Was The Fire That Took Ad Astra Stations Off The Air Arson?

Fire Destroyed Studios

A major fire in downtown HUTCHINSON, KS, a week-and-a-half ago (NET NEWS 9/2) gutted the studios and offices of AD ASTRA BROADCASTING -- destroying the building and its entire contents, all four of its stations -- Classic Rock KNZS, as well as KSKU, KXKU and KWHK.

BRIAN DOUGLAS SPIEKER posted an updated to his FACEBOOK page, writing "We are hoping to get back on the air as soon as possible. Our STL's and satellite dishes on the WILEY BUILDING were not damaged. We are setting up temporary studios in the WILEY BUILDING and we are hoping we can salvage our commercials off of one the STORQ's mirrored hard drives. We have lost everything at our studios. OCTOBER 1st would have been our 25th anniversary of signing on. I want to personally say a big THANK YOU to all of the broadcasters who have volunteered to help us. A big suggestion to all broadcasters is to back up your commercials off site. We have lost all of our audio files, scripts, and lap tops storing our commercials. It has been a very tough time for all of our employees. They have all lost personal belongings and our business home. We have adequate insurance to guarantee our survival, but it is incredible the work we have to do to rebuild.

"The cause of the fire may be electrical; it may be arson. As of now, a final determination has not been made.

"I know there are people who hate my guts and hate some of my employees! There are people who have posted terrible and sick things about us. The police and fire arson investigators have questioned us about threats and wackos. We have passed the information on to them about some of things posted on GWCR by the wackos on this message board for further investigation. Please respond to my post, it will make their jobs a lot easier.

"It is late, I am tired, I have been working 18-20 hours a day since the fire trying to rebuild A.S.A.P. and I know I should not post this information, but I am tired and cranky.

"We will be back, bigger, better, and stronger than ever! The rebuilding has begun! AD ASTRA per Aspera!"

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