The Ville Platte Rotary Club today (Tuesday) heard from KVPI General Manager Mark Layne speak about new developments going on at KVPI and a brief history of the two Ville Platte radio stations.

    Layne said construction is complete on the new power upgrade. KVPI FM 92.5 has increased its signal strength from 8,000 watts to 25,000 watts to reach a wider audience of listeners in South Central Louisiana.

   He also shared the early history of KVPI. KVPI AM 1050 signed on in 1953 as a day timer. The station has to sign off at local sundown. The need for night time service for sports and emergency announcements showed the need for an FM station. KVPI FM signed on in 1966.

   The station has received numerous honors from Louisiana broadcasters for its community service for the past seven years in a row.

   In other business, the rotary club:

--agreed to make a donation from the club to help the victims of the hurricane in the Houston area;

--received news from Ville Platte Mayor Jennifer Vidrine that so far the drainage is working good in Ville Platte and there have been no street flooding;

--heard from Supt. of Schools Darwan Lazard that none of the school building have suffered any flood damage from the recent rains.

--heard from Jessie Muse that the Tee Cotton Bowl is going forward with many planned activities weather permitting including the players banquet Thursday, the TV 10 Passe Partout broadcast early Friday morning and Meet and Greet Friday morning at Dr. Chuck Aswell home. There will be 12 cooking teams cooking for the Tail gating Friday afternoon.