Northwest dedicates radio studio to longtime program director
Sharon Cross Bonnett
MARYVILLE, Mo. — Listeners tuning in to KXCV-KRNW, Northwest Missouri State University’s award-winning National Public Radio affiliate, will now hear the station identify its headquarters as the Sharon Cross Bonnett Studio.
John Coffey, KXCV-KRNW’s director and station manager, made the announcement on May 9 as the Northwest community celebrated the renaming of the broadcast studio on the second floor of Wells Hall with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The studio’s new name honors Cross Bonnett, a 1965 Northwest graduate who served as a producer, program director and general manager of KXCV during a span of 34 years until her retirement in 2006. She died in 2023.
“Throughout her long career at KXCV, including as program director and station manager, Sharon didn’t just run a radio station,” Coffey said. “She built a culture of excellence, mentorship and compassion. She poured her heart into this place and, more importantly, into the students who came through it. Her legacy is not only in the awards or the broadcasts that we have on the air but also in the people she helped mold, and they now carry on her influence throughout the world.”
The studio’s renaming coincides with the establishment of an endowment by members of Cross Bonnett’s family to support KXCV-KRNW programming, technology upgrades and facility maintenance.
Tim Shipley said he and his wife, Nan, wanted to honor his mother in a meaningful way and created the fund to assist with the continued development of broadcasting students at Northwest. Additionally, the Shipleys are matching funds raised during KXCV-KRNW’s spring fund drive, May 10-16.
“It was important to us that the initiative would be impactful, sustainable and that it would create opportunities for future students in perpetuity,” Shipley said. “KXCV and KRNW were always a top priority in her life. The on-air programming, the professional development of students and delivering what listeners wanted to hear were forever her missions. Those missions, among many others, remain noble and necessary.”
Speaking on behalf of KXCV alumni, Mike Madrigal — a 1991 Northwest graduate who went on to a successful career in broadcasting and media, including the last 25 years in the Los Angeles area — recalled Cross Bonnett’s patience and poise in allowing students to experiment and grow into their future broadcast careers.
“It’s a testament to who she is, when you think of the number of people who’ve been in this building and that nobody measures up to that woman,” Madrigal said.
Cross Bonnett’s achievements during her tenure with the radio station included the expansion of its coverage area by launching KRNW, a repeater station in Chillicothe. She also provided audio reader services for the visually impaired and launched the Bearcat Radio Network. In addition, she extended KXCV’s broadcast schedule to 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year.
She was the recipient of several Missouri Broadcast Association awards as well as two national Corporation for Public Broadcasting awards. In 2021, she was the recipient of the Northwest Alumni Association’s Public Service Award.
Coffey additionally used the occasion to make a plea for the importance of public media, the institution Cross Bonnett dedicated herself to. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order and called on Congress to defund NPR and PBS, which are funded in part through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
“The very foundation that supports stations like KXCV and helps students like those that Sharon mentored is in jeopardy,” Coffey said during the ceremony.
He compared it to attempts by some in Congress in 1994 to zero out funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which Coffey said Cross Bonnett actively and vociferously worked to oppose.
“We’re at that juncture again this year,” he said. Coffey directed those who “care about public media” to visit protectmypublicmedia.org to learn how to contact legislators and express support for continued funding.
GEOFFREY WOEHLK/THE FORUM
One of Cross Bonnett’s former students, Mike Madrigal, a 1991 Northwest graduate who went on to a successful career in broadcasting and media, spoke during the May 9 ceremony dedicating the KXCV-KRNW studio in Cross Bonnett’s name. “It’s a testament to who she is, when you think of the number of people who’ve been in this building and that nobody measures up to that woman,” Madrigal said.
GEOFFREY WOEHLK/THE FORUM
The studio at KXCV-KRNW will now bear the name of Sharon Cross Bonnett, a 1965 Northwest graduate who served as a producer, program director and general manager of KXCV during a span of 34 years until her retirement in 2006. She died in 2023.
GEOFFREY WOEHLK/THE FORUM
5-15 NW radio rib cut 4.JPG
GEOFFREY WOEHLK/THE FORUM
Sharon Cross Bonnett’s family cut a ribbon on May 9 commemorating the renaming of KXCV’s studio in Wells Hall to the Sharon Cross Bonnett Studio. From left to right are Cross Bonnett’s son, Tim Shipley, with his wife, Nan; son, Renner; and daughter, Evve; with Cross Bonnett’s son, Aaron, and KXCV-KRNW Director and Station Manager John Coffey.
