John Fry, Volunteer DJ (Sound booth)
Volunteer DJ John Fry tests out the Lexington Community radio sound board. His program, “Bike Talk,” will cover bicycle safety, repairs, tours and more. | Photo by Sara Hughes
One of Debra Hensley’s first connections to grassroots radio surfaced in the late 1980s, when she was a council member for Lexington’s Urban County Council. She recalls the moment when a handful of “really cool” University of Kentucky students showed up at a council meeting, looking for funding to start a student radio station.
“They came in with a business plan,” said Hensley. “I was so impressed with them, and so was Mayor Baesler.”
She ended up helping the group find funding to fix up the asbestos-ridden building that would eventually become the first studio for the longstanding University of Kentucky college radio station WRFL.
“We were thrilled to help them,” she said.
Today, those acquainted with Hensley know her as frequently being on the other side of that request for help. For the past four years, she has diligently led efforts to get the Lexington Community Radio (LCR), a nonprofit organization with two low-power FM licenses, off the ground – and if all goes as planned, WLXL 95.7 will begin fully broadcasting within a 3.5-mile radius in central Lexington later this month. WLXL’s sister station, WLXU 93.9, is scheduled to begin broadcasting early next year.
“It’s finally getting real,” said Hap Houlihan, the general manager of the stations, which will celebrate their grand opening on Sept. 19.
Intrinsic to their mission, the broadcast radius for both stations will encompass urban neighborhoods in central Lexington, including the areas with the highest local concentrations of low-income, African-American and Latino populations. The stations hope to provide a means for residents and neighborhoods to express concerns and connect with others, to foster diversity on the air and to provide a platform for voices that don’t often get heard.
“One of our founding ideas is serving currently underserved populations,” Houlihan said. “Not just low-income, not just African American, not just Latino, but if you take those three demographics, that’s kind of the center of what we’re shooting for.”
But Houlihan is quick to add that, in sticking with its community mission, LCR won’t exclusively serve those particular groups, or any others; it instead seeks a goal of serving a diverse and varied population that includes many demographics.
“We’re trying to imbue the spirit of community in everything we do,” Houlihan said. “We want it to be inclusive, and we want it to be a uniting force in Lexington.”
Under the direction of Hensley, Houlihan, Kakie Urch (who helped start WRFL more than a quarter century ago and now serves as the programming director for LCR) and others, the stations have trained more than 75 volunteer DJs who will contribute to a diverse programming schedule. Programming will include a blend of music, live talk radio and pre-produced programs covering everything from public safety and health to cooking to LGBT and women’s issues.
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Lexington Community Radio board member-elect Melynda J. Price, founder and board president Debra Hensley, general manager Hap Houlihan, administrative manager Alexis Meza and volunteer Ben Wolff in front of the LCR studios, which were recently painted by Lexington artist John Lackey. | Photo by Sara Hughes
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Lexington artist John Lackey led a group of students in painting murals for the exterior walls of LCR’s studios, which are built to be mobile and are currently located on the bottom floor of the Lexington magnet high school STEAM Academy. | Photo by Sara Hughes
“Our goal is to give a voice to those who are often left in the cold, and to do those stories that don’t get heard, and to have discussions that are not always easy,” Hensley said.
The seeds for Lexington Community Radio originated in 2011 with a comment Hensley made in passing to her friend Mick Jeffries, a videographer and longtime host of WRFL’s talk show Trivial Thursdays. Jeffries was helping her with a documentary project archiving stories about people who have made an impact on the Lexington community in some way, and acknowledging the abundance of footage and stories they had collected, Hensley said “We need our own radio station!”
Jeffries paused and looked at her, Hensley recalls, and said “I can’t believe you just said that.”
Jeffries went on to explain to her that just weeks before, President Obama had signed the Local Community Radio Act, a bill that community media advocates had been working to push through Congress for more than a decade. The bill issued a mandate for the Federal Communications Commission (F.C.C.) to issue hundreds of non-commercial, low-power FM radio licenses to nonprofits and community media groups across the country, many of which had struggled for years to find a broadcast outlet amongst the conglomeration of commercial radio affiliates that own the overwhelming majority of the airwaves. The F.C.C. announced that a short window would open in 2013 wherein local nonprofits and affiliated community groups could apply for licenses under these new standards, giving preference to stations with a focus on public safety and wellness.
“My grandmother used to say ‘You either gotta crap or get off the pot,’” Hensley said with a laugh. “I just said ‘I’m gonna do this.’”
Hensley got right to work building relationships with people who would prove integral to getting Lexington Community Radio off the ground. Staffers from WUKY 91.3 helped connect her with communications lawyers who could quickly bring her up to speed on everything she needed to know about applying for a license; the city’s Division of Emergency Management and the Lexington Fayette Health Department also became early allies of the station, which supports their respective missions of public safety and wellness. Seeing the potential value of using the station to connect with its population of Latino students, Bluegrass Technical and Community College allowed LCR to locate the transmitter antennas for both WLXL and WLXU on its campuses; the Blue Grass Community Foundation helped pay for those antennas with a $20,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
“There are plenty of people who, without even knowing it, have been waiting around for us to come and be,” said Houlihan.
Kacie Hughes, 15 years old (White shirt)
Kacie Hughes, a student of John Lackey, works on the mural decorating the exterior wall of the WLXL studio. | Photo by Sara Hughes
Other important community partners include STEAM Academy, the magnet high school located on Sixth Street that currently houses Lexington Community Radio’s broadcast studios, and Central Kentucky Radio Eye, a service that broadcasts the reading of newspapers and other print publications to people who are blind or visually impaired, which has donated equipment to LCR and provided a place for LCR DJs-to-be to practice being on air. The two organizations have been working together to help get Spanish-speakers to read newspapers on the CKRE’s airwaves, utilizing the strong network of native Spanish speakers that LCR has already amassed.
In addition to providing a platform for community issues and voices, addressing public safety and wellness is at the heart of Lexington Community Radio. LCR will be the only station in the area licensed specifically to provide up-to-date relevant information when emergencies occur in the community.
Hensley’s background as an insurance agent with State Farm has equipped her with a special understanding of public safety, including a foresight for how to avert and respond to disasters and catastrophic situations. But her strong, longstanding interest in social justice has been just as important a driving force in getting LCR off the ground.
“I like to think of this as very heightened community engagement, and we just so happen to have two radio stations,” Hensley said.
Houlihan is acutely aware that for the stations to be effective, a strong focus must remain on programming that people want to hear. As for what exactly that will look like … that remains to be seen, as the programming that community DJs who’ve been in training in recent months starts to unfold. But station managers guarantee it will be diverse and different from anything currently on Lexington’s airwaves.
“In the end the community will decide,” Houlihan said. “I hope by this time next year that we are turning away local content.”
Lexington Community Radio has plenty of opportunities for community members or organizations to get involved, from content production to underwriting to volunteering. Visit www.lexingtoncommunityradio.org/ or email lexingtoncommunityradio@gmail.com for more information. cc
The Amazing Radio Race: Grand Opening Celebration for LexingtonCommunity Radio
Sept. 19
Lexington Community Radio marks the on-air debut of its station WLXL with a celebration centering on a community scavenger hunt guided by clues to be given over the station’s airwaves. Community members are invited to meet at Bluegrass Community & Technical College’s Newtown Pike campus (500 Newtown Pike) to participate in the scavenger hunt (registration begins at 9:30 a.m.), or meet at the station’s studio at STEAM Academy (123 Sixth St.) at 11:30 a.m. for a party with food, music and more.