Pictured: On the Air with K-Lake 97.7 FM, 6 February 2026: NTCC Honors Students Ian Mares, Hailey Randall, José Fuentes, Emma Mendoza, Radio Host—Collins Knighton, and Madeline Simmons.
By: Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director
From 2013 to 2026, Collins Knighton, the popular Radio Morning Host of K-Lake 97.7 FM Radio, has featured NTCC honors students in an annual show. In most cases, this feature has highlighted the poetry winners, and films of Honors Northeast, and the NTCC Webb Society. Most recently, on the morning of 6 February, NTCC honors students talked about their upcoming film, Chicano Thermidor, which will be premiered at the Whatley Center for the Performing Arts, Friday, 20 February at 7 p.m. The performance is free and open to the public.
K-Lake sends a very good signal thirty miles in every direction, and thus covers the tri-county base of Northeast Texas Community College as well as most of its service area. According to Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director at NTCC who has been on each of these broadcasts, “it is inevitable after every broadcast for someone to tell me personally that they heard the show with our students. It has
always been a ‘bask in the sun’ moment for some of our more above-and-beyond undertakings in honors and for our students. I have been amazed at how quick Mr. Knighton is to pick up on puns, and jokes that may arise from simple ironies—the discrepancies of what we are wearing, student descriptions of achievement, and our attempts to envision our region in an artistic sense. Often, he plays the part of down-home sceptic, inspiriting our students to defend their efforts with public culture. The entertaining character of the discourse is compounded by the lively interest Mr. Knighton has taken in all our honors students, and the way he has encouraged them to excel in their chosen fields and endeavors.”
Alas, the era is ending. Knighton, who is from Georgia, and whose favorite vacation spot is St. Simmons Island in Georgia, will be returning to his native state. In radio since 1978, he has had many diverse experiences, including covering the Masters Golf Tournament, and Atlanta Braves baseball.
