THE 2020 GRC VIRUTAL SUMMITT SPEAKERS INCLUDE:
Paul Bame, Engineering Director
Prometheus Radio Project
Paul got hooked on Grassroots Radio by listening to Boulder's KGNU in the mid 90's. That also led him into activism for global economic dignity in the "Seattle-era" street movement. Along the way he also stood against police brutality, for an end of racism toward Native Americans and others, an end of media bias including that at NPR, of discrimination and dehumanization aimed at women, LGBT, and undocumented immigrants. When he co-founded Grassroots Radio station KRFC between 1997 and 2003, he also co-founded its news collective.
After chatting with Prometheus at Grassroots Radio Coalition conferences for a decade or so and leaving his Fortune 100 R&D job, Paul volunteered at Prometheus in 2010 and is currently our nerdiest engineer. His electrical engineering degree and ham radio experience comes in handy for FCC application engineering, station design, construction and troubleshooting. Paul also created and maintains the free-to-use RFree software to make application engineering easier. Paul sometimes gets pulled into into technical FCC policy analysis and commentary, where his activist experience helps in deciphering federal legalese and his interest in data analysis and presentation has provided supporting arguments.
Jordan Baseman, Artist
Radio Influenza
Jordan Baseman is a visual artist and filmmaker. He received a BFA from Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and an MA from Goldsmith's College, University of London. Baseman is currently the Reader in Time Based Media, Senior Tutor and Pathway Leader in Moving Image at the Royal College of Art, London.
Baseman has a long history of creating projects in collaboration with UK-based and international, not-for-profit and public institutions. The artworks are installations, audio works, and single-screen films. Jordan Baseman’s films are frequently featured in international exhibitions and film festivals. Jordan Baseman is represented by Matt’s Gallery London.
Eric Blocker, Operations Manager
KHOI Ames
Eric's radio journey began in 1987 on the commercial side of the business where he became a "jack of all trades". It seemed like there was nothing he couldn't do. He took a break from radio in 2005 to obtain his degree in Computer Network Technology and was employed by the Federal Government. Always keeping his ear out on what was happening in radio, decided to return in 2019 and became the Operations Manager at KHOI.
Buddy Crime, Virtual Entertainer
Buddy Crime is a unique force in a Universe perhaps not fully equipped to deal with it. The presumed self aware entity of a multi-media program, Buddy produces a jaw dropping extravaganza every time he fires up. A swirling Gorgon's Head of sights and sounds and pure energy, Buddy is invigorating to watch. One can't help but get involved with the show when it's in front of your eyes, and the viewer gets a workout just watching Buddy go!
Rashida Burch-Washington, Station Manager & Program Director
WXIR Rochester
Rashida Burch-Washington is a musician, producer, educator, and director originally from St. Croix, USVI. Rashida studied vocal performance and music business at Berklee College of Music, but while studying, she lost her desire to work within the greed fueled industry and instead wanted to focus on providing platforms for budding artists and helping underrepresented communities.
Rashida began working in advocacy in 2011 helping to combat violence, and drugs, as well as helping low income households secure grant funding for home improvements. Rashida began working for Rochester Community TV (RCTV) in 2013. She has a passion for teaching youth how to use their voice in media responsibly and understand the power of media. She teaches film and radio camps, radio drama in schools, and directs a group of teenage media producers that have a bi-weekly simulcasted TV/Radio/Web show. Rashida is co-founder of WXIR 100.9 LPFM under RCTV and currently serves as the station’s Program Director. The station launched May of 2016 and is a beacon of alternative urban sound in Rochester, NY. The station currently has over 75 on air personalities providing unique content including financial advice, legal information, wellness, literacy, and plays music from local/ independent artists, underground and alternative artists.
Shaylain Chamberland, Reporter
Concret Reporting, Seattle
Livestreamer providing unedited, unfiltered, boots-on-the-ground coverage of history in the making.
Chuck D of Public Enemy
And You Don't Stop Radio
Pacifica Network
Chuck D rose to fame in the mid-80s as founder and member of the socially conscious hip-hop group, Public Enemy. As a longtime supporter of community radio and the host of the weekly radio show, “And You Don’t Stop!,” Chuck D has not only been a tremendous voice in the fight against racism, he also uses his platform to speak out about fascism, politics, technology, and the media. In the battlefield known as 2020, we are proud to have this prolific revolutionary as a 2020 Grassroots Radio Conference keynote.
Dr. MarkAlain Déry, Physician of Infectious Diseases and Epidemiologist
WHIV New Orleans, Founder
Dr. MarkAlain Déry is an infectious disease physician and epidemiologist with Access Health Louisiana where he serves as the Medical Director of infectious diseases and Chief Innovation Officer. Access Health Louisiana is the largest Medicaid-providing clinic system in Louisiana.
Dr. Déry has over 23 years of experience and has been on the forefront of the coronavirus pandemic since the very beginning offering his expertise and recommendations positively affecting the most medically needy in Louisiana. Dr. Déry has also been a medical responder to global catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina, the 2010 Haiti earthquake and worked as a clinical field epidemiologist for the World Health Organization during the 2014-15 Ebola virus epidemic in Sierra Leone. Dr. Déry is also the founder of 102.3FM WHIV-LP, a radio station dedicated human rights and social justice.
Davyne Dial, General Manager
WPVM Ashville
Political activist and videographer since 2008. General Manager of station WPVM 103.7 in Asheville, NC 2015 to present.
Dr. Christine Ehrick, Professor of History
University of Louisville
Christine Ehrick is a Professor of History at the University of Louisville, where she teaches classes in Latin American History and the History of Mass Media. Her most recent book is a study of women and golden age radio in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay. Her current project is a study of radio and military rule in Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile. She is also the Transnational Director of the Radio Preservation Task Force, affiliated with the Library of Congress.
Jim Ellinger, Agent
Austin Airwaves
Austin Airwaves' Jim Ellinger has traveled to more than 60 countries including Borneo, Tunisia, Ghana, Panama and Mozambique installing community and public safety stations. Following Hurricane Katrina, his non-profit organization received a emergency permit from the FCC to establish a public safety station for families sheltering in the AstroDome. AA traveled to Haiti following the devastating earthquake to put "Radio Voice of the Peasants" RZPF-FM. Jim traveled to Cameroon where he worked to establish solar powered Radio Taboo, the first station to serve the remote village of N'ditam. In 2017, AA beat out a dozen Christian stations to put KTIM-FM a community radio station on the air, licensed to ELLINGER, Texas. More recently he helped license and establish Wimberley Valley Radio, a beautiful little Texas town, that suffered a deadly flood. He also worked for eleven long years to establish Austin's KOOP-FM, but that's a sad story.
According to ARTxFM Station Management, "The adventures of Jim "Radio" Ellinger never cease to amaze. He is a legend in his own day and he has built a lasting legacy of radio-activated communities around the world. Because he embraces the power of radio and brings and places it in the hands of people worldwide, ARTxFM was proud to honor Mr. Jim Ellinger with the 2017 Radio Pioneer Award".
Ken Freedman, General Manager & Program Director
WFMU Jersey City
Ken Freedman is the Station Manager of WFMU (wfmu.org), the longest running and most renowned freeform radio station in the United States. Under his guidance, WFMU became independent of Upsala College, WFMU's original owner. Freedman also developed WFMU's internet presence, making it one of the most popular and forward looking internet radio stations in the U.S. WFMU was the first radio station to offer full on-demand listening, podcasts and a working iPhone stream. He recently founded Congera PBC which is developing the Audience Engine, an open source platform for small and medium sized broadcasters and journalists. He previousy founded the Free Music Archive (freemusicarchive.org), an online music library and social site based on curated music licensed under alternative copyrights such as creative commons licenses. He pioneered the use of copyrights and waivers to address restrictions placed on broadcasters by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. Freedman has served on the board of public science and technology company New Brunswick Scientific Company and was a board member and technology advisor to the National Federation of Community (NFCB) broadcasters. He has spoken and presented at conferences sponsored by The Future of Music Coalition, O'Reilly Media. National Public Radio, the Integrated Media Association, and the National Federation of Community Broadcasters.
Jaison A. Gardner, Producer & Co-Host
WFPL Louisville
A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Jaison A. Gardner has been a social justice activist, health educator, and community organizer for more than 20 years. Since 2012, he is the producer, co-creator and co-host, with Dr. Kaila Story, of Louisville Public Media’s Strange Fruit: Musings on Politics, Pop Culture & Black Gay Life, an award-winning weekly podcast focusing on social justice and pop culture. Strange Fruit has been featured on popular news outlets including Salon, Bustle, Louisville Magazine, After Ellen, The Guardian, and Pride.com. Awards for the podcast include the Pride Index Esteem Award for Outstanding Podcast (2015), the Bluegrass Black Pride Trailblazer Award (2017), Indy Pop Con Best LGBTQ Podcast (2018, 2019), and LEO Weekly Readers’ Choice Awards Best Podcasts (2018, 2019). Jaison is a frequent keynote speaker, presenter, moderator, diversity trainer, and event emcee whose work focuses on a variety of issues, especially the intersection of racial justice and LGBTQ liberation. He firmly believes that a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Rachel Goodman, Board Chair
Natural Bridges Media / KSQD Santa Cruz
Rachel Anne Goodman is a founder of KSQD community radio in Santa Cruz,California, which went on the air in 2019. The station blends news, public affairs and music of relevance to the local audience. She has worked as a writer and radio producer for much of her career, earning a Peabody award for her work as managing editor for The DNA Files radio series. She writes and broadcasts about environmental, social justice and sustainable agriculture topics. Her most recent radio documentary was the four-part series, Pastures of Plenty: A History of California’s Farmworkers which aired in the U.S. and Canada. She has hosted live radio interview shows in Virginia, Kentucky and California. As host for KUSP in the 90s, she interviewed thought leaders on the news of the day. She is currently host of Talk of the Bay and The Coast Ridge Ramble on KSQD in Santa Cruz, California. Ms. Goodman teaches journalism at Cabrillo College and at UC Santa Cruz. She holds a BA in Environmental Studies from UC Santa Cruz. Ms. Goodman served for three years as district director/press secretary for then assemblymember, now senator Bill Monning (D-Carmel) where she took the policy lead on agriculture and environmental issues. She has also served as executive drector of The Tannery Arts Center, an 8.3-acre arts facility in Santa Cruz, California. She currently lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains with her husband, Steve Coulter.
Mark Harris, IT Specialist
KHOI Ames
Mark Harris works as a volunteer IT specialist at Community radio station KHOI in Ames, Iowa and as the IT manager at the Ames Public Library.
Elijah Humble
WXOX Louisville
A relative rookie amateur to the radio game, Elijah Humble has been involved as a DJ on ART FM for almost three years, as host of his program Humble Offerings. A Kentucky native, he graduated from the University of Kentucky with a BA in Journalism and spent time writing about music for the Kentucky Kernel. After living in Chicago for about 15 years (soaking up the finest music that city had to offer) he and family moved back to Kentucky, where he discovered and fell in love with ART FM. He is also on the board at Squallis Puppeteers and has volunteered and the Bloom Elementary Rock Band and supports the Western Middle School for Performing Arts. He works at the University of Louisville College of Business and is also a part-time student studying history.
Dr. Katherine Rye Jewell, Associate Professor of History
Fitchburg State University
Katherine Rye Jewell, PhD, is a historian and author of Dollars for Dixie: Business and the Transformation of Conservatism in the Twentieth Century, published by Cambridge University Press (New York) in 2017. A graduate of Vanderbilt University (BA, 2001) and Boston University (MA, 2005; Ph.D., 2010), she studies political and cultural history with a focus on the intersection of culture and politics. She is currently Associate Professor of History at Fitchburg State University. She received the Fitchburg State University Faculty Research Award in 2018, and a year-long visiting fellowship from the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute.
Her research focuses on the influence of policy in the politics and culture of a wide range of Americans. Dollars for Dixie explores how southern business leaders responded to the New Deal by recrafting their image of the South to promote economic development and to prevent further regulatory intervention in southern business. These conservatives also seeded a broad-based conservative educational and outreach program, which would influence emerging conservative media. In her next project, she continues her focus on media by looking at the intersection of regulation, student and university politics, the music industry, and college radio. Tentatively titled Live from the Underground: College Radio and the Culture Wars, this book will explore through archival research how college radio benefited from and responded to rule and license changes at the FCC, broader cultural conversations about decency and artistic expression, and participated in and shaped evolutions in modern musical culture and the business of art in the post-1970s era. This book is under contract with University of North Carolina Press. She will expand this research in another book on student media and the campus movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
Jeff Jobson, Producer
WXOX Louisville / Art Sanctuary
Jeff Jobson is a native Louisvillian who has been an avid fan of music since his early cognizance. Having his formative years shaped by dueling Top 40 stations, school field trips to Robert Whitney's Louisville Orchestra, and the Golden Age of the television commercial, Mr. Jobson's love for sounds tonal and atonal has reached few boundaries. Jeff has spent nearly all of his adult life capturing the music around him, starting with an early and unrepentant passion for "crate digging" for records. He was fortunate to be on the scene of the very earliest Punk bands in Louisville, which started his desire to document as many performances as he could when he had access to equipment and time. After a career in the Audio/Video industry on the west coast, Jeff Jobson returned to his hometown in 2016. He was immediately astonished by the quantity and quality of musicianship in the area and set about audio recording live shows on a regular basis. He donated his collection of earlier documentation to the University of Louisville's LUMA (Louisville Underground Music Archive) project, which got him involved in cataloging and digitizing music from the past. His desire to share his eclectic interests led him to involvement with Art FM and Art Sanctuary. He has been reaching out to the community at large in the form of his WXOX radio program The Exploded View and Late for Dinner, Art Sanctuary's Live Streaming Showcase. When not working on documenting shows, cataloging archives, or organizing a radio or streaming episodes, Mr. Jobson can usually be found on the floor of thrift stores, basements, estate sales, and record shops inhaling dust and flipping through piles of discs with holes in the middle.
LaGanzie Kale, Founder & Genral Manager
KLEK Jonesboro
LaGanzie Kale, is the founder and General Manager of KLEK 102.5 F.M., the first and only minority-owned and operated radio station in Jonesboro, Arkansas. KLEK was made possible under Congressional passage in 2010 of the Local Community Radio Act, giving low-power stations a place on the FM dial. LaGanzie saw an opportunity and worked to build a station from the ground up. After obtaining the required permits from the Federal Communications Commission, raising funds and putting the necessary equipment, the 100-watt station launched on Jan. 1, 2015. The L-E-K in the station's call letters are in honor of his mother, Lovie Edmond Kale, who died from complications of breast cancer on March 20, 2012. In 2016 Kale was presented with an Arkansas Community Service Award by Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and also was recognized by Congressman Rick Crawford and U.S. Senators Tom Cotton and John Boozman. He was nominated for the award by Emma Agnew, Jonesboro's community services manager, who wrote this in her nomination: "He loves people, he loves entertaining, he loves music, and he loves being involved in the community. This radio station has given a direct connection to the greater community and to a lot of citizens who did not have it."
Since then, he has received the Governor's Volunteer Award, citation by the Arkansas Senate for Community Service, City of Jonesboro Volunteer of the Year, Arkansas State University "Excellence in Community Diversity Award", Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated National Brother of the Week, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated Arkansas District Alumni Brother of the Year, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated Epsilon Alpha Alpha Chapter Citizen of the Year, and Order of the Eastern Star Outstanding Community Service Award. During Black History Month in February 2020, Kale's Alma Mater, Arkansas State University bestowed upon him the distinction of being a "Living Legend" as recognition of an alumnus who has made significant contributions to the community.
Eric Klein, Co-Founder
Radio Survivor
Radio Survivor is a weekly, hour-long public affairs talk show covering the world of community and college radio. With our guests we explore the landscape of community media and history, as well as sound studies, and listening and broadcasting technology. Our show can be heard as a time shifted, mp3 downloaded from the web, or as a radio broadcast on a few dozen community radio stations around the U.S. (as well as in Canada and Ireland).
Eric Klein got his start in community radio at the start of the Iraq war, working with the Free Speech Radio News Tech Team in Berkeley, sending out the daily half hour world news broadcast on Satellite and the web from our corner of the copy machine nook inside the offices of KPFA. His time at KPFA was 2003-2012 where he also worked as a volunteer and a paid staff member. He reported news from the Berkeley City Council meetings, worked as a fill-in host for Letters and Politics and ran the board for Flashpoints. It was an exciting time to contribute to the media culture in the Bay Area.
Jon Langford, Musician
Mekons
(Musician/Artist) Welsh-born Jon Langford, the original drummer for the punk band the Mekons, stands as a leader in the movement to incorporate folk and country music into punk rock. Langford has released numerous recordings as a solo artist and with other bands, most notably the Waco Brothers, The Three Johns and The Pine Valley Cosmonauts. Since moving to Chicago, Langford has been active in the music scene nurturing label mates on Bloodshot Records, lending his services as a musician, producer or visual artist, or collaborating with like-minded artists (Dave Alvin, The Sadies, Steve Earle, Andre Williams, Neko Case). Langford is also a prolific and respected visual artist best known for his striking portraits of country music icons.
In 2015 Jon was the artist in residence at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville TN. Nashville Radio a book of Jon’s artwork and writings was published by Verse Chorus Press in 2006 and was followed in 2011 by Skull Orchard Revisited, a book and CD about his roots in South Wales. The Executioner’s Last Songs, a multimedia music/spoken word/video performance has been performed across the United States, Europe and Australia and two of his solo albums Gold Brick and All the Fame of Lofty Deeds were adapted for theatrical productions in 2009. Langford also illustrated the comic strip Great Pop Things under the pseudonym Chuck Death
KUVEBO!
KUVEBO! means "village style drum and dance party" in Hamidou Koivogui's home in Guinea, West Africa. Now residing in Louisville, KY, Hamidou brings his music and dance traditions to communities here, with experienced artist-educator collaborators and dedicated students. Kuvebo! often performs for festivals, concerts, and in public parks (where we also currently rehearse), and we released our first CD in 2019. Our performances feature songs in traditional languages, flutes, thumb pianos, slit drums, djembes and dundun drums, masked dance, and above all--an invitation to join the party!
We are honored to join the 2020 Grassroots Radio Conference Virtual Summit, and we thank WXOX/ArtxFM.com for the opportunity to share our passion with attendees and guests!
Kuvebo! Members: Hamidou Koivogui, Baba Kenyattaa, Sheri Carbone, Peter Jones, John Paul Wright, Yetunde Adeyinka, Jonathan Rogers, John Harris and Gregory Acker (coordinator). We can be found at: FB Kuvebo and Sound Community Louisville: www.soundcommlou.org
Lisa Loving, Author
Street Journalist: Understand and Report the News in Your Community
Lisa Loving is an award-winning journalist and media activist. She has trained hundreds of everyday people in the tools of independent journalism.
Jessica Linker, Senior National Publicist
Pitch Perfect PR
Chicago-based, Louisville-bred Jessica Linker founded Pitch Perfect PR in 2005 after handling national publicity at Thrill Jockey Records and affiliate marketing/partner relations for RollingStone.com. Pitch Perfect PR is a public relations company raising awareness of a diverse range of clients through creative press campaigns designed for print, online, broadcast, and visual media. We represent artists across a wide spectrum of ideas and styles, all of whom are committed to maintaining integrity and individuality in their work. Throughout the past ten years, we have built and continue to foster strong relationships with television bookers and producers, editors and writers for national, glossy publications, daily and weekly newspapers, online publications and NPR programs, and we have spearheaded successful campaigns for musicians, music festivals, films, books, television programs, comedians and beyond.
Otis Maclay, IT Person
Pacifica Foundation
A couple of school friends and I taped radio shows and traded them with each other. Mine were really good. I never listened to theirs. That attitude has always worked in my favor. At 19 I was the morning man in Santa Fe. My choice of bouncy music to wake up to pissed everybody off, especially the sponsor. But bouncy music was the right choice. They were wrong.
I was lucky to get a job at the other radio station there.
We did a comedy show at WBAI in the late sixties and early seventies. It was funny. Really. They were wrong.
My show at KPFT in Houston was the best thing on the air. It was funny. It was great. They were wrong.
And how he has writtten the Pacifica Internet Package now with 20 station subscribers.
Brian Manley, Producer
WXOX Louisville
I've been involved in community/college radio since 1992. I started at WRFL 881. FM in Lexington, KY, where I worked until 2005, rotating in a variety of positions, including program director, music librarian, audio producer, local music director and on-air DJ. I made a couple of attempts at commercial radio and television, but quickly decided the lack of creative input at those stations was not right for me and always returned to non-commercial broadcasting. I've been writing on and off for a variety of independent magazines, newspapers, blogs and websites since 1991. I've been heavily involved in the local music scenes of Lexington and Louisville since the mid-1990s, participating both as a musician/producer/promoter and covering it as a writer and DJ. After a brief stint in Portland, OR, I returned to Kentucky in 2003, and returned to my hometown of Louisville in 2005. From 2011-2014, I wrote the American Gloam blog in Louisville, focusing on music, art, travel and my own personal observations of society. In 2013, I joined WXOX as the local music director and on-air DJ.
My work at WXOX is heavily focused on both local and regional music and arts. However, beginning in 2016, my radio shows have included on-air reports and editorials covering national and regional politics and its effects on Louisville. In recent months, this coverage has focused largely on the protests that emerged after the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. I am a field recording archivist, and am often at the protests to both observe and record, as well as to participate in working for justice in this community.
Tia Marie, Producer
WXOX Louisville
Tia Marie is an entrepreneur, community advocate and radio personality who's dedicated her life to helping fellow entrepreneurs build legacies, highlighting ordinary people doing extraordinary things and empowering her listeners to be the best version of themselves. She is the mother of two amazing young adults and the voice you hear every Tuesday from 4p to 6p on ARTxFM 97.1 FM as host of The Tia Maria Show and Soul Glow Radio.
Having been with ArtxFM since the beginning, Tia has grown to be named one of the Top 100 Influencers in Louisville and her show The Tia Maria Show was awarded "Best of Louisville - Independent Radio Show" by Louisville Magazine. Tia Marie has also been a personality on Magic 101.3 FM and iHeart Radio's Real 93.1 FM. She recently produced the international Broadcast For Breonna special simulcast by over 70 radio stations nationwide. She's interviewed some of the best people in the world and hosted major events and isn't stopping anytime soon.
Joseph McGuire, Operations Coordinator
KSVR Mount Vernon
Joseph McGuire started on KSVR Mount Vernon out as a weekly show volunteer in 1981. 14 years ago he was hired as producer and general recording engineering and staff member part time. He produces Skagit Talks 4 days a week, a community interview show. He also engineers sound design for Radio Theater Project. McGuire grew up in Kirkland, Washington. Lived Skagit Valley, Washington, since 1981.
Will Oldham, Musician
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
WXOX Louisville
Will Oldham makes music under the nom d'aplomb Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, and has been doing so for decades. He lives and works in Louisville, KY. Oldham has been involved with WXOX since its earliest days as a functioning station as sporadic DJ, guest, and general fan. For his entire professional life in music, he has been aligned with independent labels (primarily Chicago's Drag City and the UK's Domino Recording Co). Oldham also 'works' as an actor in the motion picture business some times, and writes and sings songs for other artists, mercenarily.
Joseph Orozco, Lead Producer/Mentor
KIDE-FM Hoopa Tribal Radio
A founding Board member of what became Hoopa Tribal Radio KIDE-FM in 1980. Took over the management role in Nov 1, 1988 to Oct 1, 2020. My plan is to serve out my two remaining tribal employment years as the KIDE Lead Producer/Mentor. My passion leans more to production than management. I look forward to more engagement with our community as a producer and have more local voices heard on the air and around the world. I value Native Media of which I will never retire. I value Consensus Building, Holistic Management and storytelling. I am married with Rhoby Cook who is the land manager of Rhoby's Ranch and she is my sharp pencil. We share our house with Zora, "the Dog" a full breed Australian Shepard, Rhoby raises 13 rare breed CVM sheep, 3 Golden Wyandottes and two geese.
Eva Papp, Director of Businesss Development
Spinitron
Eva Papp hails from Hungary and has lived in the USA for many years. She holds a BA degree from UMass Boston and gained valuable experience in public broadcasting while working at WGBH. As a co- founder she spearheaded the transitioning of Spinitron from a hobby to a prosperous business and has been managing its operation. Today over 270 noncommercial radio stations use Spinitron’s playlist management service. Eva and her partner, Tom Worster, have been coaching stations about compliance reporting for over 10 years.
Paul Riismandel, Co-Founder
Radio Survivor
Paul Riismandel has put in 31 years in and around community and college radio. Over that time he's been a DJ, producer, program director, fundraiser, community advisory board member and faculty advisor – but not all at once. In 2009 he joined forces with Jennifer Waits and Matthew Lasar to create Radio Survivor, a website dedicated to independent radio of all kinds. In 2015 Eric Klein joined the team to launch the Radio Survivor podcast and radio show, now heard on more than two dozen broadcast stations in North America and Ireland.
Paul's day job is at Stitcher, the largest pure-play podcast network in the US, where he is the Sr. Dir. of Marketing and Insights. No, he can't explain that title to you, but it sounds pretty neat, right? He's been at the company for over six years, as well as several name changes and two acquisitions. Six years may not sound like much, but one podcasting year is equal to like two or three radio years.
Through it all he still can't kick the radio habit.
RMLLW2LLZ, Musician
Kr8vN8vs Records
WXOX Lousiville
Husband, father, emcee. Just and above average Joe with a passion for life and music.
- 2016 and 2017 Hip hop artist of the year award nominee Louisville Music Awards
- Founder/CEO Kr8vN8vs Records established in 2017
- Founder of 2llz 1luv Coat Drive. A coat drive for the community started in 2014
- DJ 97.1 fm WXOX Louisville
James Rooney, Producer
WXOX Louisville
James Rooney completed his MA in History at the University of Louisville in 2016. He is now a father, academic advisor, and writer living in Louisville, KY. Every Sunday from 8-10pm he co-hosts an exemplary radio program on ART FM, The Comedown.
Ursula Ruendenberg, Affiliates Manager
Pacifica Network
Ursula Ruedenberg has been working for Pacifica Radio since 2001, as an activist in the Pacifica struggle, outreach coordinator for WBAI, and, since 2002, as Pacifica's affiliate Network Manager and manager of Audioport.org. As part of her involvement with the Radio For People Coalition, she helped the founding of new NCE's in the Midwest and the South, including KHOI in Ames, Iowa, where she currently also serves as station manager, program director, and audio production trainer. Ruedenberg is executive producer of the nationally syndicated show Sprouts Radio From the Grassroots, and locally she is executive producer for KHOI's morning news and public affairs show, Local Talk. Ruedenberg has a MFA from the New York Academy of Art in New York City and a BA from Sarah Lawrence College. She grew up in Iowa and Switzerland.
Alicia Sanchez, Board President
KBBF Santa Rosa
Alicia Sanchez is a longtime community activist for non-violence and social justice on many issues affecting workers, immigrants, women, and youth She serves as a volunteer in an active role in the day-to-day station operations and as Board President of the Bilingual Broadcasting Foundation, Inc. which operates KBBF 89.1 FM, the first bilingual public radio station in the United States. Broadcasting programs in English, Spanish and indigenous languages from its studios in Santa Rosa, CA.
Miranda Selinger
Talk Content & Grant Coordinator
XRAY.FM Portland
Miranda is the Talk Content Coordinator and Grant Coordinator at XRAY FM, KXRY Portland. XRAY's talk radio programming and podcast network feature a range of community voices on news, social issues, and Portland public affairs, with an emphasis on education, justice, art, and civic engagement. Miranda has been a part of the XRAY community ever since she moved to Portland in 2018, first as a volunteer and intern before becoming a staff member. She helped grow the station's community podcast network and news department, and produced the live morning news broadcast for some time. In 2020, Miranda helped launch XRAY's daily news podcast, The Local. The podcast is one way in which XRAY responds to the need for more content focused on the people of Portland, and provides coverage of state and local news and government.
Stephanie Shubert, Operations Coordinator
Pacifica Network
Stephanie Schubert is the Operations Coordinator for Pacifica Network. She works alongside Ursula Ruedenberg in the quest of serving the network affiliates. This involves producing the show Sprouts, which features work of grassroots production around the country/world, keeping up connections with everyone through round-table meetings, maintaining the website and newsletter, and helping with whatever projects come along!
Sharon Scott, Co-Founder & General Manager
ARTxFM / WXOX Lousiville
Sharon Scott is the Co-Founder and General Manager of ART FM / WXOX 97.1 FM Louisville, a noncommercial radio station committed to providing artists and community members access to the airwaves for creative and experimental use. Scott launched her radio career at WRVU Nashville “the Voice of Vanderbilt University” where she served as DJ, Local Music Director, and General Manager. As an alumni, she established WRVU Friends & Family, the nonprofit support network that lead the legal battle to save 91.1 FM from public radio takeover. The organization now operates WXNA Nashville on 101. 5 FM.
Spearheading numerous events and traveling widely on behalf of college and community radio, Scott’s radio-advocacy has been covered by publications such as The Chronicle of Higher Education and The New York Times. She has recently been included in the books Radio 2.0 and Air: an Anthology. Scott is a recipient of the Presentation Academy Tower Award for her work in Arts and Communication and was featured speaker at the Remaking American Political History Conference hosted by Purdue University. Since the passage of the Local Community Radio Act, Sharon Scott sees a bright future for creative broadcasting and a powerful force in community radio united.
Paul Smart, Program Director
WCAA Albany
Paul Smart started setting a 24/7 schedule for WCAA-LP in November, 2019. By the time the pandemic hit he was programming the station remotely, and working with nearly three dozen producers to create news and music shows, often on their phones. With the closing of the radio studio, all producers began submitting works digitally, eventually uploading their creations via Pacifica's Audioport function. Meanwhile, the number of Pacifica and other programs being played on WCAA has been dropping as more members of the community start to realize that they, too, can become producers easily. Meanwhile, other stations have started picking up WCAA-LP's increasingly original shows.
Before working directly with WCAA-LP, Smart was on the station's overseeing organization, Grand Street Community Arts, which sponsored the 2017 GRC. He comes from a full career editing community newspapers and magazines, and was previously involved with the start-up of WGXC-FM in Catskill, NY and KCAW-FM in Sitka, AK. He lives in Albany with his wife and high school-aged son.
Marc Sophos, Director & Executive Producer
Media for the Public Good, Inc. / OutCasting Media
Marc is the creator of OutCasting Media, which produces public radio's LGBTQ youth programs. A winner of a 2018 AARP Purpose Prize Fellowship in recognition of his work at OutCasting, Marc has spent most of his life in radio, working at NPR, NPR member station WKAR (East Lansing, Michigan), and anumber of commercial stations, mainly as an engineer but at times doing most things you can do in radio except sell ad time. He was the founder of WDFH, a community station just north of NYC. The effort to secure FCC permission for WDFH spanned nearly 20 years, starting when Marc was a 9th grader. During WDFH's time on the air (1995-2013), Marc was the station's general manager, program director, and chief engineer. Before the station's FM debut in 1995, Marc ran the station as a cable radio station (1982-1995) and a Part 15 and carrier current station (1968-1982). Outside of radio, Marc has been a classical pianist, a musical director in theatre, an amateur astronomer, a photographer, and a skydiver (once, with a bad outcome). He's also an attorney licensed to practice in New York State.
Jana Thrift, Station Manager
KEPW Eugene
At age 41, Jana joined the Occupy Movement as a videographer and documentarian. As her activist passion grew, she made countless videos to support the “Right to Rest” movement in Eugene, urging city government to allow transitional rest spots where unhoused residents now have legal places to sleep. In 2012 her video made with Eugene PeaceWorks board president David Zupan, “Houseless not Hopeless” won an award at Eugene's International Film Festival. Jana was inspired to help create the KEPW-LP 97.3 FM PeaceWorks Community Radio station five years ago by a desire to provide otherwise marginalized community members with a platform to have their voices heard. Jana continues to manage KEPW which now has approximately 50 locally produced shows along with about that many from nationwide sources.
Jana truly believes social, economic and environmental justice are crucial to improving the systemic oppression and class-ism that the United States has suffered from since its inception. That is why she volunteers tirelessly to make KEPW a community model rather than the traditional business model that many stations follow. For her it is just as important for diverse voices to be on the air as it is for them to make the policies that guide all parts of the station. KEPW makes decisions through consensus and while it is not always easy, it is worth it, because of our listeners and producers who express appreciation for the sincere effort KEPW makes to walk its talk by together creating our community radio station as a reflection of the amazing and diverse area we live in.
Jennifer Waits, Co-Founder / DJ
Radio Survivor / KFJC Los Altos
Jennifer Waits, co-founder of Radio Survivor, is a San Francisco-based writer, scholar, and radio practitioner with a particular interest in college and community radio. She co-chairs the College, Community and Educational Radio Caucus of the Library of Congress' Radio Preservation Task Force and works to evangelize the importance of preserving and saving radio history. Before the global pandemic, she obsessively toured radio stations all over the United States (and a few in Ireland) and has visited and written up field trip reports for 165 station visits. A long-time college radio DJ herself, she's hosted a weekly music show at Foothill College radio station KFJC 89.7FM (Los Altos Hills, California) since 1999 and is the station's Publicity Director. Jennifer has a Master’s degree in Popular Culture Studies and has written about radio, music, youth culture, and pop culture for a number of publications and websites, including Radio World, PopMatters, Interactions: Studies in Communication and Culture, Radio Journal, and long-gone beloved teen mag Sassy.
Dane Waters
Musician
Dane Waters is a singer who performs her own compositions as well as songs from other genres and styles. Dane is a frequent collaborator with other instrumentalists and Louisville Ballet dancer Ashley Thursby Kern, and has contributed vocals to various bands and musical projects in the Louisville Area and beyond including La Petite Musique, Softcheque, Sapat, and most recently, Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel. Last summer she performed two pieces with Orchestra Enigmatic for their Breaking the Mold concert. In March of 2020, she released a recording based on a performance called 5 Sonnets to Orpheus which was a setting of some of Rainer Maria Rilke's poetry for voice, violin and a dancer. Currently, she is working on an album of original Torch Songs.
Darrick Wood
WXOX Louisville
Host and creator of "Inside A Question" a weekly, hour-long, radio program. The show is designed to entertain and inspire listeners to become more curious about the world around them. Each episode starts with a unique question and models surprising ways to discover a satisfying answer. "Inside A Question" airs every Sunday, 5-6pm ET, on WXOX 97.1 FM, live stream on www.artxfm.com. More info about the show (including the QUESTION GENERATOR!) can be found at InsideAQuestion.com
AND MORE . . .
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