It’s nice and cool inside the KWNK shared space on Wells Ave, on a sweltering June day. DJ Crescent Moon is in the padded studio wearing a New Orleans jazz tee-shirt mixing underground rap. Tucker Rash, 21, the new program director for the non-profit 97.7 FM radio station and a recent Reynolds School of Journalism graduate is typing away at his laptop next to a row of supplies for Laika Press.
He’s been volunteering at the station since 2017, before it was even on air, and remembers selling popcorn as part of fundraising efforts.
“At the beginning, I hosted my own show, which was really fun,” Rash said. “I was a DJ. I had a radio show called The Bottom 40. I played a lot of punk and some metal, but mostly just like punk and electronic music. And back then I was volunteering too. So I would also help out programming the schedule.”
For KWNK and successful ongoing membership drives, what started with limited hours and sharing a frequency with another radio station has grown to being on air 24 hours and a growing group of volunteers.
“We have almost 80 DJs working for us now. It’s grown pretty exponentially. It feels really nice to have a radio station that isn't just like one or two voices, but you know, nearly 80 voices of people and tastes and genres of music. It feels like a community. “
“A lot of them are musicians themselves, and it feels good to have a platform to just share something that you're passionate about,” Rash said of the staion’s many DJs. “We have a really wholesome and inspiring community that uplifts each other's voices here. So it's really nice to have a scene of like-minded people, all sharing, diverse and different ideas and music genres, but all accepting them as valid and, you know, they're all respected. So it just feels good to be surrounded by people who may not necessarily have the same exact tastes and interests as you, but they're just as passionate as you are and a real friendship and community forms.”
Some DJs leave town, but still keep their show going, like a few now living in Russia, attracting listeners there as well. “It’s kind of cool seeing a little Reno community radio station become international,” Rash said.
His goals as program director are to make the station more “put together” and cohesive. “It often feels like a mix mash of ideas. And it feels a little incoherent. So as program director, I really want listeners to have a solid KWNK experience. Like when they tune into the station, they know they're listening to KWNK no matter what kind of music is playing.”
One current show is called Soft Power Radio with Ilya Arbatman which combines music and interviews. Rash says there’s a current effort to have more storytelling, shows and podcasts to go with the diverse music.
In terms of overall content, KWNK abides by FCC guidelines and sometimes has to clean up songs, something new potential DJs should keep in mind when thinking of possible playlists. Applications for new DJs are open via the KWNK Instagram @kwnk97.7
And people shouldn’t feel restricted when coming up with ideas, Rash explained. “We're a free form radio station,” he said. “So besides the FCC guidelines at the end of the day, you do have complete creative control over your show, which is what makes community radio so great. It's why we have so many different diverse genres and topics that you wouldn't hear on other stations. So the main thing we're looking for with the applications is that you do have a theme that you want to stick to. We don't really want shows that are all over the place. As long as you have a defining genre or era of music that you'd like to showcase that you're really into, we'd be more than happy to have you.”
Rash has words of advice on starting a new show. “The main thing I see when people get sick of doing their shows is they take on too much, too fast. So a lot of people come into the station and they want to do a really informative show where they interview a ton of people, but they don't really have the experience to know that hosting and editing interviews consistently on a weekly or even bi-weekly basis takes up more time than you necessarily want as a volunteer DJ position. So my advice would be to pick something that you're genuinely passionate about and maybe find a friend or two, that'd be happy to keep you motivated and maybe host the show with you because it's much easier to bounce ideas off each other and find topics to talk about each week and the motivation to come in each week.”
Rash sees thriving community radio as a reaction to the algorithmic world. “I think that unfortunately people's free will is really being eroded because so much of our tastes come from online recommendations. So if you have a Spotify account or a YouTube account, you're giving those platforms so much information about yourself that they're able to predict what you might be interested in before you discovered it on your own, or before you come up with that idea on your own. And I don't really like that idea of being fed content over and over again. It feels kind of gross to me. It feels inorganic and unnatural.”
He also sees an important local role for the station. “In recent years we have so many outside players coming in from other states and trying to influence the city, buying up buildings and land, but having something on the radio station broadcasting all the time that represents the true voice, history and nature of Reno as a community, I think is probably more important than ever. Having the ability for true members of the Reno community, true locals, to talk about their experience in Reno, it's a really beautiful thing.”
Rash himself was born in Oakland, and has lived in Reno, since he was three.
During the pandemic, most DJs transitioned to editing and recording their shows at home, but some like DJ Crescent Moon who was still going at it at the end of our interview are now back in the studio, bringing varied music and and a wide range of young progressive voices unlike any other media in town.