KGNU Magazine: 40th Anniversary Issue

4 0 T H

A N N I V E R S A R Y

I S S U E

Magazine Summer/Fall 2018

MAX

YEARS of local, community-powered radio 88.5 KGNU

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TURN UP THE POWER 88.5 FM / 1390 AM Boulder / Denver • 98.7 FM Fort Collins • 93.7 Nederland KGNU.ORG • NEWS.KGNU.ORG • AFTERFM.COM

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contents

KGNU COMMITMENT TO COMMUNITY:

3

VISION The Boulder Community Broadcast Association, Inc. dba KGNU Community Radio envisions an actively engaged global community rooted in mutual respect, working together to advance a more equitable, just, and environmentally sustainable society that ensures all peoples access to and participation in independent media.

MISSION KGNU seeks to stimulate, educate, and entertain our audience, to reflect the diversity of the local and world community, and to provide a channel for individuals, groups, issues, and music that have been overlooked, suppressed, or underrepresented by other media.

5 How to Get Involved with KGNU

11 Program Schedule 17 New-Generation Participation

KGNU would like to thank the following foundations for their support:

28 Rising Up with Sonali Kolhatkar

19 Sound Advice from Laura Flanders

20 Dr. Daniel Ellsberg

on Dismantling the Doomsday Machine

As such, KGNU reaffirms our commitment to foster inclusive equitable practices, communities, and governance first and foremost inside our organization, and by proactively working toward building an inclusive and socially equitable local media landscape by challenging all forms of discrimination. We believe by working together and embracing our differences, we forge stronger, more resilient, and inclusive communities.

Publication Title: KGNU Magazine Issue Date: 2018-2019 Frequency of Publication: Annual Authorized Publisher: Boulder Community Broadcast Association, Inc. dba KGNU Volume 40, Issue 1 Editors: Roz Brown, Risë Keller, Laurie Stephenson, Tim Russo, Sarah Shirazi Design: Adam Batliner Art+Design adam@adambatliner.com Contributors: Roz Brown, Deeprawk Dave Ashton, Maeve Conran, Nikki Kayser, Risë Keller, Sean Makau, Indra Raj, Joe Richey, Luz Aida Ruiz, Nile Southern, Tim Russo, Sarah Shirazi, Alternative Radio.

Advertising Sales Kenneth Flowe, kenneth@kgnu.org Sean Makau, promotions@kgnu.org Sarah Shirazi, sarah@kgnu.org Printing: Signature Offset

Station Manager– Editor’s Letter

26 KGNU Top 50 Music Chart

28 40 years of Reggae Bloodlines

32 Local Gold: Explore

Local Colorado Bands

36 Meet KGNU’s People Behind the Scenes

KGNU Studios Boulder 4700 Walnut St Boulder, CO 80301 office: (303) 449-4885 1 (800) 737-3030 studio: (303) 442-4242 or dj@kgnu.org Denver 700 Kalamath St Denver, CO 80204 office: (303) 825-5468 studio: (303) 825-0619

KGNU Magazine: 40th Anniversary Issue KGNU Magazine is our print magazine featuring information about KGNU programming, our community-powered station, and much, much more. The KGNU Magazine is published periodically by the Boulder Community Broadcast Association, Inc. dba KGNU. The Summer/Fall 2018 issue focuses on empowering readers and listeners to discover the power of communitypowered radio, invest in local media, and make waves across the Front Range. At KGNU, you are the “U” in KGNU. Together, we can turn up our power!

AfterFM is a registered trademark of the Boulder Comment Line (303) 447-9911

Community Broadcast Association, Inc. in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

KGNU STAFF

in U N ?

KG ket! p c e Ke r po Did you know you u o can add KGNU y to the home screen of your mobile device?

It’s true, and it’s easy to do.

First, launch the tuner from kgnu.org on your iOS mobile device.

Next, tap the ‘action button’.

Now tap on the ‘Add to Home Screen’ button.

You may need to swipe left on the lower icon row to see it.

The last step is the easiest one of them all.

Tap on ‘Add’ in the upper right hand corner.

Android users, we love you too!

Go to https://goo.gl/Rgv3Qw for your top secret instructions.

KGNU Station Manager Tim Russo manager@kgnu.org Community Development Director Sarah Shirazi sarah@kgnu.org Music Director Indra Raj music@kgnu.org News and Public Affairs Director Maeve Conran maeve@kgnu.org Operations Director Evan Perkins evan@kgnu.org Membership Director Nikki Kayser nikki@kgnu.org Denver Program Manager Dave Ashton dave@kgnu.org Digital Content Manager George Figgs george@kgnu.org Promotions Coordinator Sean Makau promotions@kgnu.org Underwriting Manager Kenneth Flowe kenneth@kgnu.org Boulder Trainer Joel Davis rtc@kgnu.org Engineer Jim Mross IT Sean Williams, Peter Billig In-House Counsel Gregg Friedman Outside Counsel Jeremy Syz, Holland & Hart Accounting Accounting Specialists

KGNU BOARD OF DIRECTORS Jon Walton, Chair Liz Lane, Vice- Chair Jeannie Brisson, Treasurer Risë Keller, Secretary Roz Brown Rebekah Hartman Elena Klaver Barbara Stern Tim Russo, Station Manager, Ex Officio Board Member

COVER PHOTO: Melissa Rich

Station Notes Discover the power of community-powered media

By Tim Russo, KGNU Station Manager

As KGNU forges into its 40th year on air, we are celebrating the many milestones achieved by all the dedicated visionaries, staff, volunteers, listeners, supporters, and community members who have made KGNU what it is today. Since its first days, the station has sought to amplify voices in Boulder and beyond who felt their music, culture, and critical views of local, state, national, and international affairs were not represented in the profit-driven media landscape.

Nearly 40 years into the project, we have many people to thank who have dedicated decades of their hearts and souls to KGNU. They have been joined by many new volunteers and listeners who have contributed to KGNU, a truly community-powered media project.

As written in KGNU’s very first Program Guide, published in 1978: Basic to community radio is access and participation. Volunteers participate in all aspects of the operation, from serving on the board of directors, doing programming, publishing program guides, answering telephones, to helping raise funds. The idea is that radio can be a community project, with participation open to everyone. In community radio, programming can then reflect a diversity of interests... Our hope is that KGNU will affect the daily lives of our listeners.

Forty years later, we bear witness to the growth and relevance of this “community project.” In May, the Boulder City Council passed a declaration to observe every May 22 as KGNU Community Radio Day, encouraging “all residents to celebrate the importance of local independent community media and its vital role in the democratic process.” This declaration, and a similar proclamation by the Boulder County Commissioners, are of more importance than ever, as an accelerated consolidation in the commercial media landscape has begun a ripple effect that threatens the overall capacity and quality of local journalism, affecting not only Colorado’s last state-wide newspaper of record, the Denver Post, but also Boulder’s very own 128-year-old Daily Camera.

In 1998, 20 years after KGNU began broadcasting from a shack behind the Harvest House (now Millennium Harvest House) on the banks of Boulder Creek, representatives of the World Association of Community Radios wrote a community radio guide, declaring, “It should be made clear that community radio is not about doing something for the community but about the community doing something for itself; it’s about the community owning and controlling its own means of communication.”

KGNU took its first steps towards building a lasting local community-powered media resource that would reflect and affect the everyday lives of our communities 40 years ago, when a course offered at the Free School was titled, “A desperate attempt to start a noncommercial radio station in Boulder.” This 40th anniversary edition of KGNU Magazine offers a timeline and retrospective of the early days at KGNU, and the four years that it took to start up the station, and reflects on a turbulent moment in 1981. Against all odds, KGNU—and more so the people that powered the movement behind KGNU—were determined to create a community-powered media outlet.

Jo Ellen Kaiser of The Media Consortium, a national network of independent media outlets, recently wrote about how independent media increasingly influences local and national conversations and policy. She writes: A study conducted by Harvard Professor Gary King] proves that a better way to secure a media system that works for democracy is to strengthen independent news outlets…. People care at a very fundamental level about the schools their kids attend, about their own reproductive choices, about their communities, neighbors and friends. They hunger for stories that impact their everyday lives. And those are the stories they will talk about and share.

At KGNU, we are continually presented with new challenges and opportunities to work together, to strengthen participatory processes, and to meet the goals required to implement and ex-

pand upon the potential of the KGNU vision.

We’ll reinforce our very foundations to provide a permanent community media center that offers 24/7 critical programming on-air and online, as well as media training for Boulder and beyond.

In November 2017, City of Boulder residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of approving an extension on the Community, Culture and Safety capital improvements sales tax. KGNU stands to benefit from the extension of the CCS with a matching grant of $1.25 million, once we have raised the equivalent amount, to expand, upgrade, and modernize the main facilities in Boulder, converting our current building into an environmentally sustainable and resilient facility, equipped with additional digital studios, a permanent media-makers training space, an expanded community space, and a small performance space—all integral components of a functioning community media resource center for the future.

In the words of Jose Ignacio Lopez Vigil, the grandfather of Community Radio in Latin America: When radio fosters the participation of citizens and defends their interests; when it truly informs; when it helps resolve the thousand and one problems of daily life; when cultural diversity is stimulated over commercial homogeneity; when women are main players in communication…, when no type of dictatorship is tolerated, not even the musical dictatorship of the large recording studios; that is community radio. The purpose is different; their best efforts are put at the disposal of civil society. The purpose—hence the name—is to build community life.

Manual urgente para Radialistas Apasionados, 1997

I invite you to join KGNU on our community-powered media journey. Discover the power by tuning in to 88.5 FM or 1390 AM from Boulder to Denver, 93.7 FM in Nederland, 98.7 FM in Fort Collins, or check us out online at KGNU.org, News.KGNU.org or AfterFM.com. And turn up the volume, as you join us in celebrating the history that opened the doors to the imaginable.

KGNU Community Radio | 3

4 | KGNU Magazine

TURN UP THE POWER

How to get involved with your local community-powered radio station

By Nile Southern

DRIVING A MISSIONDRIVEN VEHICLE

HOW TO GET INVOLVED WITH KGNU

KGNU is a radiant gem in the constellation of community radio stations, primarily due to our volunteer participation and financial support.

Our dedicated and diverse group of 400 volunteers behind the scenes keep us on the air 24/7.

At KGNU, you are empowered to be the media. We invite the general public and people from all walks of life to participate in our programs. KGNU broadcasts a diverse mix of music, news and information, around the clock. We hold orientations the first Thursday of every other month, and invite prospective volunteers to learn more about KGNU and our many volunteer opportunities.

WHERE TO START? Attend a Volunteer Orientation. Held at both our Boulder and Denver locations at 7:00 PM on the first Thursday of odd-numbered months (January, March, May, July, September, and November), orientations provide an opportunity to meet like-minded people, plug into the station, and learn more about becoming RADIO-active!

KGNU COMMITTEES Maybe you’re a KGNU listener, member, a total fan—maybe you’re even volunteering or grooving as a DJ—but have you ever considered deepening your involvement with KGNU? How about volunteering on a committee? KGNU’s committees help the station continue to evolve, chrysalis-like, into the miracle of audio democracy that is KGNU.

TRAINING TO BE ON THE AIR

STAY IN TOUCH: • O nce you become a listener-member, drop in at our Boulder studios to select a thank-you gift (or have us mail you one for a small fee).

• S ign up for E-newsletters updating you on KGNU’s latest programs, events, and concerts by emailing listeners-subscribe@kgnu.org • Follow us on FACEBOOK and Twitter • Read our news blog at news@KGNU.org • Request music at dj@KGNU.org • Listen to music 24/7 at AFTERFM.com • F ind our mobile streaming player link on KGNU.org from your computer or smartphone • Follow us on Instagram @KGNU

KGNU VOLUNTEER ORIENTATION DATES

To be on the air, YOU MUST: • Attend a Volunteer Orientation and complete our Basic Radio Training class.

• Practice at your own pace until you are familiar with our equipment and feel comfortable working in our studios.

• Schedule and complete a Finishing Touches class.

• Coordinate with the Music or News department for possible next steps or tasks.

for Summer 2018-Spring 2019 Volunteer orientations take place at our Boulder and Denver studios, at 7pm on the first Thursday of odd-numbered months.

July 5, 2018 September 6, 2018 November 1, 2018 January 3, 2019 March 7, 2019 May 2, 2019

COMMITTEE MEETING SCHEDULE COMMITTEE NAME

PURPOSE

CHAIR(S)

MEETS *

BUDGET COMMITTEE

MONITORS THE STATION'S BUDGET. ASSISTS THE STATION MANAGER IN PUTTING TOGETHER THE ANNUAL BUDGET.

JEANNIE BRISSON

MONTHLY MAY - NOVEMBER DATES ANNOUNCED ON KGNU.ORG

CAB (COMMUNITY ADVISORY BOARD)

GIVES THE COMMUNITY A WAY TO REVIEW THE PROGRAMS AND SERVICES PROVIDED BY THE STATION.

STATION MANAGER

SEMIANNUALLY. MEETINGS ANNOUNCED ON KGNU.ORG

DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

SUPPORTS MOST GENERAL FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGNS AT KGNU, INCLUDING PLANNED GIVING, CAPITAL CAMPAIGNS, MAJOR GIFTS, SELECT SPECIAL EVENTS, ETC.

BARBARA STERN

3RD MONDAY OF THE MONTH AT 5:00 PM

EVENTS COMMITTEE

ORGANIZES KGNU BENEFIT EVENTS.

MEREDITH CARSON

1ST WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH AT 6:00 PM

NOMINATING COMMITTEE

RECRUITS, INTERVIEWS AND RECOMMENDS NEW BOARD MEMBERS.

NILE SOUTHERN, JOY BARRETT

3RD WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH AT 6:00 PM

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

REVIEWS KGNU PROGRAMS IN LIGHT OF THE STATION'S MISSION AND STANDARDS. CONSIDERS NEW PROGRAMS ON KGNU. REVIEWS PROGRAMS THAT HAVE RECEIVED COMPLAINTS FROM LISTENERS, STAFF OR VOLUNTEERS.

REBEKAH HARTMAN

4TH TUESDAY OF THE MONTH AT 6PM; ALTERNATES BETWEEN BOULDER/ DENVER

STRATEGIC PLANNING COMMITTEE

OVERSEES THE IMPLEMENTATION OF KGNU'S STRATEGIC PLAN

ROZ BROWN

3RD TUESDAY OF THE MONTH AT 6PM

* Meeting times and dates may be changed. Meeting changes will be posted no less than seven days prior to the new meeting date, on the KGNU.org committee calendar. Please visit the kgnu.org committee calendar for up-to-date committee times and dates.

KGNU Community Radio | 5

many thanks to our underwriters!

ALTERNATIVE LAW OFFICE OF MARC MILAVITZ alt-law.com (303) 442-2166 AMERICAS LATINO ECO FESTIVAL americaslatinoecofestival.org ARISE MUSIC FESTIVAL arisefestival.com (720) 608-8830 ART OF LIVING FOUNDATION artofliving.org (855) 202-4400 BACK TO BASICS KITCHEN backtobasicskitchen.com (720) 432-2515 BESSIE’S HOPE bessieshope.org (303) 623-1176 BICYCLE COLORADO bicyclecolo.org (303) 417-1544 BILLY GOAT GROUP billygoatgroup.com (720) 999-9888 BOULDER ARTS WEEK boulderartsweek.org BOULDER BACH FESTIVAL boulderbachfestival.org (720) 507-5052 BOULDER COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OFFICE bouldercounty.org (303) 441-3500 BOULDER COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL bouldercountryday.org (303) 527-4931 BOULDER CHAMBER boulderchamber.com (303) 442-1044 BOULDER BOOKSTORE boulderbookstore.net (303) 447-2074 BOULDER COUNTY ARTS ALLIANCE bouldercountyarts.org (303) 447-2422 BOULDER OPERA boulderoperacompany.com (303) 731-2036 BOULDER WEEKLY boulderweekly.com (303) 494-5511 BLUE FEDERAL CREDIT UNION bluefcu.com (303) 243-5766 BROCK MEDIA brockpub.com (303) 443-0600 CELTIC CONNECTION celticevents.com (303) 777-0502 COLORADO BLUES SOCIETY coblues.com (303) 415-2737 COLORADO FESTIVAL PRODUCTIONS coloradofests.com COLORADO MAHLERFEST mahlerfest.com (303) 492-8970 COLORADO MUSIC FESTIVAL CENTER FOR MUSICAL ARTS comusic.org (303) 665-0599 COLOR colorlatina.org (303) 285-2960 COLORADO OPEN LANDS coloradoopenlands.org (303) 988-2373

6 | KGNU Magazine

COLORADO TALKING BOOK LIBRARY myctbl.org (303) 727-9277 COMMUNITY FOUNDATION SERVING BOULDER COUNTY commfound.org (303) 442-0436 COMMUNITY SHARES COLORADO cshares.org (303) 861-7507 CONSERVATION COLORADO conservationco.org (303) 333-7846 COTTONWOOD CUSTOM BUILDERS

cottonwoodcustombuilders.com (303) 449-3076 DENVER FOLKLORE CENTER denverfolklore.com (303) 777-4786 DENVER BIKE + SKI REPAIR denverbikeandskirepair.com (720) 675-7466 ECO-CYCLE ecocycle.org (303) 444-6634 ECOSCAPE DESIGN Ecoscapedesign.com (303) 447-2282 EDWARD JONES edwardjones.com (800) 441-2357 EMPORIUM PRESENTS emporiumpresents.com (615) 301-8728 FANCY TIGER CRAFTS fancytigercrafts.com (303) 733-3855 FARMER’S PORCH thefarmersporch.com FILIPINO AMERICAN COMMUNITY (FACC) coloradofilipinos.org (303) 233-6817 FISKE PLANETARIUM colorado.edu/fiske (303) 492-5002 FREEDOM SERVICE DOGS OF AMERICA freedomservicedogs.org (303) 922-6231 GALVANIZE galvanize.com (303) 749-0038 GAY AND LESBIAN FUND FOR COLORADO gaylesbianfund.org (303) 292-4455 GRACE DESIGN gracedesign.com (303) 823-8100 GREEN RIDE BOULDER greenrideboulder.com (303) 997-0238 GREEN GIRL RECYCLING greengirlrecycling.com (303) 442-7535 HARLEQUIN’S GARDEN harlequinsgardens.com (303) 939-9403 HIGHLAND CITY CLUB highlandcityclub.com (303) 443-4430 HISTORY COLORADO CENTER historycolorado.org (303) 447-8679 HUNGER FREE COLORADO hungerfreecolorado.org (855) 855-4626 INDIAN PEAKS SPRING WATER indianpeaksspringwater.com (303) 440-0432

iWILL & TRUST iwillandtrust.com (303) 557-0951 LAUGHING GOAT COFFEEHOUSE thelaughinggoat.com (303) 440-4628 LAW OFFICE OF NEDA ZAMAN nedalaw.com (213) 381-3777 LYONS AUTOMOTIVE lyonsautomotive.com (303) 823-6760 LYONS LAWN AND LANDSCAPE (720) 341-5596 LYONS RECORDER

lyonsrecorder.com (303) 823-6625 MAKING PROGRESS COLORADO makingprogresscolorado.org MARTY’S MEALS martysmeals.com (303) 442-0777 MARK JAFFEE markjaffeedds.com (303) 449-8299 MARQUEE MAGAZINE marqueemagazine.com (303) 442-2480 MEALS ON WHEELS mowboulder.org (303) 441-3908 MERCURY CAFE mercurycafe.com (303) 294-9258 MOAB FOLK FESTIVAL moabfolkfestival.com (435) 259-3198 MOTUS THEATER motustheater.org MOUNTAIN EAR themtnear.com (303) 810-5409 MOUNTAIN SUN PUB mountainsunpub.com (303) 546-0886 NATIONAL ASSN. FOR COLLEGE ADMISSIONS COUNSELING nacacnet.org (800)-822-6285 NEDERLAND AREA SENIORS NederlandAreaSeniors.org (303) 258-0799 PALISADE BLUEGRASS & ROOTS FESTIVAL palisademusic.com PIZZA BAR 66 pizzabar66.com (303) 823-6262 POP CULTURE CLASSROOM popcultureclassroom.org QUISH & COMPANY

quishco.com (303) 523-6122 REDSTONE REVIEW facebook.com/RedstoneReview (303) 823-6358 ROWDY MERMAID rowdymermaid.com (303) 396-0498 SBG PRODUCTIONS & PLANET BLUEGRASS bluegrass.com (303) 823-0848 SAVE HOME HEAT

savehomeheat.com (303) 625-6503 SHAMBALA shambhalamountain.org 1-888-788-7221 STANDARD BIKE REPAIR standardbikerepair.com (720) 837-8984

SUSPECT PRESS suspectpress.com SWALLOW HILL swallowhillmusic.org (303) 777-1003 TABLE MESA HARDWARE tablemesahardware.com (303) 499-7211 TANGERINE tangerineeats.com (303) 443-2333 TELLURIDE RIDE FESTIVAL ridefestival.com (970) 369-0000 THE CARIBOU ROOM thecaribouroom.com (303) 258-3637 TREEFORT MUSIC FEST treefortmusicfest.com VINTAGE MOTORS OF LYONS vintagemotorslyons.com (303) 931-5280 VOICES FOR CHILDREN CASA vfccasa.org (303) 440-7059 WALK WITH A DOC (NATIONAL JEWISH HEALTH) nationaljewish.org (877) 225-5654 WESTERN DISPOSAL SERVICES westerndisposal.com (303) 444-2037 WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY wildanimalsanctuary.org (303) 536-0118 WORLD DENVER worlddenver.org (303) 592-5760 YELLOW SCENE yellowscene.com (303) 828-2700 YOUTH ON RECORD youthonrecord.org (303) 993-5226 Z2 ENTERTAINMENT bouldertheater.com (303) 786-7030 Z-TRIP

ztrip.com (303) 699-8747

LOCAL BUSINESSES SUPPORT KGNU! Many thanks to the local businesses and nonprofits who continue to contribute money, goods and services to KGNU. We encourage you to let them know you appreciate their support of KGNU. If you want to let our listeners know that your business supports KGNU, contact Community Development Director Sarah Shirazi at (303) 515-4522 or sarah@kgnu.org.

Thanks to these Supporting Businesses!

Ace Eat Serve

Cantina Laredo

aceeatserve.com AEG Live aeglive.com

cantinalaredo.com

Alfalfa’s

Celtic Events

Caribou Room

thecaribouroom.com

alfalfas.com

celticevents.com

American Adventure Expeditions

Centro Latin Kitchen

americanadventure.com Angelo’s CD’s angeloscds.com

centromexican.com Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom

azitra.us

cervantesmasterpiece.com Cheba Hut chebahut.com Chef Bob Sampson chefbobcooks.com Chipotle chipotle.com

Arleigh

arleigh.com Avery Brewing

averybrewing.com Azitra: Indian Culinary Nirvana Bandwagon Magazine

City Donuts

bandwagmag.com

citydonutsaurora.com

Bart’s Record Shop

City O’ City

bartsrecordshop.com Black and Read blackandread.net

cityocitydenver.com Colorado Daily coloradodaily.com

Bayou Bob’s

Comedy Works

blackbelly.com

comedyworks.org Community Cycles communitycycles.org Cosmos Pizza cosmospizza.com Cucina Colore cucinacolore.com

Blue Ribbon Farm

D’Angelo’s Deli

facebook.com/BRFarmLongmont

dangelosdeli.com Dazzle Restaurant

Boulder Arts and Crafts Gallery

dazzlejazz.com

boulderartsandcrafts.com

Denver Museum of Nature and Science

bayoubobs.com Beatrice and Woodsley beatriceandwoodsley.com Birdy Magazine

birdymagazine.com Blackbelly Market

Boulder County AIDS Project

bcap.org

dmns.org

Boulder County Care

Denver Bike + Ski Repair

careconnectbc.org

denverbikeandskirepair.com

Boulder Beer

Eight Days A Week

boulderbeer.com The Boulder Cork

bouldercork.com

8days.com Eco Cycle ecocycle.org

bouldermapgallery.com

ECO Products ecoproducts.com

Boulder Marriott

Fresh Thymes Eatery

Boulder Map Gallery

marriott.com/hotels/boulder Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art

freshthymeseatery.com Fox Theatre foxtheatre.com

bmoca.org

Greater Park Hill

Boulder Out

greaterparkhill.org Gold Hill Inn goldhillinn.com Goosetown Tavern goosetowntavern.com Gourmet Kitchen thegourmetkitchen.biz Green Girl Recycling greengirlrecycling.com Greenbriar Inn greenbriarinn.com Guayaki Yerba Mate guayaki.com Half Fast Subs halffastsubs.com

outboulder.org Boulder Phone

boulderphone.com Boulder Weekly

boulderweekly.com Boulder Women Songwriters

womensongwriters.weebly. com Brock Media

brockpub.com Butterfly Pavilion

butterflies.org California Pizza Kitchen cpk.com/29thstreet/boulder

Hapa Sushi

hapasushi.com Harlequin’s Gardens harlequinsgardens.com Harpo’s Sports Bar harpossportsgrill.com Hazel’s Beverages hazelsboulder.com Hi-Dive hi-dive.com Highlander Magazine highlandermagazine.com Hungry Buffs hungrybuffs.com Illegal Pete’s illegalpetes.com Il Fornaio ilfornaio.com Indivisible East Boulder indivisibleeastboulder.org Indulge Bistro and Wine Bar

indulgewinebar.com Intercambio intercambio.org Jax Fish House jaxfishhouse.com Julien’s Cliff House Kombucha

cliffhousekombucha.com King Soopers kingsoopers.com Kokoro kokororestaurants.com KT’s Hickory Pit BBQ ktsbbq.com Ku Cha House of Tea kuchatea.com Larkburger

larkburger.com LaLuz Tacos & Tequila

laluzgrill.com L.I.D. Landscapes

lidlandscapes.com Liquor Mart

liquormart.com Lion’s Lair lionslairco.com Live Nation

livenation.com Lola Coastal Mexican

loladenver.com Lucky’s Market luckysmarket.com Lyons Magazine livability.com/co/lyons Mad Greens madgreens.com Marquee Magazine marqueemag.com Mercury Café mercurycafe.com Mercury’s Messengers mercurysmessengers. com Moe’s Bagel moesbagel.com

Moe’s Original BBQ

Street Legal Pizza streetlegalpizza.co Swallow Hill Music swallowhillmusic.org

Mountain Sun Pubs and Breweries

Sugar Beet

moesoriginalbbq.com Mojo Taqueria mojotaqueria.com mountainsunpub.com Museum of Contemporary Art

mcadenver.org Mutiny Information Cafe

mutinyinfocafe.com Nooch Vegan Market noochveganmarket.tumblr. com Old Chicago oldchicago.com One Love Garden Supply onelovegardensupply. com Organic Sandwich Company organicsandwichco.com Oriental Theatre

theorientaltheater.com Oskar Blues oskarblues.com OZO Coffee ozocoffee.com Patxi’s Pizza patxispizza.com Pizza Rev pizzarev.com Pizzeria Da Lupo

pizzeriadalupo.com Protein Bar

theproteinbar.com Redstone Meadery redstonemeadery.com Redstone Review facebook.com/redstonereview Recollect Records recollectrecords.com Rialto Café

rialtocafe.com River and Woods

riverandwoodsboulder.com Samm Sherman

instagram.com/pastrysamm Sanitas Brewery

sanitasbrewery.com Savory Cuisines

savorycuisines.com Second + Charles

2ndandcharles.com Secret Sauce Food & Beverage

secretsaucedenver.com Sexy Pizza sexypizzaonline.com Sienna Wine Bar siennawinebar.com Snarf’s eatsnarfs.com Soda Jerks Presents sodajerkpresents.com Still Cellars

stillcellars.com

sugarbeetrestaurant.com Summit Steakhouse thesummitsteakhouse.com Suspect Press suspectpress.com Taco Junky tacojunky.com Tahona Tequila Bistro tahonaboulder.com Tangerine

tangerineeats.com Ted’s Montana Grill tedsmontanagrill.com The Corner

thecornerboulder.com The Kitchen thekitchenbistros.com The Kitchen Next Door

thekitchenbistros.com The Marquis Theater themarquistheater.com The Post Brewing Co. postbrewing.com Trader Joe’s

traderjoes.com Trattoria Stella trattoriastella.squarespace. com Twist and Shout twistandshout.com Twisted Pine Brewery twistedpinebrewing.com Vesta Dipping Grill vestadenver.com Virgilio’s Pizzeria and Wine Bar

ilovepizzapie.com Via Toscana viatoscana.com VMware vmware.com Voodoo Doughnut voodoodoughnut.com Walnut Cafe walnutcafe.com Wapos Mexican Cocina waposboulder.com Waterloo Restaurant waterloolouisville.com Wax Trax! Records waxtraxrecords.com West End Tavern thewestendtavern.com Whole Foods Market wholefoodsboulder.com WOW! Children’s Museum

wowchildrensmuseum.com Z2 Entertainment

foxtheatre.com / bouldertheater.com Zolo Grill

zologrill.com

KGNU Community Radio | 7

1978 KGNU is one of the founding members of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters representing community and public radio stations in the US

1979 First Grateful Dead Marathon

July, 1978 Citing "close channel interference" with KRMA channel 6, FCC forces KGNU to reduce signal power from 3000 to 1300 watts

April, 1979 KGNU broadcasts protests by airplane from Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Facility

May 22, 1978 Inaugural KGNU broadcast from cottage behind Millenium Harvest House Hotel with Glen Gerberg as first station manager. Hot Rize debuts on KGNU morning show from station's Kabaret room

BOULDER • DENVER • FT. COLLINS

March, 1981 KGNU loses CPB funding, runs out of money, and goes off air

1978 Debut of six continuous and favorite shows: locally produced Indian Voices, covering Native American issues and music; Old Grass Gnu Grass, Eclipse, Reggae Bloodlines, Ragtime America/Dixeland, and Blues Legacy

April, 1981

1977

"Friends of KGNU" provide funding and KGNU’s signal is restored; Fergus Stone named station manager.

The Boulder Community Broadcast Association, licensee of KGNU collaborates to create studio space, transmitter and tower location, equipment, and personnel to put KGNU on the air

1976 C.U. Boulder students raise fees to fund involvement in what becomes KGNU radio

1975 KGNU founders attend the National Alternative Radio Conference and begin to organize around the concept of "the right to be heard," and that community radio stations were established to provide access to the airwaves

July, 1981 KGNU moves to space above the Aristocrat restaurant at Broadway and Spruce

1973 "Boulder Free School" class taught by Steve Elliot: A Desperate Attempt to Start an FM Radio Station for the Free School

1972 University of Colorado at Boulder declines to start a university radio station

1949 Pacifica Foundation launches first station: KPFA takes the airwaves in Berkeley, CA

1940

1967 Congress creates Corporation for Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio

1980

FM signals become available

Local favorites Rare Silk, Ray Bonneville and Washboard Chaz perform regularly from Kabaret room

1937 FCC establishes non-commercial radio frequencies

December, 1980 Station's financial weakness leads to staff and board turnover, station in crisis

8 | KGNU Magazine

1983 Greg Fisher named station manager; KGNU again covers major Rocky Flats protests

1986 Alternative Radio with David Barsamian debuts

1987 Marty Durlin named station manager

1987 Iran-Contra hearings broadcast live on KGNU

1988 KGNU moves to 1900 Folsom Street

1996 KGNU becomes one of first subscribers to Amy Goodman's Democracy Now; ends NPR programming

1996 KGNU and WERU found the Grassroots Radio Coalition

1991

2013

Boulder's eTown joins the weekly KGNU lineup

David Wilson named station manager

1992

2010

Popular Connections call-in show premieres

FM signal increased to 4000 watts, increases Front Range Footprint

1994 Signal boosted to serve Boulder's mountain towns; station begins transition from NPR to more local-based programming; locally produced Morning Magazine introduced at 8 a.m.

2009 Roots & Branches premieres

2015 2007 Sam Fuqua named station manager; Denver studio opens

2004 Purchase of 1390 AM signal to cover Denver

May 2015, KGNU & Boulder Bookstore Radio Bookclub debuts

2015 Tim Russo named station manager

2017 2001 KGNU purchases 4700 Walnut Street as its permanent home

Fort Collins translator acquired to expand coverage

2017 Boulder voters approve KGNU to receive $1.25M matching grant from the City of Boulder for renovation and expansion

40 years of making waves

ARE YOU AN ARTIST, MUSICIAN OR BAND WHO WANT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR COMMUNITY? HAS MUSIC IMPACTED YOUR LIFE?

CELEBRATE AND HEAR BRIEF READINGS BY THE WINNERS

OUR MUSIC AMBASSADOR PROGRAM WAS CREATED TO SHOWCASE HOW ARTISTS AND MUSICIANS SUPPORT YOUTH ON RECORD IN EVERY AREA OF THE ORGANIZATION.

CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

DENVER BAND THE HOLLOW

SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2018 AT 4:30 PM Sie FilmCenter, 2510 East Colfax Avenue, Denver, CO 80206

Do you care about music education and providing access to our young people? Music probably impacted you as a young person in powerful way. Help us continue to reach more youth each year with your support. Join Youth on Record and become a Music Ambassador! Your contribution will continue to fuel our programs while building a strong foundation of financial support from the music community.

$20 tickets include reception Reserve yours or find out more at coloradohumanities.org or 303.894.7951

Our Contributing artists contribute to Youth on Record in a vital way. These artists, musicians and bands not only help spread the word about our mission and the work we are doing, but they are financially supporting us through their time and talent.

EDUCATION RESTORATION CELEBRATION Enjoy

beer from New Belgium Brewing Company and food from local eateries

Dance

to live music from Chris Dismuke, Colony Funk, Bonnie & the Clydes, and Lonesome Days

Connect

ANNUAL LUNCHEON Featuring a live interview with icon and activist Billie Jean King

with local groups that work to improve and maintain the health of the river

OCTOBER 10, 2018

Learn

11:30 A.M. COLOR ADO CONVENTION CENTER, DENVER

Volunteer

Purchase tickets, tables, and sponsorships at

about the Poudre River and its resources through workshops and kids’ activities to help with river cleanup and restoration projects in the coming year

June 2, 12:00–6:00 New Belgium Brewery

www.PoudreRiverFest.org

10 | KGNU Magazine

Fifth an nu al!

wfco.org

For more information call 303-285-2967

“NO ONE CHANGES THE WORLD WHO ISN’T OBSESSED.” BILLIE JEAN KING

Program Schedule MIDNIGHT

3:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 7:59 8:01 8:05 8:25 8:30 8:32 8:35 9:00 9:30 11:00 11:30 Noon 12:05 12:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 2:30 2:55 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 MIDNIGHT

88.5 FM & 1390 AM Denver + Boulder 93.7 FM Nederland / 98.7 Fort Collins kgnu.org

News and Talk - Local

Reggae & Dub

Folk, Country & Bluegrass

Electronic & Ambient

News,and Talk - National

Classical & Modern

Blues, Gospel & Jazz

Live Performances

International Music

Hip Hop, Funk & Soul

Rock

Eclectic Music

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SLEEPLESS NIGHTS RESTLESS MORNINGS COUNTERSPIN

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

RESTLESS MORNINGS

COMMUNITY PUBLIC RADIO NEWS BBC: THE NEWSROOM BBC: BUSINESS DAILY / WITNESS

DEMOCRACY NOW! AM COMMUNITY CALENDAR

HONKY TONK HEROES

BBC HEADLINES MORNING MAGAZINE RESISTANCE RADIO

NATURALLY

KGNU COMMENT LINE

WEED B. T. LINES 8:20 RADIO NIBBLES 8:25

GOSPEL CHIME HOUR

TECH TALK

BBC HEADLINES JIM HIGHTOWER A PUBLIC AFFAIR

COUNTERSPIN

HOW ON EARTH

JIM HIGHTOWER

CONNECTIONS

A PUBLIC AFFAIR ALAN WATTS

OLD GRASS GNU GRASS

MORNING SOUND ALTERNATIVE

ROOTS AND BRANCHES

E-TOWN

BBC HEADLINES

TERRASONIC

NEW DIMENSIONS

AFTERNOON SOUND ALTERNATIVE REGGAE BLOODLINES

LOCAL PM HEADLINES - PM COMMUNITY CALENDAR METRO SHORTWAVE REPORT

MAKING CONTACT

RALPH NADER

REVEAL

METRO ARTS

BETWEEN THE LINES

TUC RADIO ECONOMIC UPDATE WITH

THOM HARTMANN PROF RICHARD WOLFF PROGRAM PEACE TALKS RADIO

RISING UP WITH SONALI

LA LUCHA SIGUE OR LABOR EXCHANGE

BIONEERS W.I.N.G.S. INDIAN VOICES

THE LAURA FLANDERS SHOW

BBC NEWS HOUR

AFRICAN ROOTS

PASA LA VOZ SPROUTS COLORADO CHINESE NETWORK

HEMISPHERES

ALTERNATIVE RADIO

IT’S THE ECONOMY

THE OPERA BOX

KABARET

SEOLTA GAEL

HIGHWAY 322

A CLASSIC MONDAY

¡CORRIENTE!

MUSICA MUNDI

OUTSOURCES

TRIBUTARIES LIVING DIALOGUES

BBC NEWSHOUR BBC NEWSHOUR

BLUES LEGACY

SOUND LAB GRATEFUL DEAD HOUR

DIXIELAND OR RAGTIME

ECLIPSE

SWING SHIFT DUSTY GROOVES ELECTRONIC AIR

PRESENT EDGE

THE HEAVY SET

REGGAE TRANSFUSION

JAZZ LIVES

DUB PALACE SMASH IT BACK!

UNDER THE FLOORBOARDS

KGNU Community Radio | 11

news

Whether it’s local, national, or international, KGNU covers the entire news and public affairs spectrum and showcases communities that are underrepresented in mainstream media.

WEEKDAYS

Community Public Radio News Tuesday-Friday 5:30-6:00am A community-based news show from former staff members of Pacifica’s WBAI in New York.

BBC The Newsroom Monday-Friday 6:00-6:30am BBC Business Daily Monday-Friday 6:30-6:50am BBC Witness Monday-Friday 6:50-7:00am BBC Newshour Monday-Friday 5:00-6:00pm Saturday, Sunday 6:00-7:00pm News from the international radio service.

Dot Org Monday and Thursday at 3:25pm Interviews with local nonprofits. kgnu.org/dotorg Democracy Now! Weekdays 7:00-8:00am Award-winning news program hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez.

Morning Magazine Weekdays 8:00am Following the BBC headlines at the top of the hour, you’ll hear state and local news headlines, daily reports from the state capitol, when in session, and wide coverage of local and regional public affairs. kgnu.org/morningmag

Peace Talks Radio 4.30-5pm Thursday Peace Talks Radio series tries to take back some media real estate for talk about making peace in our daily lives as well as to provide information on topics that relate to a more peaceful world – locally, nationally, and globally.

Connections Friday 8:30-9:30am Call-in program covering a wide range of topics. kgnu. org/connections Counterspin Monday 5:30-6:00am and 9:00-9:30am A critique and analysis of recent news coverage from F.A.I.R. (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting) Alan Watts Tuesday 9:00-9:30am Presentations from the late philosopher and author who specialized in presenting Eastern philosophy and spirituality to Western audiences.

Economic Update Thursday 4:00-4:30pm A weekly show hosted by Dr. Richard Wolff, who provides an analysis of macro and micro economic issues through the lens of a Marxist economist. kgnu.org/metro

impact of big corporations on society.

The Thom Hartmann Show Wednesday 4:00-5:00pm An hour-long show featuring award-winning author and progressive radio talk-show host Thom Hartmann.

Labor Exchange Every other Monday 6:00-6:30pm (alternates with La Lucha Sigue) Locally produced interviews with local and national labor activists and workers. kgnu.org/laborexchange.

La Lucha Sigue Every other Monday 6:00-6:30pm (alternates with Labor Exchange) Locally produced news about Latin America and the Caribbean. kgnu.org/laluchasigue Outsources Monday 6:30-7:00pm Locally produced Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender news and interviews. kgnu.org/outsources Hemispheres Tuesday 6:00-7:00pm Interviews and occasional call-in focused on international and national issues. kgnu.org/hemispheres Alternative Radio Wednesday 6:00-7:00pm Talks by and interviews with dissident writers, academics, and activists such as Noam Chomsky, Vandana Shiva, and Michael Parenti.

It’s The Economy Thursday 6:00-7:00pm Discussions on various aspects of the economy. kgnu. org/itstheeconomy

Metro Monday-Thursday 3:00-3:30pm Locally produced news and public affairs call-in show that Tributaries looks at issues affecting the community. kgnu.org/metro Sunday 12 noon-12:30pm Metro Arts Resistance Radio/Resistance Radio Calendar Interviews focused on healthy living. kgnu.org/tribuFriday 3:00-3:30pm Monday 8:25am taries Looking at groups, individuals and organizations that A weekly show featuring local arts news, from theater Living Dialogues reviews to author interviews. Includes the weekly metro are engaged in political and social justice activism.

Sunday 12:30-1:00pm arts calendar, a roundup of arts events along the Front Make Them Hear You! View of the New Consciousness. kgnu.org/livingdiaRange. The second Friday of every month features Cafe Wednesday 8:20am logues Nuba, with a focus on spoken word and slam poetry.

Make Them Hear You! is a weekly feature on KGNU, New Dimensions The Laura Flanders Show produced by Chris Mohr, informing listeners about Sunday 1:00-1:55pm Friday 3:30-4:00pm how they can get their voices heard on issues before Uncommon wisdom for unconventional times.

A weekly show featuring interviews with social critics, Congress. artists, activists, and entrepreneurs who are building Threads of Yoga Naturally tomorrow’s world today.

Sunday 1:55-2:00pm Wednesday 8:25am Yoga news.

Rising Up With Sonali Herbalist Brigitte Mars shares her wisdom on living Friday 4:00-5:00pm a natural life.

Bioneers Rising Up with Sonali is an all-women run show that Sunday 2:00-2:30pm Sensi: Cannabis News brings progressive news coverage rooted in gender Environmental/spiritual news.

Thursday 8:20am and racial justice to a wide audience hosted by Sonali Leland Rucker, the senior editor at Sensi Magazine, Kolhatkar.

W.I.N.G.S. joins us weekly to look at the latest news in cannabis Shortwave Report Sunday 2:30-3:00pm in Colorado and nationally.

Monday 3:30-4:00pm Women’s International News Gathering Service. News Radio Nibbles A 30-minute review of news stories broadcast over short- by and about women.

Thursday 8:25am wave radio from around the globe.

Indian Voices Local food and drink feature with John Lehndorff.

The Ralph Nader Radio Hour Sunday 3:00-4:00pm Monday 4:00-5:00pm Explores Native American issues, music, and culture.

TechTalks A weekly radio show featuring consumer advocate, kgnu.org/indianvoices Friday 8:25am lawyer, and author Ralph Nader.

High school students at the Innovation Center in Pasa La Voz Making Contact Longmont bring us a weekly report looking at how Sunday 4:00-5:00pm technology is being used in all aspects of society.

Tuesday 3:30-4:00pm Locally produced program aimed at informing the A weekly radio show that highlights vital grassroots Spanish-speaking community about topics including How On Earth voices. health and education. kgnu.org/pasalavoz Tuesday 8:32-9:00am Between the Lines Locally produced science show featuring long-form Sprouts interviews, features, and news about science. kgnu. Wednesday 3:30-4:00pm Sunday 5:00-5:30pm A weekly syndicated half-hour news magazine featuring org/howonearth Magazine of alternative news. progressive perspectives on national and international PoCo in BoCo political, economic and social issues.

Colorado Chinese Radio Network Second Monday of every month, 8:35-9:00am Sunday 5:30-6:00pm TUC Radio Tracey Jones and Nikhil Mankekar co-host a monthly Thursday 3:30-4:00pm News and Information for Chinese Immigrants. series looking at issues facing People of Color in kgnu.org/chinese A weekly program examining the untold stories of the Boulder County.

MUSIC

KGNU’s eclectic music format covers a wide range of styles and genres. Explore our airwaves and archives to find your favorites within our programming.

FREEFORM/ECLECTIC Morning Sound Alternative Weekdays 9:30am-12 noon Diverse and eclectic sounds, on the mellow side.

You’ll hear everything from ambient electronics to reggae to folk. afterfm.com/morning Afternoon Sound Alternative Weekdays 12 noon-3:00pm Diverse and eclectic sounds, on the more adventurous side. Tune in for everything from free jazz to hip-hop to Cumbia. afterfm.com/afternoon Sound Lab Saturday 7:00-8:00pm Adventures in freeformradio. afterfm.com/soundlab Sleepless Nights Nightly 12 midnight-3:00am Combines the aesthetics of the Morning and Afternoon Sound Alternatives, while leaving the door open for more extreme audio excursions. afterfm.com/latenight Restless Mornings Weekdays 3:00-5:30am; Saturday 3:00-6:00am; Sunday 3:00-7:00am Anything can happen as new DJs get their chops behind the mixing board. afterfm.com/practice

WEEKDAY SPECIALTY SHOWS The Opera Box Monday 7:00-8:00pm The start of our Monday evening Classical and modern composition programming. The Opera Box focuses on contemporary and vintage opera recordings and connecting the Colorado Opera community. afterfm.com/opera A Classic Monday Monday 8:00-10:00pm Explore the vast wealth that Classical music has to offer. afterfm.com/classical The Present Edge Monday 10:00pm-12 midnight Exploring the leading edge of contemporary Classical music, avant garde, and experimental sounds. afterfm.com/moderncomposition Kabaret Tuesday 7:00-8:00pm Local musicians and bands play live in KGNU’s performance studio. Kabaret has been a resource for Colorado’s music talent since 1978. afterfm.com/livelocal

¡Corriente!

Tuesday 8:00-10:00pm Join us for the music of Latin America, from traditional to modern. afterfm.com/latin The Heavy Set Tuesday 10:00pm-12 midnight The art of improvisation and the shape of jazz to come. The Heavy Set features cutting edge jazz from the past and present. afterfm.com/jazz Seolta Gael Wednesday 7:00-8:00pm A weekly exploration of Celtic music. afterfm.com/celtic Musica Mundi Wednesday 8:00-10:00pm “Music of the world,” traditional international music. afterfm.com/international Reggae Transfusion Wednesday 10:00pm-12 midnight Explores the full scope of reggae music by giving some of our newest reggae DJs the keys to the control room. afterfm.com/morereggae Highway 322 Thursday 7:00-8:00pm Folk music and Americana. afterfm.com/folk Ragtime America 1st, 2nd, and 4th and 5th Thursday 8:00-9:00pm Ragtime enthusiasts, rejoice! afterfm.com/ragtime Dixieland Marmalade 3rd Thursday 8:00-9:00pm Non-stop Dixieland recordings. afterfm.com/dixieland Swing Shift Thursday 9:00-10:00pm Music from the big band and swing era. afterfm.com/swing Jazz Lives Thursday 10:00pm-12 midnight Jazz with a focus on traditional, swing, and straightahead jazz. afterfm.com/traditionaljazz Blues Legacy Friday 6:00-9:00pm Kicking off Friday night with blues from vintage & contemporary recordings. afterfm.com/blues Dusty Grooves Friday 9:00-11:00pm Classic funk & soul. afterfm.com/funk Smash It Back!

Friday 11:00pm-12 midnight Classic punk and other junk. afterfm.com/punk

WEEKEND SPECIALTY SHOWS Honky Tonk Heroes Saturday 6:00-9:00am Classic country and new music steeped in that tradition. afterfm.com/country Old Grass Gnu Grass Saturday 9:00am-12 noon Bluegrass music from the traditional to the contemporary. afterfm.com/bluegrass TerraSonic Saturday 12 noon-1:00pm New traditions in international sound. afterfm.com/world Reggae Bloodlines Saturday 1:00-4:00pm Reggae and its roots: ska, rocksteady, dub, dance hall & more. The second longest running reggae show in the U.S. afterfm.com/reggae African Roots Saturday 4:00-6:00pm The only Colorado radio show focused on the music of Africa. afterfm.com/african The Grateful Dead Hour Saturday 8:00-9:00pm The only show on KGNU dedicated to a single band, this show presents recordings of the band’s live concerts, among others. gdhour.com Electronic Air Saturday 9:00-11:00pm House, IDM, breakbeat, and more. afterfm.com/electronic Under the Floorboards Saturday 11:00pm-12 midnight Obscure personally produced music and audio art. afterfm.com/diy Gospel Chime Hour Sunday 7:00-9:00am A weekly journey through the roots of Gospel music and its contemporary forms. afterfm.com/gospel Roots & Branches Sunday 9:00-11:00am Highlighting the traditions of American Folk music and the new permutations of this genre as interpreted by modern artists. afterfm.com/rootsandbranches eTown Sunday 11:00am-12 noon Musical variety show, taped before a live audience. etown.org Eclipse Sunday 7:00-10:00pm Colorado’s longest running hip-hop show. Old school sounds scratched with modern flavor. afterfm.com/eclipse Dub Palace Sunday 10:00pm-12 midnight An exploration into the past, present and future of dub. afterfm.com/dub

Many shows are archived and accessible on kgnu.org

KGNU Community Radio | 13

Free Audio Books for People Who Can’t Read Standard Print 1-800-685-2136 (toll free)

www.myctbl.org

6

OPEN DAILY 9am to 5pm 9 to 6 on Thursdays

14 | KGNU Magazine

Community-Powered Radio

StartsBecome witha KGNUyou Member For 40 years KGNU has operated as an independent, non-commercial radio station, broadcasting in Boulder, Denver, Nederland and Fort Collins and online at KGNU.org, AfterFM.com and News.KGNU.org.

Over 85 percent of KGNU’s funding comes directly from listeners and those who believe in our important mission of community access to our airwaves! Your support as a listener-member is vital.

Active members are the single largest source of funding for KGNU. You keep KGNU strong, community oriented, and independent!

BECOMING A MEMBER IS EASY!

We educate through our news, cultural/philosophical and music programs, providing a broad perspective on news and public affairs, cultural programming and eclectic music from all over the world.

We stimulate

and train hundreds of youth and adults each year to share their voices and creativity on the air-waves.

We entertain

through our diverse news, public affairs and music programs from all over the world.

Benefits of Investing in a Community Resource: KGNU Membership • F eeling good by supporting community education and entertainment • Mobile app media player that allows you to take KGNU with you 24/7 • Archives to download and play at your convenience (see playlists online at KGNU.ORG and AfterFM.com • Access to ticket giveaways all year • Member Discounts: special pricing for KGNU concerts and events

Member Discounts • B lack and Read Bookstore - 10% discount • Boulder County Arts Alliance - Eligible for the Member rate of BCAA’s Business of Arts Workshops • Boulder Financial Realty - Donates 5% (after tax) to KGNU plus 5% of any commission earned back to buyer, or any nonprofit of buyer’s choice • Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art - 2 for 1 admission • City Donuts - 20% discount • Denver Bike + Ski Repair - 15% off parts & accessories” (a one time only offer) • Denver Museum of Contemporary Arts - 2 for 1 admission • Mutiny Information Cafe - 10% discount • Nooch Vegan Market - 10% discount on groceries • Ozo Coffee - 10% discount • Twist and Shout Records - 10% discount • Wow! Children’s Museum - 2 for 1 admission

Go SOLR - Become a Sustainer of Local Radio Make a contribution of $5, $10, $15 or more a month with automatic monthly contributions.

It is easy on your budget and is ongoing so you won’t need to renew your membership.

SOLR members are also automatically entered into all drawings and are eligible to choose an annual thank-you gift.

JOIN NOW by visiting KGNU.org DROP BY during business hours BOULDER: 4700 Walnut St. 80301 OR CALL 303-449-4885 KGNU Community Radio | 15

KGNU’s New Annual Nonprofit and Small-Business Memberships By becoming a nonprofit or Small-Business Member of KGNU, your organization will gain significant exposure across the Front Range through on our on-air, digital, and print media channels. The KGNU footprint covers a large geographical area across the Front Range (Boulder, Denver and Fort Collins) with a potential 2.9 million listeners, in addition to our consistently growing online audience. We will connect our listeners to your cause or business, which may result in new supporters, clients and more! On top of that, you are also making the statement that you support a

true community asset.

BECOMING A MEMBER IS EASY!

JOIN NOW by visiting KGNU.org Come to KGNU’s Boulder studios at 4700 Walnut St., Boulder CO 80301 during business hours or call (303) 449-4885.

16 | KGNU Magazine

ANNUAL NONPROFIT MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS INCLUDE

ANNUAL SMALLBUSINESS MEMBERSHIP LEVELS

$200 - Friend of Community Radio

$500 – Friend of Community Radio

• L isting under nonprofit Members in KGNU’s annual Program Guide • Logo and link listed on our website on nonprofit Members Support page • 5 Sponsorship Mentions*

$500 - Patron of Community Radio

• L isting under Nonprofit Members in KGNU’s annual Program Guide • Logo and link listed on our website on Nonprofit Members Support page • 10 Sponsorship Mentions on-air* • Business Card Ad in KGNU’s annual Program Guide, distributed to 15,000 across the Front Range

$1,000 - Steward of Community Radio

• L isting under Nonprofit Members in KGNU’s annual Program Guide • Logo and link listed on our website on Nonprofit Members Support page • 2 Free Tickets to one of KGNU’s annual Signature events (The Charles or Mardi Gras) • 20 Sponsorship Mentions on-air* • ¼ page Ad in KGNU’s annual Program Guide, distributed to 15,000 across the Front Range • An additional 10% off nonprofit underwriting rates

$1,500 - Partner of Community Radio

• L isting under Nonprofit Members in KGNU’s annual Program Guide • Logo and link listed on our website on Nonprofit Members Support page • 2 Free Tickets to one of KGNU’s annual Signature events (The Charles or Mardi Gras) • 25 Sponsorship Mentions on-air* • 1/2 Page Ad in KGNU’s annual Program Guide, distributed to 15,000 across the Front Range • An additional 15% off nonprofit underwriting rates

* Sponsor Mentions are 10-second mentions that can be aired during select programs.

Example: “This show is supported by the KGNU listener member and [non profit name]. More information at [non profit name] dot org.”

• L isting under Business Members in KGNU’s annual Program Guide • Logo and link listed on our website on Small Business Members Support Page • 2 complimentary tickets to one of KGNU’s annual Signature events (The Charles Sawtelle Memorial Mtn. Jam in Gold Hill or out annual Mardi Gras Dance) • 5 Underwriting spots on-air • Business Card Ad in KGNU’s annual Program Guide, distributed to 15,000 across the Front Range

$1,000 – Steward of Community Radio

• L isting under Business Members in KGNU’s annual Program Guide • Logo and link listed on our website on Small Business Members Support Page • KGNU’s annual Signature events (The Charles or Mardi Gras) • 4 complimentary tickets to one of KGNU’s annual Signature events (The Charles or Mardi Gras) • 15 Underwriting spots on-air • ¼ page Ad in KGNU’s annual Program Guide, distributed to 15,000 across the Front Range • 10% off underwriting rates

$2,000 – Partner of Community Radio

• L isting under Business Members in KGNU’s annual Program Guide • Logo and link listed on our website on Small Business Members Support Page • Table display at one of KGNU’s annual Signature events (The Charles or Mardi Gras) • 6 complimentary tickets to one of KGNU’s annual Signature events (The Charles or Mardi Gras) • 30 Underwriting spots on-air • 1 Full Page Ad in KGNU’s annual Program Guide, distributed to 15,000 across the Front Range • 15% off underwriting rates

Questions? Contact Sarah@kgnu.org or call (303) 449-4885.

A New Generation of wave makers resa Halsey from Indian Voices, and Jorge Cisneros from Pasa la Voz talked to the youth about their shows and they are produced.

KGNU’s Media Gardens

By Luz Ruiz “One, two, three, check, check, mic check.”

“Uno, dos, tres, probando, probando, probando.”

KGNU’s Media Gardens is a project designed to engage bilingual youth through the exploration of media, music, and culture in the digital and analog frontiers. Participants in the Media Gardens become seeds who amplify youth voices and perspectives from their community by gaining critical media literacy skills and media production skills.

Since the summer of 2017, KGNU has worked with the Longmont Youth Center, The Youth Opportunities Advisory Board in Boulder, Genesisters Boulder, and Genesisters Longmont.

Youth between 13 and 16 years of age have learned to use the basic tools for radio production and developed stories to voice their experiences, thoughts, dreams, and passions.

During the workshops, participants learn to record and voice, to script their stories, and go through the cycle of recording their stories in the KGNU studios, editing and preparing their productions to go on air.

“Be proud of who you are.”

The workshops go beyond skill building and access to the radio station, also providing opportunities for intergenerational sharing of experiences. During one summer workshop, a group visited the KGNU Boulder studios, where Station Manager Tim Russo gave them a tour of the station. Later, Leo-Griep Ruiz from the shows La Lucha Sigue and ¡Corriente!, The-

When the seasoned producers began to share their stories about how they got started at KGNU, and the work they dedicated to forging spaces where Spanish language programming, news and information from Spanish-speaking and Caribbean countries, Native American history, voices and traditions were aired each week and became accepted in regular programming, the tone in the room changed. In a moment of connection, an emotional Teresa Halsey said to the youth, “Be proud of who are.” In the current political climate, with the recent upsurge of hate and white nationalism, spaces where young people of color can acknowledge their roots, history, and culture, and tap into them as a source of strength and dignity, are much needed, valued, and celebrated.

A diversity of youth voices and experiences are crucial for a rich, informative, and creative media landscape that enables the growth of civic participation that strengthens community.

The Media Gardens initiative gives more young voices the opportunity to participate in the great community resource that is KGNU Community Radio.

AMPLIFY In 2017, KGNU began partnering with CU Engage, the Center for Community-Based Learning and Research at CU Boulder to create AMPLIFY: Stories of University-Community Collaborations, which aims to boost the voices of students and community partners who are generating new knowledge and actions to address public challenges. Each show unites community partners with university students, staff, instructors, and faculty to talk about the real collaborative work happening on the ground.

One recent show featured students involved in CU Boulder’s Aquetza Summer Program for Colorado’s high school youth interested in

learning about Latinx/Chicanx history in a Colorado and US context.

Another show featured engineering students from CU who are developing assistive technology that supports people living with developmental, cognitive, and physical challenges.

AMPLIFY is broadcast on the fourth Wednesday of the month at 9:00 AM.

THE BRINK

By KGNU News Department KGNU is partnering with several departments at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder), offering students not actually majoring in journalism an opportunity to create media that augments their academic and community work.

In 2017, KGNU launched a series called The Brink, a radio storytelling project about what is needed to transition to a more just environment and society. It is a project of Assistant Professor David Ciplet’s graduate course Power, Justice and Climate Change in the Environmental Studies Program at CU Boulder, in partnership with KGNU and the Just Transition Collaborative.

The stories that aired in the first series examined issues from homelessness to toxic contamination, fracking to immigration, The Brink tells stories of inequality, struggle and transformation. The word “brink” has dual meaning: that which exists at the margins and a critical turning point.

In 2018, KGNU is once again working with graduate students on a second series of The Brink with stories ranging from the environmental footprint of electronic waste to the lack of electricity in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.

KGNU Community Radio | 17

The

Up Rising

Listening to Sonali Kolhatkar’s show Rising Up with Sonali (Fridays from 4:00-5:00pm on KGNU), it’s easy to envision a newsroom clacking with reporters, interns, and the din of producing each day’s segments. But Sonali said it is “two women doing the work of ten”: Sonali and her Senior Producer, Anna Buss. The duo work out of a tiny office space subdivided into multiple zones that function as offices, studios, and equipment areas, painted in brilliant colors and bedecked with Sonali’s artworks.

“We don’t have any options besides the two of us,” Sonali said when asked whether she wants to expand this operation. “My senior producer, Anna Buss, is doing the video production work and I am hosting, and in between doing interviews, I am sending requests for interviews for the next day. Anna does social media postings as well. We juggle, juggle, juggle. We talk about what we would do if we had another person to book my interviews. There’s literally no room for in-house interns.”

Given Sonali’s facility with audio and visual communication, you’d never guess she has not always been a journalist. That is a story unto itself: in 2014, she gave a TED talk called “My Journey from Astrophysicist to Radio Host, or How I Found Meaning in My Life.” Sonali’s talk recounts how, moved by the plight and resistance of the Afghan women under the Taliban, she started investigating the Taliban’s activities, and learned of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). RAWA were fighting their oppression by digitally recording and sharing images and information about their mistreatment. Sonali

18 | KGNU Magazine

of Sonali Kolhatkar

By Risë Keller

showed up at KPFK, her resume in hand. She was hired.

“Working with RAWA got me started on my path to journalism and thinking about spending my workday doing something meaningful, and not just as a volunteer,” Sonali told me. emailed RAWA, which led her to learn more and communicate more about what she was learning, found a nonprofit to support Afghan women, and help a group of the Afghan women of RAWA tour the US to raise awareness and funding.

“In my 16 years of doing this, and as a human being, I’ve never seen anything like this news cycle.”

—Sonali Kolhatkar After 9/11, Sonali found she had become a subject matter expert; she had many speaking engagements and invitations to participate in panel discussions and offer commentary on current events. “You should be on the radio,” a friend told her after a speech, planting a seed that grew in Sonali’s mind.

As Sonali started writing, she found her footing as a journalist. In journalism, she found the meaning that had been missing in her previous work as an astrophysicist, “writing code eight hours a day” at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech). Sonali quit her CalTech job, and as her friend had recommended, and she

“My background in science was inadvertently helpful,” Sonali said. “I love science. I feel that if journalists are not trained in science, they ought to be. After all, journalism is the process of trying to understand our political and social world from a framework of logic and rationality, and building from basics to understand big-picture issues.”

When asked about the power of radio to reach its listeners, Sonali commented, “Radio is still a great way to reach masses of people at a low cost.... I think there’s still a place for radio, but it occupies a smaller piece of the pie now than it did 20 years ago. Innovative radio producers know this and understand how to be very creative with their audio.”

Sonali reflected on changes since she became a journalist. “The news cycle is so fast now; it makes it hard to keep up. We tape our shows, and sometimes we finish around 1:00am. By the end of our taping, something will happen and [what we just taped] is not news anymore. In my 16 years of doing this, and as a human being, I’ve never seen anything like this news cycle.”

Reflecting on her work in journalism, Kolhatkar said, “It’s become more urgent.”

Lipstick and Dog Treats

The Glamorous Life of Journalist Laura Flanders

By Risë Keller ber-one tool for building empathy, understanding, fellow-feeling, and creativity.”

“The stories we tell have lives we could never predict,” Laura said. “Recently I was surprised to do an interview with two people in Baltimore who are building a garden across the street from where Freddie Gray was killed. I asked them where they got the idea, and they told me the idea for their basement hothouse came from one of our shows. [Mansfield Frazier, of Chateau Hough] was building vineyards and basement greenhouses in Cleveland. The women in Baltimore brought Frazier to visit them and see their project.”

Every Friday afternoon on KGNU, listeners tune into the Laura Flanders Show, “Where the people who say it can’t be done take a back seat to the ones who are doing it,” as Laura says at the close of each episode. Before launching her radio (and Free Speech TV) show, Laura served as founding director of the women’s desk at the media-watch organization Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR).

Laura’s voice may also sound familiar from her years of hosting FAIR’s syndicated radio show CounterSpin.

needed to learn more. Instead of going to my graduation in 1985, I went to Northern Ireland.

I did my thesis on the question of whether the women of the IRA [Irish Republican Army] were feminists. I decided they were.”

Radio is a medium of connection, not of contention.

Radio is the number-one tool for building empathy, understanding, fellowfeeling, and creativity.

Laura spoke with me the morning after the White House Correspondents Dinner, which “gives the worst picture of our profession: that you have to play footsie with power.” Laura said “being chummy with powerful people” was never her motivation to become a journalist, adding, “I was fortunate to have lots of models in my family.” Laura’s sister and uncles were journalists, as was her grandfather.

Laura continued, “I grew up with the conflict in Northern Ireland being called ‘the Troubles.’

I learned that in Northern Ireland, this was called ‘the Troubles with England.”

“It became obvious to me that I was interested in journalism when I started looking at the history between England and Northern Ireland,” Laura said. “I had been involved with the women’s peace movement in England and in the US, but Irish women asked me, ‘What about British troops on Irish soil?’ I realized I

Laura rhapsodized about radio’s unique qualities as a medium for journalism. “There’s never been a time when radio was more important than it is today. Explaining, outraging, and educating are outside-in activities. Radio is an inside-out experience. It’s a medium of connection, not of contention. Radio is the num-

—Laura Flanders

Laura recalled a time when people needed an editor or other gatekeeper’s permission to publish, before they could simply post their writing or video on the internet. “Today, a person can have a high-definition camera in their phone.

They can be writing and reporting minute by minute about things that are happening. So the opportunities are greater than they ever were.”

She added, “The best journalists are the ones that just tell their truth. They don’t decide or think about being journalists. They’re people who are good listeners, people who are curious.”

I asked Laura what she had in her pockets. “I’d like to say one of the things in my pocket is my handy-dandy clip-on microphone that goes with my iPhone, but that’s in my bag. What I really have in my pockets is lipstick and a dog treat. I try not to put the wrong one near my mouth! That tells you something about my life.”

“Keeping at it” is what Laura says makes her feel good about persisting as a journalist.

“Against all the odds, [The Laura Flanders Show has] managed to survive, and to be the place for people to come for different kinds of information.”

KGNU Community Radio | 19

How to Dismantle a

Doomsday Machine D R . DAN IEL ELLS BER G TALK S W ITH KGN U N EW S D IR EC TO R MAEVE C O N R AN

Dr. Daniel Ellsberg is a former defense analyst renowned as the whistleblower who revealed the Pentagon Papers to the American public. While working at the RAND Corporation, he shared top-secret documents with The New York Times and The Washington Post that exposed decades of disinformation about the extent of US involvement in Vietnam and the potential for the US to affect the outcome of that conflict. In advance of a benefit for KGNU and the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center in April 2018, Dr. Ellsberg spoke with KGNU News Director Maeve Conran in March 2018.

MC: Let’s talk about your new book, “The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner.” Your job back then was to update the nuclear plans left by President Eisenhower. What were those plans?

DE: They were plans for an all-out war with the Soviet Union and China, in the event of any armed conflict with Russian soldiers anywhere in the world. Eisenhower’s plan was 20 | KGNU Magazine

to not fight a limited war, which he was sure would escalate, but to go immediately to a US first strike. The idea was that the Sino-Soviet block must be destroyed, whether the Chinese had anything to do with it or not. The overall deaths expected from the joint chiefs in the event of such a war, deaths inflicted by our own weapons, without even considering Soviet retaliation, amounted to some 600 million. That’s 100 Holocausts inflicted by our own weapons, including about 100 million deaths in West Europe of our NATO allies from the fallout of the attacks in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. My goal at that time was to dismantle that plan. I was given a good crack at it under Secretary McNamara, but it didn’t have any real effect in the long run.

MC: You have said that wasn’t just a crime against humanity but a crime against the existence of the human species.

DE: There’s really no language for it, no legal category.

MC: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock says it’s now two minutes to midnight. How concerned are you about the potential for nuclear war right now?

DE: I’m very concerned about the possibility of war with North Korea, which in itself does not threaten nuclear winter. North Korea doesn’t have enough cities to burn to produce that. And they don’t have enough weapons to produce nuclear winter from their attacks on South Korea or Japan. “ On the nuclear side, Reagan scared people the way Trump is scaring them now. Conceivably, that could resuscitate a movement that doesn’t exist yet. The dangers, I think, are comparable to those in the early 1980s when we had the Nuclear Freeze movement, for example.”

But we’re rehearsing attacking them and assassinating their leader. So they could have a false alarm over there that leads to preemption. What would follow would be an era of small nuclear wars. But as with the example of North Korea, a lot of countries would arm themselves with nuclear weapons to try to deter that from happening to them. We have a chance now to dismantle the Doomsday Machines by getting rid of our ICBMs, by eliminating “launch on warning,” by eliminat-

ing many of our submarine missiles but not necessarily all of them. By doing this, you could make it impossible to cause nuclear winter.

MC: It seems there’s very little public recognition of the danger and certainly not official recognition. The US is the only country to deploy nuclear weapons against another country – Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan – yet the US consistently takes the moral high ground in global discussions about who gets to have nuclear weapons. What are the implications of the fact that the US has never fully owned its own devastating nuclear history?

DE: DE: That’s on the whole pretty human.

The Germans, to a very unusual degree, have owned up to and recognized the danger they pose to the world and the harm they did in WWII. I think it’s not possible to understand how we’ve come to pose this threat of nuclear war…. In other words, humans all over would rather not know. That’s where we are now with respect to the Doomsday Machines. In the world to a degree, but above all in the United States, we’re in a state of denial of nuclear winter.

MC: It has been 40 years since the civil disobedience in April 1978 that blocked the tracks where trains carried the components for nuclear triggers to the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant in Colorado. Your coming to Colorado then, the arrests, and the civil disobedience lifted the shroud of secrecy around Rocky Flats. Yet that secrecy still remains. Now, people are moving to this area who are unaware of this toxic legacy. What would you say to those who weren’t there 40 years ago who are taking the government’s word that Rocky Flats no longer has any toxins that can hurt you?

DE: I know there remains an effort by people who participated [in the protests] 40 years ago. I have continued to point out that Rocky Flats itself remains terribly polluted. The idea of encouraging people, even animals, to wander outside, to walk in the plutonium pollution and other toxins in that area, is despicable.

But even greater than these so-called local dangers is the global threat. These weapons now reproduced by the program of “modernization”: this is the reconstruction of the Doomsday Machine... There’s a lot of justified criticism of Trump’s new nuclear policy, which adds new functions for nuclear weapons.

MC: Back in the late 1970s and ’80s there was a huge amount of activism and awareness about the potential of nuclear war. Do you see activism that can be compared to what we saw back then?

DE: The obvious answer is no. There is no such level of awareness at all. There is a considerable level of awareness on a comparable existential threat to civilization and even humanity: climate change. On the one hand, we see a party and a president in power devoted to open denial. They just deny that there is any man-made climate change. But at least there is a controversy about it, a considerable movement, and a lot of civil disobedience and activism.

On the nuclear side, Reagan scared people the way Trump is scaring them now. Conceivably, that could resuscitate a movement that doesn’t exist yet. The dangers, I think, are comparable to those in the early 1980s when we had the Nuclear Freeze movement, for example. Earlier than that [were the protests at] Rocky Flats and comparable civil disobedience in Europe, and in Germany. I’m very glad to see people commemorating the work of the Rocky Flats protesters 40 years ago.

KGNU Community Radio | 21

Nancy MacLean:

Radical Power

Origins of Right-Wing Nancy MacLean is the award-winning author of Behind the Mask of Chivalry, a New York Times “noteworthy” book of the year, Freedom is Not Enough and Democracy in Chains. She is the Chafe Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University.

U N IVER S ITY OF W IS C O N S IN , MAD ISON 5 O C TO BER 2017 FR O M ALTER N ATIVE R ADIO

American politics are in crisis. A government that is supposed to be of, by, and for the people is in crisis. Even elementary norms of civic decency and truth are in crisis. You know this. It has become abundantly clear of late to anyone who might not have been paying close attention before.

But what you might be struggling to figure out is how we got here and what that means. The watershed that we’ve reached in our public life now has been fed by many streams, some of which have received extensive attention.

Those streams include the movement conservatism that made Barry Goldwater the Republican candidate for president in 1964, just after his vote against the Civil Rights Act of that year. Another and related stream is the religious right. Then there is the white supremacist right, which has lately been trying to rebrand itself. All of these are important and have produced the votes to effect radical policy change.

I believe the missing piece as to how we got into the dangerous situation in which we now find ourselves are the ideas guiding the billionaire-backed radical right made notorious

by Charles Koch. I believe these ideas are the crucial piece that we have missed because they explain so much that otherwise seems mysterious. It’s also crucial, I believe, because knowing about this piece may equip citizens such as all of us in this room to lead the way out of this mess before it is too late.

Because I think there is an unmarked peril in

22 | KGNU Magazine

our situation right now, and that is that the noisiest threats are getting the most attention, among them the chronic race baiting and bullying coming from the White House.

But that spectacle—that daily, constant, nonstop spectacle—is drawing nearly all media and voter attention as an even more menacing plan is moving along apace.

You’ve heard a lot in the last several years, at least until the election of Donald Trump, about the fortune that Charles Koch has been investing in changing our politics. But what you may likely not have heard about is the ideas, the technology, as Charles Koch refers to them, that have made those investments so devastatingly effective. It’s important to know that Koch had been funding libertarian intellectuals for three decades before he began to apply this technology in earnest and now we can see that it has been devastatingly effective.

In the course of my research I learned that it was an academic economist who taught Charles Koch that for capitalism of the variety that they want to thrive, democracy must be enchained. Kansas-based Charles Koch has spent most of his adult life, when he wasn’t

building Koch Industries into one of the largest privately held corporations in the world, trying to find a way to make our country and the world, in fact, conform to his arch vision of economic liberty, a kind of free-rein capitalism akin to the 19th century variant that was skewered so brilliantly by Charles Dickens. That was also the kind of capitalism that brought us The Great Depression and the polarization between fascism and communism after World War I. Koch’s vision is an audacious one and a dangerous one. He is, to my mind, playing with fire, but it is the rest of us who will get burned.

Thanks to pressure from the Koch donor network, led by Charles Koch and the organizations he funds, the radical rich are seeking to achieve a kind of binding constitutional change without informing the public of their true goals. And, thanks to assiduous organizing by the apparatus that these arch-right donors fund and a Republican Party that they have all but taken over, with the threat of primary challenges—again, another new verb in our public life, to be “primaried”; we didn’t used to have that, but that’s how they keep elected officials subservient to the donors rather than accountable to the voters—and the promise of dark money if they obey the donors, this cause now has in place 27 of the 34 states needed to call a constitutional convention—27 of 34.

Just to be clear, we have not had a constitutional convention in America since 1787,

when that the document was crafted by people who went to Philadelphia and did something other than what they were charged with doing. So there are rules on how you choose delegates, how the process is set up to create such a convention. But once you get to this convention, it’s open season: The people there can do what they want and change the constitution as they will. The Koch network is coming into such a convention with about 10 what they call “liberty amendments” already in mind that would radically change our government and that would essentially undermine the kind of government that citizen action since the 1890s has asked for. We are perhaps a few years away from this at the rate things are going, so it’s really serious stuff.

What I watched unfold as a resident of in North Carolina starting in 2010, was a stunning barrage of radical rules changes on this model, one after another. Extreme gerrymandering to misrepresent the will of the voters.

New measures to undermine workers’ rights to organize in unions, particularly public-sector unions, but not only those unions. Attacks on public education at all levels and radical cuts in funding for it while siphoning off public resources to private schools that were under no legal accountability to teach students anything. (This is in the words of a judge.) Repeal of a hard-won racial justice act to ensure

fairness in policing and in the legal system.

Refusal to accept the Medicaid expansion of the Affordable Care Act despite a crying need for healthcare among people who made too much to get Medicaid and too little to be able to afford to buy healthcare. Rolling back measures to protect the environment and reduce global warming. They threw out all of this, ending transparency and normal measures of governing, like hearings. And then to cap it all off, what has come to be known as the monster voter suppression act, that had some 15 different elements of ways of keeping away from the polls people who disagreed with this, including young people, including students.

Also unsettling, though, was watching how all the critics of all this, good, well intentioned people who were shocked by the U-turn their beloved state was taking, were missing the deep operational strategy that unified all these far-flung measures. People genuinely could not see that the men pushing this agenda were not misinformed about the likely consequences of the agenda they were ramming through; they fully understood that it would inflict grievous harm on many of their fellow citizens, but they believed that their endgame was worth that price. They were, you could say, in cold calculation “letting the chips fall where they may.”

To wit, the libertarian morality says that it

would be better to have people die from lack of healthcare than to receive it from government, from taxes paid by others. That really ultimately is what the architects of this cause mean when they talk about personal responsibility. They mean that you should be on your own. If you fail to save for all of your future needs, you deserve your fate. Witnessing your suffering will also have educational value: It will teach others to save.

I have had six women in my life who have had breast cancer, including my own stepmother. I know and I think you know, if you know anyone who has had a serious illness in our society, that there is absolutely no way to save for catastrophic illness, just like there is no way to save for a long period of unemployment, just like there is no way to save on your own for your retirement. But according to this libertarian cause, that’s really the dream society—that each one of us, from the time we’re sentient, should be having private savings accounts for all of those needs.

All of this and more is at risk right now. We have to ask ourselves, is what this cause seeks the kind of country that we want to live in and bequeath to our children and future generations? That is the real public choice. If we delay our response much longer, those who are imposing their stark utopia will choose for us.

WHERE LIVE MUSIC RESOUNDS.

Unplug and tune in.

coloradofests.com & facebook.com/ coloradofests

5th ANNUAL

MAR 22-24 2019

6th ANNUAL

APRIL 27-29 2018

1st ANNUAL

SEPT 28 & 29 2018

2 nd ANNUAL

nov 16 17 & 18 2018

OCT 3rd ANNUAL 20

More music.

Less show.

Where music resounds

Music for you. Music for all.

Take a break from streaming and start experienceing.

24 | KGNU Magazine

concerts classes community

GLIDER PILOT SINGLE FATHER CANCER SURVIVOR BEEF STROGANOFF HERB FOCACCIA ROSEMARY

Lift Up

bringing health & humanity to the table F O R T H OSE W H O N E E D I T M OST, R EG A R D L ESS O F AG E O R I N CO M E W W W. M OW B O U L D E R . O R G

A child's voice A child's life Help an abused or neglected child.

Become a CASA.

www.vfccasa.org

CYCLIST AIR FORCE VETERAN CHRONIC ILLNESS SALMON BROCCOLI RABE RED RICE

Whatever you ride, Wherever you ride, We’re there for you.

WWW . bicyclecolorado . or g

KGNU Community Radio | 25

0 5 TOP

that album releases 18 20 e th s ow sh st Check The following li KGNU this year. at y la rp ai st e mo from 2018: have received th releases so far te ri vo fa 50 p to out our DJs’

KHRUANGBIN CON TODO EL MUNDO | DEAD OCEANS 2 CHRIS SMITHER CALL ME LUCKY | SIGNATURE SOUNDS RECORDINGS 3 THE JAMES HUNTER SIX WHATEVER IT TAKES | DAPTONE 4 I'M WITH HER SEE YOU AROUND | ROUNDER RECORDS 5 JOHN GORKA TRUE IN TIME | BLUE CHALK RECORDS 6 TY SEGALL FREEDOM'S GOBLIN | DRAG CITY RECORDS 7 TUNE-YARDS I CAN FEEL YOU CREEP INTO MY PRIVATE LIFE | 4AD 8 FY5 THE WAY THESE THINGS GO | SWINGFINGERS RECORDS 9 JOAN BAEZ WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND | RAZOR & TIE 10 DEXTER PAYNE QUINTET JAZZ FOR ALL | DEXOFON RECORDS 11 KRONOS QUARTET & LAURIE ANDERSON LANDFALL | NONESUCH 12 HOLLIE COOK VESSEL OF LOVE | MERGE RECORDS 13 SUUNS FELT | SECRETLY CANADIAN 14 U.S. GIRLS IN A POEM UNLIMITED | 4AD 15 CALEXICO THE THREAD THAT KEEPS US | ANTI 16 IMARHAN TEMET | WEDGE 17 NORDIC RAGA NORDIC RAGA | RIVERBOAT 18 DR. LONNIE SMITH ALL IN MY MIND | BLUE NOTE 19 YO LA TENGO THERE'S A RIOT GOING ON | MATADOR RECORDS 20 CAROLINE ROSE LONER | NEW WEST RECORDS 21 ANNA BURCH QUIT THE CURSE | POLYVINYL 22 THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS I LIKE FUN | IDLEWILD RECORDINGS 23 PETER ROWAN CARTER STANLEY'S EYES | REBEL RECORDS 24 THE PRICE SISTERS A HEART NEVER KNOWS | REBEL RECORDS 25 STEEP CANYON RANGERS OUT IN THE OPEN | RAMSEUR RECORDS 1

26 | KGNU Magazine

Top DJ Picks from 2017 KGNU’s music programming offers a diverse selection of styles and genres.

Check out our DJs’ favorite releases from 2017:

BLUEGRASS:

Tim O’Brien

Where the River Meets the Road Howdy Skies Records

BLUES:

Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’ TajMo Concord Records

CELTIC:

Socks in the Frying Pan Without a Paddle Self Produced

CLASSICAL:

Yo-Yo Ma, Chris Thile & Edgar Meyer Bach Trios Nonesuch

COUNTRY:

Marty Stuart And His Fabulous Superlatives Way Out West Superlatone Records

FOLK:

Rhiannon Giddens Freedom Highway Nonesuch

t r a h c continued. . .

26

27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

JANIVA MAGNESS LOVE IS AN ARMY | BLUE ELAN RECORDS VARIOUS THE BEST COUNTRY BLUES YOU'VE NEVER HEARD | WORLD MUSIC NETWORK BOB LIVINGSTON UP THE FLATLAND STAIRS | HOWLIN' DOG RECORDS VARIOUS AFRICAN SCREAM CONTEST 2 | ANALOG AFRICA FEMI KUTI ONE PEOPLE ONE WORLD | KNITTING FACTORY RECORDS AFRIKA MAMAS IPHUPHO | ARC MUSIC SONIDO GALLO NEGRO MAMBO COSMICO | GLITTERBEAT JIMI HENDRIX BOTH SIDES OF THE SKY | LEGACY YOUNG FATHERS COCOA SUGAR | NINJA TUNE DAVID BYRNE AMERICAN UTOPIA | VIDEO MUSIC INC THE GO! TEAM SEMICIRCLE | MEMPHIS INDUSTRIES KYLE CRAFT FULL CIRCLE NIGHTMARE | SUB POP Brass Quintet & Tymoczko: Rube FLEXIBLE MUSIC, Atlantic Amernet String Quartet Goldberg Variations | BRIDGE RECORDS LETITIA VANSANT GUT IT TO THE STUDS | SELF PRODUCED 3HATTRIO LORD OF THE DESERT | OKEHDOKEE RECORDS ERIK PHILLIPS ONE | JOY VOID SIDI TOURÉ TOUBALBERO | THRILL | JOCKEY PAÏAKA THE LINE | FLOWER COAST TOUBAB KREWE STYLO | SELF PRODUCED BELLE AND SEBASTIAN HOW TO SOLVE OUR HUMAN PROBLEMS | MATADOR LOMA LOMA | SUB POP BAHAMAS EARTHTONES | BRUSHFIRE RECORDS APPLESAUCE TEARS PASTORAL | BLACK COTTAGE THE SHINS THE WORM'S HEART | AURAL APOTHECARY/COLUMBIA BEDBUG I'LL COUNT TO HEAVEN IN YEARS WITHOUT SEASONS | JOY VOID

TOP DJ PICKS FROM 2017, CONT’D.

GOSPEL:

The Como Mamas Move Upstairs Daptone Records

HIP-HOP:

Milo

Who Told You To Think??!!?!?!?!

Ruby Yacht / The Order Label

INTERNATIONAL:

Oumou Sangaré Mogoya No Format!

JAZZ:

Trombone Shorty

Parking Lot Symphony Blue Note Records

MODERN COMPOSITION:

Third Coast Percussion

Reich: Mallet Quartet, Sextet, Nagoya Marimbas & Music for Pieces of Wood Cedille Records

R&B/SOUL:

Mavis Staples

If All I Was Was Black Anti

RAGTIME:

Jim Turner

Magic Fingers: A Tribute to Johnny Guarnieri Solo Art Records

REGGAE:

Thievery Corporation The Temple Of I & I Ingrooves

ROCK:

Chicano Batman Freedom Is Free ATO Records

ELECTRONIC:

Bonobo

Migration Ninja Tune

AMBIENT:

Eluvium

Shuffle Drones Temporary Residence Ltd

Roots of Culture:

40 years of

Reggae Bloodlines

F EEL T H E P U L SE O F S K A , R O CK STEA DY, D U B, RO C KER S , DA NCE H A LL, AN D MORE O N T HE S E CO ND LON GE ST-RU N N IN G R E G GA E M U S I C S H OW IN T H E U SA, E V E RY SAT UR DAY A F TERN O O N O N KG N U

By Deeprawk Dave Ashton With Reggae music’s near ubiquity on Colorado’s music scene in 2018, it’s not easy to imagine that 40 years ago, as KGNU was taking shape, it was a barren land, Reggaematically speaking. Enter Donovan Makha, stepping hot off the plane from Jamaica and toting two suitcases loaded with music.

At a concert on the CU campus, Donovan met two CU students, Ashley and Carden; the three talked about bringing Reggae to the airwaves.

Ashley and Carden were privy to a new Boulder radio station. While then-Denver resident Makha knocked on radio-station doors around Denver, Ashley and Carden secured the trio a Saturday slot on KGNU. Donovan praises the visionaries at KGNU, specifically “hip, young, black CU student” Steve Chavis. Initial broadcasts were no more than 30 minutes. After two years, the students graduated and moved away. “I was the one still holding it down, until now…. I’m the only idiot on the planet who thinks that 40 years of volunteering is feasible,” says Donovan with a smile.

Makha was uniquely suited to hold the microphone, as he had unusual access to the blossoming Reggae scene as a child in Kingston.

His family home was blocks from both the National Stadium and National Arena, so he could make money cleaning up after large concerts.

Donovan got to know the late great radio host and DJ “ET” Errol Thompson of the Jamaican Broadcast Corporation. Makha says hearing ET on JBC Radio, seeing him on stage, and speaking with him made DJing conceivable.

The Reggae Bloodlines concept was not only about playing music, but was also about the

28 | KGNU Magazine

unsung creators of the music, as well as what the music represents culturally.

“Reggae music doesn’t get so commercialized because it’s like a magazine. It’s like a newspaper. Whatever’s happening in Jamaica, you can listen to reggae music, and know what’s going on.” The show shares the title and timing of the epochal book Reggae Bloodlines, by Steven Davis and Peter Simon, published in 1977.

“To this day, 40 years in the making, Reggae Bloodlines continues to provide listeners with a direct link to what reggae music was, is, and continues to be. Revolutionary music, content, and hosts all carrying the torch of reggae music every Saturday since 1978, Reggae Bloodlines is greater than great.”—DJ BloodPreshah Why share the KGNU Reggae program’s name with this book and a small Jamaican record label? Because Reggae Bloodlines is about the interconnectedness of the musicians who have shaped the music. Some of the biggest reggae hits of the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s were played by people who received no compensation, and many fans of the music are unfamiliar with

the struggles of the musicians playing on big hit records. Every year Makha puts together a Memorial Day show to celebrate Reggae’s late musicians, artists, and producers.

In that spirit, we acknowledge the impact of the late “Postman” Roger Gillies, who began trading off shows with Donovan in 1987 and continued as a regular Reggae Bloodlines host until 2011. Postman Roger was known for playing classic tunes and delving into his massive collection of rarities for material unlikely heard elsewhere. He is remembered by longtime listeners as a true music lover and archival champion.

If Donovan is on the air, everyone is welcome to join him. He sees his role as the radio operator, and wants the audience to make requests.

Playing requests and bringing community voices into the broadcast can make the show an unpredictable ride.

“My thing is hectic. People don’t know the stress that I am under. If you were in there with me you would see it. What I do is an unorthodox kind of radio. Nowadays, with the advent of the internet and all these thousands of streaming sources for music, radio should be interactive.

For me, what I do is interactive, it has to be.

If I just come and play some records, anybody could do it. It’s not rocket surgery.”

The impressive collective of DJs currently showcased on Reggae Bloodlines includes Ewket Assefa, DJ BloodPreshah, DJ K-Nee, Jahsonic, and KGNU’s outgoing Board of Directors Chair Jon “J-Dub” Walton, rocket surgeons all.

Old Grass Gnu Grass

BY I ND R A R A J

A KGNU Saturday Morning Staple

For many of us, Saturday morning wouldn’t be Saturday morning without a big cup of joe and a healthy dose of Old Grass Gnu Grass. KGNU’s flagship bluegrass show, Old Grass Gnu Grass began within one year of the station’s sign-on in 1978, and our beloved DJs have delighted listeners with the sounds of bluegrass music ever since.

Old Grass Gnu Grass received its name from one of the show’s original DJs, Steve Carnes, who was inspired by Bill Keith’s 1976 release, “Something Auld, Something Newgrass, Something Borrowed, Something Bluegrass.”

Along with Steve, KGNU’s earliest bluegrass DJs included Richie Mintz, Alan Ehrlich, Joan (Nondi) Wernick, Fergus Stone, and Dave Higgs. Later on, the program would welcome more DJs, including Jack Rummel, Dan West, Robin Claire, Steve Vavra, Windy Gap, Nicole Elmore, Danny Elmore, and Buck Buckner.

More recently, the show has featured a “gnu” round of DJs, including Shawna Sprouls, Neil Smart, Brian Eyster, and Matt Malick.

Live music is, of course, a huge part of the bluegrass scene. To support our local blue-

grass musicians and listeners, in the 1990s, Buck Buckner created the much loved “Buck Report.” This regular feature every Old Grass Gnu Grass Saturday offers information about the many great bluegrass concerts and jams happening all across the Front Range, so listeners and jammers alike can get their bluegrass fix in a live setting.

KGNU’s commitment to highlighting the important work of local musicians stretches back to our beginnings. Over the years, KGNU has welcomed numerous musicians into the studio for live on-air performances, including Hot Rize, internationally renowned bluegrass legends. Hot Rize got its start in the same year that KGNU opened its doors, and regularly performed on the KGNU airwaves during both the band and station’s earliest days. Since then, KGNU has been lucky enough to welcome a plethora of other bluegrass acts, with a particular focus on local and upcoming talent.

Of course, anything magical in this world has a secret weapon. And listeners know on Old Grass Gnu Grass, the secret weapon is Miz Susan. For decades Miz Susan has faithfully supported the show by answering phones for time-strapped DJs, making coffee and

tea (and burritos!), welcoming guests and bands, and hunting down hard-to-find requests from KGNU’s extensive music library.

This year, we also look forward to the 30th annual Charles Sawtelle Memorial Mountain Jam, which received its name from the event’s first music director and former member of Hot Rize, Charles Sawtelle. Every July, KGNU rolls into the little town of Gold Hill for a day and delights concertgoers with a variety of bluegrass, folk, country, and Americana provided by musicians from Colorado and across the country. You won’t want to miss this year’s 30th Anniversary Celebration, which welcomes Hot Rize as the featured act. In addition to great music, come for the delicious barbeque, courtesy of KGNU volunteer and Honky Tonk Heroes DJ Michael C. And the Jam would not be a Jam without Fergus Stone, beloved resident emcee and performer. Local beer and general good summer vibes round out the oneof-a-kind Charles! Don’t miss it!

As Old Grass Gnu Grass moves into the next 40 years, the crew looks forward to bringing you all the best old and “gnu” grass you can find from Colorado, the United States, and beyond. Stay tuned!

KGNU Community Radio | 29

Meet Dave Gloss

BY D EEPR AW K DAVE AS HTO N

expert in all things swing jazz and weekly host of Swing Shift With KGNU celebrating 40 years on air, it’s a chance to highlight those volunteer voices who have broadcast since our earliest days from the cabin at the Harvest House. In 1978 one of our youngest DJs surprised listeners by playing one of the oldest forms of popular American music.

Meet Dave Gloss, expert in all things swing jazz and weekly host of Swing Shift, Thursdays 9:0010:00pm.

Dave studied piano from ages five to ten under a stern instructor who corrected him by hitting his knuckles with a ruler. In search of a less painful path to musical expression he picked up the alto saxophone, whereupon his great aunt lamented, “If only you could play the sax as well as Jimmy Dorsey.” Confounded by this remark, his grandmother

took young Dave to second-hand stores to buy records of different sounds, and he discovered and fell in love with Benny Goodman’s Big Band. “Swing is a very happy, joyous sound, generally, and I really got hooked on that kind of sound from a very early age,” Dave reflects.

After a start, hosting on CU’s tiny campus station KAIR, Dave soon found a home at KGNU on Saturday nights. The uplifting music and the opportunity to play it for the public on KGNU helped Dave navigate his parents’ divorce and the rigors of law school.

Dave credits KGNU with opening opportunities to engage with his musical heroes.

When Benny Goodman performed at Macky Auditorium in 1979, Dave convinced KGNU to co-sponsor and broadcast the show. As a

station representative he met Goodman and his biographer. Dave had recommended female vocal trio Rare Silk to open the show, as they sang wonderfully in the style of the 30’s and 40’s. The group made such an impression that Goodman hired them and took them on the road. Rare Silk’s second tour stop with Benny was broadcast nationally on NPR, and during intermission the trio called Dave at the KGNU studio to thank him for making the connection.

The danceable swing style of big bands and bandleaders was the dominant form of American popular music from 1935 to 1946, a period known as the swing era. When teenager Dave Gloss first brought his detailed knowledge of the form to KGNU’s listeners in 1978 it was roughly 40 years since swing’s heyday.

Now, 40 years hence, these classics remain vital listening. Swing Shift is part of KGNU’s Thursday night jazz block, along with Dixieland, Ragtime America, and Jazz Lives.

Season ticket holders save up to 20%, get the best seats, and have early access to the most popular performances.

Subscribe now!

30 | KGNU Magazine

Meet Jack Rummel

BY IN D R A R A J

Your intrepid host of Ragtime America possibility of doing a ragtime show. Two months later, Grimm called him to see if he wanted to get started. “So I went down there and they gave me 15 minutes of instruction on how to proceed, and off I went.”

Nearly every week for 38 years, Jack Rummel has hosted Ragtime America on KGNU. Jack tells KGNU about falling in love with ragtime music, its significance in American music, and the strange twist of fate that brought Ragtime America to KGNU’s airwaves.

The show’s name “Ragtime America” pays homage to Jack’s interest in the genre. In his opinion, “ragtime is America’s first truly original music. It’s a combination of the White musical styles of Europe, because it’s based on the European march, and the Black African polyrhythms that came to this country with the slaves. It’s the syncopation that made it unique. Every popular music style today utilizes syncopation, which came from ragtime.”

In April 2018 Ragtime America, a show dedicated solely to ragtime music, celebrates 38 years on KGNU’s airwaves. Jack Rummel, the show’s founder and chief host since its inception, describes the show’s initial creation as “an accident of fate.”

“There was a restaurant on Pearl Street called Don’s Cheese and Sausage Mart. They had communal tables; I was sitting eating lunch, sat down next to somebody that I didn’t know and just casually struck up a conversation.

Turned out to be one-time KGNU station manager, David Grimm. Being a long-time ragtime musician and aficionado, Jack mentioned the

Jack first became interested in ragtime music in high school, when his piano teacher, “showed me how to play some ragtime and taught me three basic pieces of ragtime

which I still perform occasionally.” Besides performing ragtime and hosting the Ragtime America show on KGNU, Jack served as president of the Rocky Mountain Ragtime Festival in Boulder for 13 years, and still emcees at ragtime conferences all across America.

“Having been at it for almost 50 years, they view me as one of the old guard, I guess.”

Not only one of the old guard, but possibly one of the only radio hosts still producing a show devoted solely to ragtime music. “I appreciate the support that the station has given to me over the years,” Jack says, recognizing that the art form is “just a little tiny genre in the big scope of things.” But this tiny genre has many fans, and Ragtime America is recognized by ragtime lovers all over the world.

As for the future of Ragtime America, Jack plans to continue hosting the show for as long as he can. “I love the music, and I want to promote it,” he says, also mentioning his hope of finding other hosts with an equally deep love for ragtime to help with the show going forward. Listen to Ragtime America on Thursday evenings from 8:00-9:00pm.

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KGNU Community Radio | 31

LOCAL GOLD

by Indra Raj & Sean Makau

CO LO RADO’S FRO N T R A N G E I S GROW I N G AT A RA P I D PAC E , A N D TH E M U S I C S C E N E I S J U ST ON E O F M AN Y THI N G S G E T T I N G K IC KE D I N TO OVE R D R I V E R IG H T N OW. M O R E A N D MO R E MUS I CI AN S AN D A RT I STS A R E MA KI N G CO LO RAD O T HE I R HO M E , BRI N GI N G A N U MB E R OF N E W, FRE S H , A N D E C L E C T I C MUS I CAL VO I CE S I N TO O U R CULTU RAL CO N S C I O U S N E S S .

F O R TH E PAST 40 Y E A R S , KG N U HAS RE M AI N E D CO MMI T T E D TO SU P P O RTI N G LO CA L MU S I C I A N S

NATALI E P ADI LLA

A N D ARTI STS BY B R I N G I N G T HE I R VO I CE S AN D TAL E N TS TO T HE A IR WAVE S TH RO UG H ST U D I O PERFO RM AN CE S A N D I N T E RV I E W S WITH O U R DJ S AND HO STS .

AS TH E FRO N T RA N G E MU S I C SCE N E CO N TI N U E S TO G R OW, KGN U I S KE E P I N G U P W I T H T HE BR I GH TE ST AN D M O ST E XC I T I N G LO CAL TAL E N T W HO R E P R E S E N T MUS I C O F AL L STY L E S A N D GEN RE S . TH I S Y E A R , W E CAU G HT UP WI TH M U LTI -TA L E N T E D F ID DL E P L AY E R NATA L I E PADI L L A, E L E CTRO N I C MU S I C I A N R U M TU M , AN D I ND I E FAVO R I T E S R U BE DO. L I STE N TO I N - ST U D I O PERFO RM AN CE S A N D I N T E RV I E W S

NATALIE PADILLA ▲ Colorado is the land of bluegrass, and we are fortunate to have so many bluegrass musicians here. One of our local favorites is Natalie Padilla, who grew up in Bozeman, Montana but joined the Colorado community in 2007 when she launched the violin performance program at the University of Northern Colorado.

After graduating in 2011, Padilla has kept herself very, very busy. “Colorado’s Front Range has so many opportunities for musicians. From week to week my schedule changes and can include any combination of teaching, performing, recording, touring, lecturing, and rehearsing. I have a lot of irons in the fire; having different projects helps keep things fresh and exciting.”

Padilla has lived in several different parts of Colorado over the years, but currently calls Lyons, an epicenter for roots and bluegrass musicians, her home. “It’s an exciting thing to see so many new young players move here on a regular basis. I’m consistently amazed at the amount and level of quality the open jams have around here. Generally, musicians are very friendly wherever you go, and I’m proud to be a part of the music scene here in Colorado.” We are too!

In addition to her solo work as a bluegrass musician, Padilla founded the band Masontown, which has become another bluegrass favorite

Find out more about Natalie Padilla and her band Masontown at nataliepadillamusic.com and masontownmusic.com.

WITH AL L O F TH E S E A RT I STS BY V IS I TI N G AFTE RFM . C O M, KG N U ’ S 24 / 7 M U S I C S O U R C E .

32 | KGNU Magazine

on the Front Range. But that’s not all. Not only is Natalie a proficient bluegrass fiddler, she is trained in old-time, Texas-style, and Celtic fiddling as well. She is also keeping up with her classical chops as the Associate Concertmaster of the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra.

RUMTUM ⊲ Electronic producer, graphic artist, woodworker, and overall great human, John Hastings aka RUMTUM creates art that compels him at all times. Shown here with his artwork, RUMTUM explores landscapes that come from a distant place that feels incredibly familiar, yet extremely obscure. The same could be said for his music. This local Colorado musician and artist seems to always be evolving his musical process and pushing the boundaries on the RUMTUM sound.

A lot of his music seems to draw from his graphics side, as his studio is a soundscape of beats, paint, and wood that all blend into one. He has been known on several occasions to create a piece of art, and while still in his studio create a song based off that art, redefining where an artist’s inspiration comes from.

RUMTUM can be seen playing music venues around Denver and Boulder, or painting murals in the RiNo area of Denver, as he focuses on creating something unique. Recently nominated by 303 Magazine as up and coming electronic artist of the year, if you have been following RUMTUMs career, he’s been innovating for years. “If I can allow someone to escape into my art for only just a few minutes, that is the goal,” states Hastings.

RUM T UM RUBEDO ▼ Three long-time friends, Gregg Ziemba, Alex Trujillo, and Kyle Gray started a group in 2010 called Rubedo. Since then, they have released three full-length albums, the most recent being “Vaca” that came out in late 2017.

Based in Denver, Rubedo has a sound unlike others, as you can sometimes hear psych and indie rock elements, as well as dipping into grimy pop and hip-hop base lines that are astounding.

Like all bands, reading about their sound is nothing like hearing them, or seeing them live. If you have not seen Rubedo, please do yourself a favor and go see them

From a quick glance at his artwork you see a simple landscape of trees with something odd happening, and once you get closer to his art, you start to feel like there is another painting behind it, that sparks imagination and is extremely satisfying to look at. Not only does it feel like an escape, which can feel empty at times, but inspiring to know that there is something underneath that can keep going forever. Find RUMTUM at rumtumcreations.com.

RUBEDO

at their fourth annual Independence Day Weekend show on June 30 at the Bluebird Theater, or find their next show dates on Rubedomusic.com.

Gregg Ziemba, Rubedo’s drummer sums up in just three words what Rubedo stands for best: “equity, community, and friendship.”

When you meet the three band members, you quickly realize how humble and downto-earth they are.

Rubedo hopes to build something bigger than fame or wealth; they want to build a community that thrives.

AfterFM.com KGNU’s 24/7 Music Source

by Indra Raj

WHAT KINDS OF PROGRAMMING CAN I FIND ON THE AFTERFM STREAM? When the AfterFM stream isn’t playing KGNU’s live music program streams, it automatically switches over to a mixture of pre-produced shows by your favorite DJs and specially curated playlists. We’re constantly updating the content, so tune in regularly to hear a mix of old gems and new favorites.

NEW AFTERFM SHOWS

CURATED PLAYLISTS

Our DJs have been busy! Listen to a slate of new shows that will be featured exclusively on the AfterFM stream starting May 2018.

New shows include:

Want to discover some Gnu music? Tune into our AfterFM stream to hear our eclectic mix of curated playlists, featuring everything from the deep cuts of yesteryear to some of the freshest new sounds from around the globe.

Curated playlists include:

• P sychedelic Soup: Explore the wonderful world of 1960s and ’70s psychedelia.

Strictly vinyl sets hosted by DJ Modpants. Saturdays from 8:00-9:00pm.

•

Ladies First: An eclectic mix of music by women, curated by your favorite female KGNU DJs. Wednesdays from 3:00-4:00pm.

•

•

KGNU Presents: Hear music by artists

•

we’ve featured on our KGNU Presents Concert Calendar. Thursdays from 3:004:00pm.

• And of course, tune in to existing AfterFM favorites, including Bayou Stomp (music from NOLA), The Skavenger (ska), and Denver Vintage Reggae Society (Reggae), Turnstyles (eclectic), and Local Gold (local live music).

Get in the mix!

First Catch: Make your way into the day with AfterFM’s mellow morning mix.

Monday, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 5:30-9:30am.

The AfterFM Annex: Turn up your

afternoon with the best and boldest sounds from the AfterFM vault. Mondays 3-7pm; Wednesdays 4:00-7:00pm; Thursdays 4:00-6:00pm; and Fridays 3:00-4:00pm.

The Charles: A collection of live and

never-before-released recordings of performances from KGNU’s annual Charles Sawtelle Memorial Mountain Jam. Sundays from 11:00am-12 Noon.

•

•

•

•

Sunday Soak: Kiss those Sunday blues goodbye with a mixture of tranquil and relaxing sounds that are sure to brighten up the end of your weekend.

Sundays 1:30-6:00pm.

The Day-Breaker: A mellow mix of everything from Ambient to Zydeco.

Brought to you by Radio Rethink. Tuesdays from 5:30-9:30am.

The Workday: Mandatory weekday music mix for all employees. Existing non-billable contingent labor policy exemption compliance requests applied. Brought to you by Radio Rethink.

Tuesdays from 3:00-5:00pm.

La Máquina de Cumbia: The Cumbia

machine cranks itself up and churns out the sounds of Cumbia past and present.

Brought to you by Radio Rethink. Tuesdays from 5:00-7:00pm.

•

Soul Stacks: Flip through Soul Sides, Deep Funk, and Heavy Breaks from deep in the crates. Brought to you by Radio Rethink. Sundays from 6:007:00pm.

34 | KGNU Magazine

LOVE MUSIC? LOVE KGNU? LOVE MUSIC ON KGNU? GET YOUR FIX ALL DAY BY TUNING INTO OUR ALL-MUSIC-ALL-THE-TIME ONLINE STREAM ON AFTERFM. COM, KGNU’S 24/7 MUSIC WEBSITE. WHEN KGNU SWITCHES TO NEWS/PUBLIC AFFAIRS ON AIR, THE AFTERFM STREAM KEEPS THE MUSIC RINGING!

MIDNIGHT

3:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 Noon 12:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 2:30 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 MIDNIGHT

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SLEEPLESS NIGHTS RESTLESS MORNINGS

FIRST CATCH

THE DAYBREAKER

SUNDAY

RESTLESS MORNINGS

FIRST CATCH

(Radio Rethink)

SATURDAY

HONKY TONK HEROES

OLD GRASS GNU GRASS

MORNING SOUND ALTERNATIVE

GOSPEL CHIME HOUR ROOTS & BRANCHES

WHAT ELSE CAN I FIND ON AFTERFM? In addition to our AfterFM online stream, check out all these other great features on AfterFM.com: •

THE CHARLES TERRASONIC

BAYOU STOMP HANGIN’ & SANGIN’

AFTERNOON SOUND ALTERNATIVE

•

REGGAE BLOODLINES

THE AFTERFM ANNEX

THE WORK-DAY (Radio Rethink) LA MÁQUINA DE CUMBIA (Radio Rethink)

LADIES FIRST

THE AFTERFM ANNEX

KGNU PRESENTS

THE AFTERFM ANNEX

THE AFTERFM ANNEX THE SCAVENGER DENVER VINTAGE REGGAE SOCIETY

THE OPERA BOX

SEOLTA GAEL

A CLASSIC MONDAY

A CLASSIC MONDAY

MUSICA MUNDI

HIGHWAY 322

AFRICAN ROOTS TURNSTYLES

LOCAL GOLD

THE OPERA BOX

SUNDAY SOAK

BLUES LEGACY

ECLIPSE

•

SWING SHIFT DUSTY GROOVES ELECTRONIC AIR

PRESENT EDGE

THE HEAVY SET

REGGAE TRANSFUSION

JAZZ LIVES

DUB PALACE SMASH IT BACK!

UNDER THE FLOORBOARDS

Exclusive interviews: At KGNU, we’re always finding ways to bring voices from our community and beyond to your listening ears, including many local, national, and international musicians. Check out our exclusive interviews, only on AfterFM.com.

R ecordings of in-studio performances: Revisit some of your fa-

vorite in-studio performances from some of the brightest musicians in Colorado and beyond. On AfterFM. com, you’ll find features on some of our favorite performances, as well as a weekly archive of our live music show, Kabaret.

SOUL STACKS (Radio Rethink)

SOUND LAB PSYCHEDELIC SOUP

DIXIELAND OR RAGTIME

•

Music show archives: Tune into your favorite shows from last week or five years ago! Follow your favorite DJs, and even create podcasts of their shows so you never miss a beat.

Weekly music charts: Want to find some new music? Check out KGNU’s weekly music charts that feature the most popular new music spinning on our airwaves.

Gnu-bies

by Indra Raj

At KGNU, we love inviting people to become a part of our ever-growing community. Though there are many ways to plug into KGNU, one the most exciting is learning to be an on-air DJ. Take a look at what some of our Gnubie DJs have to say about their experience at KGNU, and find out more about how to become involved yourself.

Carrie Marks When a torrential downpour starts at an outdoor music festival and you’re one of the rare people with a large beach umbrella, you tend to make friends fast. At least that was the case for Carrie Marks at the 2015 Folks Fest in Lyons: “I was standing with all these strangers under the umbrella.” Luckily, one of these strangers was Joy, a KGNU Board Member at the time, and after chatting for a

SO...you wanna be a KGNU-er I would like Great! Get started by to volunteer attending a volunteer at KGNU! orientation.

bit about the station and Carrie’s interest in getting involved, Joy mentioned that there would, in fact, be a volunteer orientation that coming week.

“And that was it,” says Carrie. “I never intended to be on the air. I was going to sit at the desk or stuff envelopes.” But, then encouragement started coming from other members of the KGNU community. “Everybody asked me if I was going to be a DJ.” She was reminded that she always loved music and thought, “I might as well try it.”

Carrie signed up for the Radio Training Course and quickly submitted a demo to be considered for an actual on-air show. After nine months of programming late night shows, Carrie moved by the fall of 2016 to do her first Morning Sound Alternative, KGNU’s eclectic music show on weekday mornings. Joel Davis was the Radio Training Instructor and interim Music Director at the time, and encouraged Carrie to look into as much new and eclectic music as she could. “I was suddenly diving into other worlds of music that I hadn’t been exposed to. I feel like I know so much more and so many different types of music since I’ve been DJing. And my tastes have changed, even though it’s only been a couple years.”

And it shows. In addition to the Morning Sound Alternative, Carrie is a regular DJ for the Afternoon Sound Alternative, another eclectic music show at KGNU on the slightly more adventurous side. Though

DONE. Now I know how to become a DJ! BE A DJ IN 4

Carrie will tell you she arrived at KGNU with a focus largely on Folk and Americana music, you will hear a variety of musical influences in her current DJ sets, including electronic music, reggae, hip-hop, and so much more. Being a DJ at KGNU has encouraged Carrie to listen to more shows at the station. “Shows I never would of thought I’d listen to. Jazz, or swing...all the shows are really inspiring!”

Carrie says the benefits of being a DJ stretch beyond just being on the air. “I love this station in a way that I didn’t think would happen.” Carrie talks about how welcoming the community has been to both her and her son, who often joins her at the station while doing her shows. “It’s a great community to have a kid in. A lot of people around here really like Kaplan and they ask me about him when he’s not around.” She also recognizes the benefits of having her son grow up in the KGNU environment: “I think it’s important for him to see me in here doing this.

I think this is just another step of him seeing how important my work is to me.”

For those of you considering taking the plunge and becoming a KGNU DJ, Carrie says, “Just do it! There’s room at KGNU for any kind of DJ and the more the merrier.

The greater the variety of DJs we have with different knowledge and different preferences, the more expansive it’s gonna be.

The more interesting it’s gonna be.” Could you be the next KGNU DJ? We hope so.

I wonder what else I can do?

EASY STEPS:

S

NG CLAS RADIO TRAINI PRACTICE! PREPARE DEMO

ON START TO DJ RNINGS RESTLESS MO

36 | KGNU Magazine

THANKS...

BUT YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO SHOUT!

Cal Huss DJ since 2016 Shows: The Heavy Set , Afternoon Sound Alternative, Morning Sound Alternative “I cannot stress enough how valuable KGNU is as a community asset. Sadly, the available opportunities to work with such long-standing, respected, and non-corrupted grassroots organizations has seriously declined, and places like KGNU are few and far between.”

Sanford Baran DJ since 2017 Shows: Sleepless Nights, Sound Lab, Luke Janke

Morning Sound Alternative “Up until about a year ago I had zero

DJ since 2018

DJ experience, although I am an avid

Shows: Restless Mornings,

music listener. I was surprised at how

Sleepless Nights “After researching public & community radio

relatively easy it was to get on the

stations, KGNU seemed to stand out as an established

air.”

fixture in Boulder. I really admired the freeform nature

George Codding,

of the programming and the staff’s open mind

“George C”

toward underground music, so I decided to

DJ since 2017

become a DJ for KGNU.”

Deana Morton

Shows: Corriente, Musica Mundi, Jazz

DJ since 2017

Lives, Morning Sound Alternative, African

Shows: Afternoon Sound Alternative,

Roots, Sleepless Nights

Sound Lab, Dusty Grooves, Gospel Chime,

“There is so much music out there in the world, and

Ladies First (AfterFM Exclusive)

KGNU truly lets its DJs play what they want. This gives

“DJing at KGNU is like going to music school.

the DJ a lot of freedom, and it has made me want

You’re constantly surrounded by people who know more than you and are willing to talk to you about music. My music world has really opened up. I’m now into gospel and world music, two genres I hadn’t really explored before I came to KGNU.”

Andrew Ure,

to go out and listen to massive amounts of new

“DJ Modpants”

music in an effort to be more informed and to

DJ since 2017

bring the good sounds to the listener.”

Shows: Sleepless Nights, Psychedelic Soup (AfterFM Exclusive) “One of my favorite parts of DJing is when people call in while you’re on air to say how much they’re enjoying what you’re playing. It’s only happened

David McWade

to me twice, but when you’re in the studio by

DJ since 2017

Anderson Muth,

yourself in the middle of the night, it reminds

Shows: Sleepless Nights, Sound Lab,

“The Groove Thief”

you that there are people out there listening.

DJ since 2017

And more importantly, digging what you’re

Shows: Reggae Transfusion, Dub

playing.”

Afternoon Sound Alternative “The most rewarding part of being a DJ at KGNU is creative freedom and a

Palace, Reggae Bloodlines “Stop considering and start volunteering! KGNU is all about community, and that includes you.”

responsive staff.”

Euda Best DJ since 2018 Shows: Sleepless Nights “The most rewarding part of being a DJ at KGNU is being able to play music

Shawna Stratton DJ since 2018 Shows: Restless Mornings ““I feel like a little kid in the candy store when I walk into the CD library at KGNU.”

I’m passionate about. I don’t have to worry about what’s popular. I don’t feel boxed in by anyone else’s expectations. I feel encouraged to be myself, to express myself to the fullest.”

KGNU Community Radio | 37

pozzyvibes.com

Disc Jockey Services Weddings Birthdays Karaoke Community Events and more!

38 | KGNU Magazine

KGNU’s Early Adventures in Programming

By Nikki Kayser

Community visionaries, activists, and eclectic-music fans came together to launch KGNU in Boulder in 1978. They wanted to cover social and political issues not heard on the commercial offerings: women’s rights, racial issues, and nonviolent social change. Boulder drew activists from all over the country. The Solar Rollers biked into town from Vermont. Civil disobedience actions at the Rocky Flats Plant south of Boulder drew Dr. Daniel Ellsberg and other nuclear protesters.

DJs and news hosts trained at Community Free School classes at the Highland School building at Arapahoe and 9th Street. The University of Colorado Boulder had attempted to purchase an FM radio frequency in the early 1970s; after suspending this effort, CU Boulder pledged $25,000 of studio equipment to KGNU with the proviso that students be involved on the air. One of KGNU’s founders, Steve Elliot, rented a small cottage to house KGNU’s first studio, on Boulder Creek behind the Harvest House (now Millennium Harvest House), for $1 a year.

The late Glen Gerberg became KGNU’s first station manager. John Stark, now station manager at KLCC in Eugene, Oregon, became KGNU’s first and only program director. KGNU also attracted commercial-radio defectors, including its first news director, Mike Wilson.

Wilson recruited CU students Jack Pommer, later elected as a Colorado congressional representative, and Brian Maass, now an investigative reporter for Denver’s CBS affiliate, KCNC. Hot Rize, Rare Silk, Ray Bonneville, and Washboard Chaz Leary were among many musicians who performed live in KGNU’s studio in the late 1970s. Kenny Weissberg brought his music programming chops from KRNW, which was about to become KBCO. Weissberg describes Boulder’s music scene at the time in

his 2013 memoir, Off My Rocker: One Man’s Tasty, Twisted, Star-Studded Quest for Everlasting Music.

Manuel Arcadia of RADIO Universidad in Mexico City was a bilingual producer of Voces Latinas, Salsa, and Latin Jam, predecessors of today’s ¡Corriente! and Pasa la Voz shows. Bob Skutelsky started the Grateful Dead Marathon, an ongoing Saturday-night tradition during fund drives. John “Sal” Salamone brought the Blues from Chicago and explored Eastern spiritual philosophy with In The Moment.

KGNU

Roz Brown remembers cueing a record to cover the roar of a lawn mower outside.

Blues After Hours became Blues Legacy.

Kathy Schmidt and Lorraine Kaimal were KGNU’s classy classical music hosts. Gerry Leary, a blind-from-birth entrepreneur who launched Boulder’s Unseen Bean coffee shop in 2003, was at this time an auto mechanic who used Braille labels installed on the studio’s audio board and gave car repair advice on the air. Richard Two Elk started Indian Voices, which airs every Sunday afternoon.

Volunteers still active at KGNU remember when the station was gaining traction on the banks of Boulder Creek. Roz Brown remembers cueing an album to cover the roar of a lawn mower outside. Fergus Stone engineered the first science show. Dave McIntosh served on KGNU’s first Board of Directors and tapped CU students to join the airwaves.

Donovan Makha and his fellow DJs continue to bring Reggae to the airwaves on Satur-

day afternoons on Reggae Bloodlines. Cary Wolfson developed the music department and introduced his Red Rooster alter ego on Blues From The Red Rooster Lounge (now airing on KBCO); Wolfson also DJs regularly on KGNU’s Morning Sound Alternative.

By the early 1980s, KGNU was shifting from the National Public Radio model toward more community-based programming. As KGNU accumulated more hosts, locally produced shows replaced NPR segments until NPR was phased out altogether. ¡Corriente! host Elena Klaver covered environmental issues and protests at Rocky Flats.

Alternative Radio founder David Barsamian recalls how he learned about KGNU: On his way home from the airport after traveling in India, his driver, a sitar student, raved about the new station. Barsamian soon brought music from India to KGNU’s airwaves; later, he expanded his Ganges To The Nile show to what is now Hemispheres. Barsamian also exposed the Armenian genocide on KGNU, and launched Alternative Radio in 1986, now nationally syndicated and airing on hundreds of stations, including KGNU on Wednesday evenings.

President Jimmy Carter’s administration made Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) funding available for staff salaries. When the “MamaCETA” grant ended, volunteers kept KGNU on the air with pledge drives, underwriting, and delivering brownies by bike.

When KGNU’s studios outgrew the Boulder Creek cottage, KGNU rented office space above the Aristocrat, a popular diner at Broadway and Spruce. In the mid-1980s, the station found a home in the lower level of a building at Folsom and Walnut. In 2001, the station purchased the 4700 Walnut building.

Cheers to 40 more years of creative and talented people amplifying community issues, voices, and culture by sharing their skills and expertise to keep KGNU relevant, forward-looking, and passionate.

KGNU Community Radio | 39

Sound Rebellion:

DJ and News Host Yukari Miyamae

By Indra Raj

Yukari Miyamae is a KGNU music DJ, news host, and member of KGNU’s Events Committee. She sits down with KGNU’s Music Director, Indra Raj, to talk about her radio experience and work with KGNU.

It’s a gray day in early February. Since days like these are few and far between on the sundrenched Front Range, I’m enjoying the comfort of the indoors as I look out at the clouds in the sky. It feels especially cozy in the Red Studio, KGNU’s main broadcasting space, where Yukari and I chat while she fulfills her duties as the volunteer board operator that day.

As Yukari’s story unfolds, it becomes clear that she has a longstanding connection with radio: “When I was a kid, I used to sleep with radio. I just listened to all the waves come and go, turning the tuners.” Yukari tells me about her early days as a radio broadcaster in Japan, where she grew up. “I would DJ at the school. But I played inappropriate music.” She talks about how the regular school broadcast heavily featured classical music. “But I played Beatles,” Yukari says, with a smile on her face. “I got in trouble. Actually, I was kicked out of the club. So, I decided to make a mixtape myself. Every week, I made a one-hour show on tape and distributed it to classmates.” As Yukari describes it, this was the beginning of her “rebel radio career.”

Yukari brings her rebellious radio artistry to KGNU as a regular Afternoon Sound Alternative DJ. The freeform and eclectic format of the

40 | KGNU Magazine

program allows her to explore a variety of different sounds. “For me, three hours is needed to put in all different [textures].” She points to different parts of the air with her hands: “You know, darkness here, and then sparkly here, and then these little sugar pink things here....”

I recall hearing her play some field recordings of the Pygmy peoples, and Yukari says, “I try to find indigenous people’s music. I want to try and introduce those kinds of pure music.”

“People are afraid of chaos, but chaos — we have to nurture [it] because that’s where creativity lives. Chaotic creativity — that’s going to push us into the next 40 years.”

Music, however, is only one part of what Yukari offers over KGNU’s airwaves. She is also one of the founders and hosts of the International News Roundtable, a monthly edition of Hemispheres. “Joel Edelstein hosted the three of us [on his show], to tell him what we were reading in newspapers in our language areas. We were going to do it just one time, but then people wanted more…. Before you know it, it became a one-hour show. [Joel] sees some potential to make a seed, and made us take care of it to grow.” Yukari looks at me with bright eyes and a solid “You can do it!” fist: “If the idea works, go for it.”

KGNU’s affirmation of Yukari’s “go for it” at-

titude is one of the things she appreciates the most about the station. When KGNU first went on the air, Yukari says, “People said, ‘Oh, that’s never going to work.’ But people have rebelled.” Yukari talks about her wish for KGNU to retain this part of itself: “Rebelliousness is part of our DNA, and I don’t want us to be a ‘grown up’ entity. I think what will bring KGNU forward will be younger people with lots of energy doing something a little bit off the chart, and being encouraged to be rebellious.”

We also talk about KGNU as a place where community members can have a voice, which seems particularly important in our current political and social climate. Yukari is one of relatively few people of color at KGNU, as am I. We talk about our feelings and experiences around this, and the need for more conversations about race, both on and off the airwaves: “I think, as a whole, people are wishing for it.

And most of the people don’t want to rock the boat, because people really do value KGNU. We don’t want to destroy this boat.”

We both acknowledge that KGNU does a lot to facilitate conversations about race in our community, including the recent addition of PoCo in BoCo, a monthly show dedicated to issues surrounding people of color in Boulder. We also both acknowledge that our community needs to listen a little harder: “Our programming has lots of information. And people hear it a thousand times, but still they don’t consider that it’s about you.”

Toward the end of our conversation, Yukari waxes poetic about the future of KGNU. “People are afraid of chaos, but chaos — we have to nurture [it] because that’s where creativity lives. Chaotic creativity — that’s going to push us into the next 40 years.”

Yukari smiles, and ends our conversation with one final word: “Rebellion.”

Rossana Longo Better

By Maeve Conran

to recorded programming. Rossana spearheaded efforts there to have bilingual content made available.

Rossana is earning her Masters in Media and Public Engagement, and is the current KGNU/League of Women Voters of Boulder County intern, as well as a producer of KGNU’s Pasa la Voz program.

Having moved to the US from her native Ecuador in 1993, Rossana Longo Better experienced firsthand the struggles that many immigrants face in settling in a new country and became acutely aware of the need to provide information to the Spanish-speaking community.

She found a welcome home at the Audio Information Network in Boulder, a resource for blind, visually impaired and print-disabled individuals that provides free access

“I started adding a show with international news in Spanish and then an interview program to feature those amazing Hispanic/Latino members of the community that were already giving so much of their energy to better the lives of our community.”

Rossana has brought her commitment to providing Spanish language information to the wider community through her work as part of the team of producers behind KGNU’s weekly Spanish language show Pasa la Voz (Sundays 4:00-5:00pm.)

As she completes her Masters in Media and Public Engagement at CU Boulder, she was also a perfect candidate for the KGNU/League of Women Voters of Boulder County internship, which provides an opportunity for an intern to work with the League to learn about public policy and election issues and then take that knowledge to create news stories and media content that would be broadcast on KGNU.

“I feel super lucky and honored when I hear the voices of the people I had the opportunity to interview come on air telling the wider audience about local struggles, initiatives or events that are trying to create awareness and conscious action. I feel great about being the first intern combining the efforts from the League in mobilizing citizens to be more active in the Boulder community by exercising the power of the vote and the awareness towards issues that affect us all, especially around policy.”

KGNU VOLUNTEERS

Kathy Frazier

If you’ve ever called KGNU on a Tuesday morning and were brightened by the cheerful soul on the other end of the line, you probably spoke to Kathy Frazier. Twice monthly she pulls a twelvehour volunteer shift, DJ-ing on Restless Mornings 3:005:30am, watching the on air board during the Morning News 5:30-8:00am, answering phones 8:00am-1:00pm, and recording our Community Calendar spots 1:00-3:00pm.

Long days starting in the dark of night are not daunting for this retired music teacher.

Born in Colorado Springs, Kathy was in piano lessons at the age of four. “I knew my do-rayme’s before my ABC’s,” she says. Kathy earned her BA in Music Education from Western State College in Gunnison. She went into music education and taught at every K-12 level in both

by Deeprawk Dave Ashton private and public schools. Kathy estimates instructing 1000 students from college-bound to little bitty kids in school bands, choirs, orchestra, and theory every year for 36 years.

Changes in education led to Kathy’s abrupt retirement midyear in 2009. Reading, writing, science, math, and social studies were all being introduced in music classes. She relates, “I was told ‘you’re no longer a specialist, you’re a generalist.’ It’s like, no I’m not! I could do it, I just didn’t enjoy it very much. I just wanted to bring the kids some right-brain activity, because they need that. The newest thing is STEM, but I really think it should be STEAM! There’s science, technology, engineering and math. The A should be art.”

Dennis Glowniak KGNU volunteer Dennis Glowniak grew up in Detroit. In sixth grade he took the bus into town to see his first concert, and it happened to be a performance by Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, and many other jazz legends. That was just the start of Dennis’ love of music, and one of the many reasons the man listens to 20 hours of music a day, he claims.

After living in Los Angeles, where he volunteered for local station KKJC, Dennis found KGNU in 2003. Listening to the world music and blues shows aired at the time and volunteering here in Colorado with the Blues Society led to working on KGNU fund drives and outreach at concerts and festivals.

Since then, Dennis has been an incredibly dedicated DJ and volunteer at KGNU and in the music community at large. He was an outreach volunteer at 23 KGNU Presents shows

42 | KGNU Magazine

KGNU’s freeform Restless Mornings programs provide Kathy an opportunity to plan “music lessons” for the listeners with the same creative focus she took to the classroom. Just like she developed thematic concerts for her pupils (such as Motown’s 25th anniversary and American Bandstand), Kathy’s late-night shows are built around central themes that take weeks or months to develop. For example, “Take your Medicine” featured songs about doctors and taking your pills. She did Memories or Remembrances, Magic, Money, Ships and Boats, Spring Cleaning, Time Marches On, Transportation, For the Birds, and Hats.

You’ll hear Kathy Frazier weekdays at 8am and 2:59pm as the regular voice of KGNU’s Community Calendar announcements. She thanks her co-producer, Set, for making her sound great.

by Sean Makau last year, and at the Mardi Gras, Greeley Blues Fest, and The Charles. Dennis recalls volunteering at NedFest years ago when Dr. John showed up after many false rumors about Nedfest legends who never showed up. He became a master gardener during his years in Los Angeles, and has been involved with the annual KGNU plant sale for six years now. He plants a couple hundred seed plants every year, including vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, and many others. Not only does Dennis volunteer for KGNU, he also volunteers for eTown, the Boulder International Film Festival, and a few other organizations.

Last year he volunteered at over 200 events in total, and he reports that in the summertime, he is “out three to five days a week volunteering somewhere.”

Even though Dennis has loved music and been involved with community radio for a very long

time, he only became a DJ two years ago. “DJs and friends kept asking me about music,” he says, and eventually he just needed a place to communicate what he was listening to on a day-to-day basis without having to update everyone individually. Dennis’ life and music experiences have given him a vast knowledge of music that not many DJs can claim. He now hosts programs in numerous KGNU music collectives including African Roots, Swing Shift, Musica Mundi, Jazz Lives, and the Afternoon and Morning Sound Alternatives.

Dennis observes that his love for KGNU comes from a place of “presenting the underrepresented voice.” He asserts that “especially now, we need a voice of reason.” Dennis is a great example of a dedicated and loyal volunteer who brings much positive energy to KGNU every day. He shows up proactively and brings his whole self to everything that he engages with. KGNU is lucky to have Dennis Glowniak.

volunteer list Puahau Aki Shareef Aleem Dave Alex Christine Andersen Riley Ann Joey Anthony Bonnie Aona Diana Aqra Arleigh Carl Armon Amy Armstrong Steve Arnold Ty Arthur Joanna Ashary Ewket Assefa Dan Atkinson Elizabeth Avila Jim Banks Wendy Bannan Sanford Baran Joy Barrett Michele Barone Shana Barrios David Barsamian Faye Baulch Kim Baxter Tikneshia Beauford Chris Beaver Thomas Behler Beth Bennett Elijah Bent Euda Best donnie betts Mike Bieszad Mike Bilos Josh Black Andre Blackman Dave Blackwood Nathan Bloodsworth Joscelyn Blumenthal Alex Boates Sofia Bogdanovich Janis Bohan Stephen Brackett Michael Bradshaw Melody Brinkley Dianne Brintnall Jeannie Brisson Kate Brooks Daniel Brown Dave Brown Roz Brown Gabby Bryant Michael Buck Jennifer Calabrese Duncan Campbell Ian Campbell Kellie Cannon Ann Cantelow Lawrie Carpenter-Staples Meredith Carson Dave Cartwright Magdiel Castillo Julia Caulfield Madelaine Cave Josh Chetwynd Jorge Cisneros Robin Claire Adam Clayton George Codding Joanne Cole Doug Collum Brian Comerford Holly Conrad Gina Corey Jen Cornell Tom Cowing Claudia Cragg Joe Craighead Dennis Creese Steve Cser Martin Dadisman

Gavin Dahl Frank Dagnillo Joel Davis Ron Davis Wesley Davis Debbie Direnzo Joe de Cordoba Peter DeFalco Nicole DeLorimier Marshall Demeranville III Jonny DeStefano Joe Diamo Daniel Dierker Peter DiFalco Carol Dineen Tony DiRenzo Debbie DiRenzo Don Dirks Doug Dirks Joyce Dirks Nani Dirks Helen Dohrman Will Donohoe Michael Donovan Phil Dougan Elizabeth Downey Mark Doyle Sharon Dryden Alexander Duarte Frank Dubofsky Mark Duggan Abby Duke James Duncan Sara Duniven Shay Dunne Marcus Dupree Christian Eaves Jake Edelstein Joel Edelstein Devin Edgley Daniel Edwards Robin Edwards Karl Eggert Roy England Paul Epstein Elaine Erb Brett Ericson Guy Errickson Brian Eyster Dave Farrell Astrid Felter Adrian Fernandez Eric Figueroa Lorraine Filomeno Mary Fingland Mike Finn Tricia Fitzpatrick Craig Fornier Fiona Foster Alisha Francis Glenn Francis Jennifer Frank Kathy Frazier John Fredericksmeyer Gregg Friedman Riox Frostter Dave Fuller Sam Fuqua Lou Fusaro Michael Gage Luna Galassini Tony Gannaway Miguel Garcia Jeff Garrison Pablo Gartak Danielle Gauna Doug Gertner Ja’Mal Gilmore Dave Gloss Dennis Glowniak Thia Gonzales Roxy Goss

Desiree Grandpre Beverly Grant Rob Greene Leo Griep-Ruiz Josh Gross Karen Gruber Christina Guo Sarah Haas Seth Haines Damon Haley Theresa Halsey Kenneth Hamblin III Erin Hamilton Zachary Hancock Rodger Hara Felix Hardy Rebekah Hartman Jim Haynes Peter Haywood Sean Hedden Tim Helman Cameron Henderson Drew Henderson Laura Henning Brian Hiatt Terry Hicks Nate Hirsh Holly Hirst Jeff Hlad Haley Hodgkins Josh Hoelieb Andrew Hogle Jeff Holland Mikey Holmes Mateo Homan Charley Honeycutt Dugar Hotala Len Houle Cathy Howell Jeffery Hoyle Josh Hukriede Sandra Hunter Terre Hurst Cal Huss Arnie Jacobson John Jackson Crystal Jacquez Luke Janke Karen Janson Jim Jobson Bill Johnson Zach Johnson Michael Jones Tracey Jones Joe Juhasz Martin Kaegel Ross Kahn Tom Kamholz Dennis Kapela Paul Karolyi Ibrahim Kazerooni Dan Keeling Richard Keifer Lisa Kelekolio Risë Keller Sean Kenney Ellen Monheimer Kirk Elena Klaver Alan Kloverstrom Evi Klett Jim Knopf Diana Korte Gene Korte Elzabieta Kosmicki Kendra Krueger Michael Kruger Karl Kumli Celeste Labadie Aaron Ladley Frank Lambrick Bill Landers Blair Landers

KGNU could not continue without the labor and love generously donated by our hundreds of volunteers. We thank each and everyone listed here, and all others who dedicated their time to participate in independent, community radio.

Liz Lane John Lehndorff Jason Leutheuser Daria Leverne Dave Lichtenberg Robert Linder Brett Littrell Brian Litwin Terri Loconsolo Tonja Loendorf Leslie Lomas Rossana Longo Better Jessica Lovering Farrell Lowe Jenna Lubliner Jeffrey Lund Jerry Maddock Lucila Maestas James Maguire Jacque Major Donovan Makha Matt Malick Marinela Maneiro Marco Mangione Nikhil Mankekar Carrie Marks Brigitte Mars Marcella Marschell Christine Marsh Zack Marsh Kathleen Martindale Christian Martinez Matthew Martinez Mike Massa Marta Matthews Carmen Maughan Gary McBride Lance McCarty Alex McCarthy-Hessel Tim McCarthy Pat McCullough Louisa McGarty Tim McGeary David McIntosh Dave McIntyre Amy McKnight Josh McNulty Tone McReynolds David McWade Scott Medina Patrick Mendoza Kathy Metzger Joseph Mezey Pete Miesel Elizabeth Miller Skip Miller Steve Miller Mason Millhiser Mike Mills Yukari Miyamae Chris Mohr Matthew Molina Susan Moran Jamie Morgan Deana Morton Dylan Muhlberg Nancy Munson Fordham Murdy Jennifer Murnan Anderson Muth Hannah Leigh Myers Ron Nadel Sonia Narang Chris Nathan Jim Nelson Chip Nesser Steve Newell Heather Neyer Wyatt Norris Susan Northleaf Jennifer O’Neill Chris O’Riley

Sky Osawa Tim O’Shea Angela Palermo Jeff Palmer Barbara Paris Joel Parker Neil Parker Will Parkhill Kathy Partridge Annie Pautsch William Pepple Ginger Perry Katherine Petersen Chris Pfiefer Chris Pietz Matt Piranian Tom Plant Kim Poletti Vinson Powell Curtis Powells Alan Prendergast Steve Priem Karen Raforth Christine Ralston Carmen Ramirez Terry Reardon Skip Reeves Scott Replogle Donna Rhodes Jennifer Rice Joe Richey Jacinto Rico Frosher Riox Barry Roark Tom Roberts Tony Robinson Pat Rodgers Morgan Rogers Rett Rogers Tim Rohrer Jeff Roman Stacey Rosenbaum Tiffany Rosengrant Leland Rucker Luz Ruiz Jack Rummel Glenda Russell Melissa Russo Robin Ryan Luz Saldano Susan Savage Jim Sawyer John Schaefer Kristine Schaefer Matt Schaffer Stefan Schardt Miriam Schiff Shelley Schlender Nathan Schneider Greg Schultz Danielle Seat Selena Set Kat Seibert Adrien Seybert Deborah Shane Jon Shaw Steven Sherman-Boemker Katharine Shuler Michael Shuster Elliot Siff Laura Silk Jose Silva Sabrina Simms Nina Skidmore Kenny Skinner Neil Smart Bob Smith Creighton Smith Kialah Smith Alan Sobel Elana Sobel

Chrissy Sollenberger Alejandra Soto Nile Southern Martin Spector Cherrelle Speight Shawna Sprowls Steve Stalzle Shannon Stein Elle Steinfurth Laurie Stephenson Barbara Stern Fergus Stone Scott Stovall Veronica Straight-Lingo Shawna Stratton Juliette Strauss Jamie Sudler Matthew Summers Miz Susan Mandy Sutyak Nancy Taddiken Marge Taniwaki Adam Taylor Deb Taylor Alex Telacki Kerry Tenfjord Vols Toadd Marcela Toledo Gretchen Troop Tony Tucker Gretchen Tweed Jeremy Two Elk Richard Two Elk Doug Uhm Andrew Ure Bonnie Vanduersen Robin Van Norman Steve Vegas Mark Vignali Mimi Virdi Ietef Vita Sally Voyle David Vorzimer Jon Walton Carolyn Wegner Jeannie Weiffenbach Blair Weigum Farrell Weil Louis Weisberg James Weise Jennette Weisskopt Gary Wellborn Courtney Welsh Roger Wendell Ray Wentz Zack Wentz Joan Wernick Dylan White Tony White Stephen Whitehead Paul Whitens John Wiener Whitney Wilcox Dan Willging Adrian Wilson David Winsett Tim Wintemute Brooke Wise Douglas Wiseman Louis Wolfe Cary Wolfson Shannon Woods Stephen Wright Shiquita Yarbrough Moutiou Yessoufou Ricci Young Andrew Zicklin Phranque Zygmunt

KGNU Community Radio | 43

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