hardly fathom the depth of a gift like that.

From all of us at KTSY, we pray you enjoy a very merry, blessed Christmas season and a happy New Year.

It is, of course, the season of thankfulness. And I have many things to be thankful for. I have a wonderful and saintly wife, two sons who are growing into fine young men. I’m challenged and fulfilled by my work, with a terrific staff dedicated to our ministry to the KTSY Family. But most of all, I think, I’m thankful for home.

Thornton Wilder, an American playwright best known for his work Our Town, once said “It’s when you’re safe at home that you wish you were having an adventure. When you’re having an adventure you wish you were safe at home.” Pulitzer Prize winning journalist John Ed Pearce said, “Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave and grow old wanting to get back to.”

I think they’re right. My sons, who are chafing for their own adventures to begin, surely do as well. But at least, for this week, our two worlds will intersect, where we’ll enjoy some rest, some fellowship and too much food.

I pray you and yours are at rest, as well. From all of us here to the rest of the KTSY Family, we wish you a very happy Thanksgiving.

I met an angel this morning and she was holding a needle. I was so distracted and tired I didn’t even think to ask her name.

I was in to have blood drawn for a check-up with the doc next week and she recognized me. She leaned in to whisper she couldn’t make it through the day without KTSY and she was so thankful we were there for her. I said thanks and commented that I had been needing the station recently myself.

“Really, how so?” I told her the pressure had been building recently, everything seemed to be closing in and I was feeling just a little overwhelmed. She smiled and said she hadn’t really thought about us needing the encouragement and inspiration KTSY brings, as well. Then she said the magic words, “I’ll be praying for you, Mike.”

In the next few weeks we’ll hang an antenna for a second FM station in the Treasure Valley using money we can’t really spare, host a listener appreciation concert and donor gala, hold the KTFY Sharathon in the Magic Valley, begin our twentieth year of broadcasting, all just six weeks away from the KTSY Sharathon and everything that entails.

Will you join my needle-wielding angel and pray for us? It would be so very much appreciated.

It has just been a great summer for notes from listeners. This email one from the “you never know” category.

I just wanted to introduce myself and send a message of thanksgiving and encouragement. My name is Matt and I am a catcher on the Boise Hawks. I graduated from Duke this spring and was drafted by the Cubs in this spring’s MLB draft. I came to Christ in the spring of my junior year at Duke and since then I have developed a love for praise and worship music. As soon as I got to Boise, I searched the radio for a Christian station and landed on 89.5 KTSY. KTSY has truly been an encouragement to me all summer every time I am in the car.

I was also very excited to hear that KTSY was promoting a Hawks’ game. KTSY was playing in place of the normal hit radio station during the pregame and I was fortunate enough to play yesterday and I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed listening to KTSY while I warmed up for the game.

In short, I just wanted to let you know that KTSY has been an encouragement to me all summer and I wanted to thank you for the ministry that KTSY provides. Also thank you for sponsoring a Hawks’ game. It was awesome to hear the gospel through music on the baseball field.

For KTSY, I’m shaking my head in wonder and still General Manager Mike Agee.

The KTSY Family mailbag has been great the past couple of weeks, like this one.

I don’t know if you recall any of my story, but when I won the Weekend to Remember prize….my husband  and I were separated.  We did not attend the conference. Later, KTSY gave us tickets to the “Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage”, which we were able to attend.  It was an awesome event and I am grateful. Our problems all came to light, July 2008.  Now it is August 2009…and he has been living back at home since June.  It has been up and down, but I do know that this marriage is going to survive all the tribulations.  God has worked miracles in our lives.  As a couple, we have a lot of healing to do…. but I know it will come in time. I just wanted to take a moment and share our “success” with you.  I thank you for all the prayers that KTSY offered up to our Heavenly Father.  It is awesome to be a part of the KTSY Family.

Yes it is.