Tommy Thompson ’73’s Facebook page states that he’s “A guy who lives in eternal terror of becoming bored and has too many hobbies as a result.” One of those too many hobbies is building, well, buildings.
“My father worked in construction as a high schooler,” Thompson says. “He was an enthusiastic do-it-yourselfer, and his skills rubbed off on my brother [Rick ’83] and me.” Those skills came in handy in 2020 during the pandemic.
KUPR-LP is a low-power (100-watt) FM, nonprofit radio station broadcasting and streaming (at kupr.org) a variety of music and cultural programming to three towns and two Indian pueblos around Placitas, N.M., near Thompson’s home. It had operated from a 12-by-12-foot room since its founding in 2015.
In late 2019, a local family donated a retired Los Alamos National Laboratories test site office trailer to the station. It sagged at both…