Across Wyoming, commercial radio station managers are challenged to find the right mix between cost-saving satellite and automated programing and live local programming.

The challenge: finding the sweet spot between economic reality and audience demand for genuine local content.

In Powell, Alyssa Short, who runs four Heart Mountain Broadcasting stations alongside her mother and father April and Sam Rodriguez, exemplifies this balancing act.

Their stations — KPOW, KBEN, KHMN, and KROW — still rely on automation to pipe in syndicated shows like Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, but Short said the company has made deliberate choices about where to invest in the human touch.

"We could pay into automation and have the same top 40 basically as what Sirius XM has. We could buy into that and listen

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