PRINTKOPN: The radio rock-stars
Community radio station
David Kennedy
The KOPN team who are determined to keep the station going for another 37 years.
November 12, 2009 | 12:00 a.m. CST
37 years in Columbia
Indie, punk rock, bluegrass, classical, rock ’n’ roll, save your soul music lives at KOPN in more than 80,000 records, CDs and tapes. They all sit atop the narrow stairway on Broadway in the KOPN studio, a space across from the fluorescent lights of Formosa restaurant. Homemade decorations and hand-me-down chairs fill the studio. At the back of the large, musty conference room, where the music resides between oversized potted plants and windows facing an alley way, a construction paper sign reads: “Live and Alive Where You Live.” Listeners who turn their dials to 89.5 FM will find an alternative to the mainstream and be led away by political dialogue, sometimes forgotten music and citizen empowerment.
- Eduardo Crespi: The reluctant leader
- Lynn Maloney: The queen of pins and needles
- Granny's House: The home away from home
- Ben Gakinya: The art enthusiast
- Richard King: The man behind the scenes
- The Road House: The home-grown food gurus
- Philip Peters: The achievement gap overachiever
- Teresa Maledy: The go-getter
- Mike Martin: The community investigator
- Leigh Lockhart: The green thinker
- Maureen Dickmann: The progressive pastor
- Stefan Sarafianos: The HIV slayer
- Mike Cooper: The nature-lover
- Brent Beshore: The Pure connector
- CAT: The local TV outlet
- Making waves in a landlocked state
Since its grass-root beginnings in 1972, KOPN has sustained itself with donations, grants and volunteers, and has a $300,000-annual cost to stay open. But in exchange, KOPN hosts a public discourse that’s hard to come by. “It’s a forum for free expression,” says David Owens, general manager of the station, “and an openness in dialogue.” With six paid employees, the KOPN door is as unlocked as its ideals, providing easy access to freedom of speech for anyone who walks in. Three years ago, when Dave Collins saw an ad summoning volunteers to the station, he walked in expecting to help file music. “I was out of work at the time and looking for a job,” Collins says. “I was disappointed in the job market and the process of putting in your application and then never hearing from them. It revitalized me to come down here and feel like somebody wanted me.”
Jeff Wheeler, KOPN operations coordinator, says 80 percent of the programming on the station is locally produced, which provides the listener with information and perspectives they simply cannot get elsewhere. “I believe people are perfectly capable of informing and entertaining each other,” says volunteer coordinator Christine Gardener, who’s been at the station since 1977. “We don’t have to rely on professionals.”
Owens, with his large, infectious laugh and dedication to community voice, cultivates an environment of freedom of expression and equality. The local station is home to an eclectic group full of earnest commitment and jovial teasing (“You have a face for radio!”) combined with a faith in democracy. Though nonprofits everywhere might be suffering, the followers of the community radio creed are tough. “I’m going to do everything in my power to keep it going for another 37 years,” says volunteer John Betz.
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