The Rise of a Community
[Life at a brand new, low-power
community radio station. The programming
manager relates his experience in a memoir about a California small-town ,
Church-based, eclectic assortment of scores of DJ wanna-be’s over their first
three years.]
A Personal Memoir
This document is not a history. It is the
personal observations and reflections of the initial three years, 2006-2009, by
Peter Andrews. It’s been a great period
for me, and this memoir explains, in large part, why that is “so.”
The “so” is people, community, social organizations,
specifically the new KGGV radio station and its parent organization, the Guerneville Community Church
Nine out of ten of these people had never heard of me before
2006, nor I them. Nonetheless, as 2009
ended, I’d say 8 out of 10 considered me a friend.
So, what follows is my commentary on my new friends.
My
involvement with KGGV
 |
| Peter and Randy |
I was not a founder, but one of the early supporters. As the station took public form, I was one of
a mall cadre who led things, those first few years, along with Beth, Kit, and
Randy. I joined them.
But they were the initial group, who were the founders, who
had been working for years to make this happen.
They are the unspoken ones, mostly not “DJ’s”, or “on-air” voices
I had huge influence those first five years, 2006-2010. I was absent 2011/12 dealing with Congestive
Heart Failure. I came back in briefly, 2012-2015, to arbitrate a squabble, and
get the radio license renewed.
 |
| Beth and Peter |
Only a few days after my father drove away at
my new University of Arizona, Greenlee Hall dormitory in Tucson, the leadership
light-bulb clicked on in my head and has been burning brightly ever since. My father had been such a dominant
personality, that I spent my first eighteen years as a quiet nerd; college let
the gregarious me burst into bloom. But it was the time when, five years later,
I led a mini-revolt at my Army accounting office, by staging a work-in on a
Saturday morning that landed me in my life-long career with computers.
The year was 1963; I was the new whiz kid in the Heidelberg
payroll department – fastest hand on the adding machine and a lightening memory
for numbers to go with it. I had fun in
the Army – It was easy for me to stay several steps ahead of the lumbering
plans of the Army brass. In Germany, I
ran a black market business to keep in cash enough to pay my way out of all the
odious parts of Army life. During my
Fort Ord basic training, the Army isolated us for six weeks, I found a way
out. At the end of the first week our CO
called us together and proudly announced that, the next day being Sunday, there
were complete facilities to accommodate all religions. He passed around a signup sheet to so that we
could show our choice of religion as Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish. As the list was going around, he gave
directions to each meeting place and their time of services. He got to the end of the list and said,
"For those of you who may be Buddhist, there is a bus leaving at
ten-thirty in the morning. It will take
you to Monterey and return at twelve-thirty.
I was on the bus the next morning with three Asians. When we got to town, I walked down the path
with the others to the temple. When I
saw the bus pull away, I went back outside and walked the few blocks to the
downtown area. I drank a beer at a bar
and had an idea so I stopped at a liquor store and bought
three little half-pints of whiskey.
These went to the highest bidders when I got back to camp. Next week, I took orders.
Sergeant Webb was punishing us for some unjustified, trivial
Army infraction. My small Heidelberg
office group had to work all day Saturday.
I organized an assembly line and we finished all the work by one
o’clock. I bought everyone a beer at the
camp pub, and then we all went to the movies.
The sergeant pulled me out of the
movie an hour later. “How dare you
countermand my orders!” he shouted. He
was red in the face, “I could have you court-martialed for
insubordination!” I tried to politely
point out, “But we finished all the work, Sergeant Webb. We even cleaned up the
office.” Back at Fort Ord, I had learned
my way around the payroll system such that I helped my friends and hampered my
enemies, while keeping the office running smoothly. Same sort of thing was true of the Personnel
guys. I was three years in the Army and
went on leave many times. Yet the Army
fully paid for all three years’ worth of “untaken” leave time when they
discharged me. The sergeant continued
shouting, “You don’t decide when you’re done,” he was pounding on a table, “I
make the decisions.”
He explained that he knew I was bright and he saw, as I did
too, that there was an irresolvable organizational conflict between him and
me. He had decided to transfer me to a
new group, the data processing center, where, “You can conflict with machines
instead of an Army chain of command.”
The Army sent me to heaven. I
mastered every machine the Army threw at me and was an electronics prima-donna
within a year. I learned enough to get a
job at IBM when I left the Army. Fifty
years later, I am still an active computer guru.
Early
Spring Planning & Launch
Kit Mariah and Megan Hope recruited me early
in the year to participate in the launch of a new radio station, KGGV-LP, 95.1
FM.
They regularly attended the Friends
of the Library Reader’s Theater productions in Jan-Mar. I had just seen the January RR Monthly with a
picture of the founding crew, on the bridge (the white one in front of the
Church.) I asked Angie Orr, our
FOL President, if she could introduce me to the people from this new radio
station so I could read, “A Book at Bedtime.”
Later that evening, Angie calls me over and introduces me to Kit &
Megan, who invited me to their next planning meeting.
 |
| Kit and Megan |
I was impressed by the caliber of people involved in that
initial meeting, sort of a “Who’s Who” in Guerneville. I quickly became involved in the business
side of things; I gave up the idea of going on-air, there were plenty of people
to do that, but few with time enough for the business side of things. It wasn’t until months later, at the Home
Expo event, that I became “hooked” on the addiction to microphones.
So, early on I worked with the key founders of the radio
station: Randy Wells, Beth Hearn, Larry Lane, Kit Mariah and Megan Hope. John Chapman, Mary Mount, Pat Nolan, John
Fendley, and Pam Tinnin later joined the group.
Once a Closet
Our broadcast studio at KGGV had been a tool closet for as
long as anyone could remember; a builder’s afterthought – 5 by 10 feet on the
other side of the bathrooms. The tools
needed a home: garden, plumbing and electrical for the GCC. The Guerneville Community Church (GCC)
sprawled across 2-1/2 acres, north of Guerneville. The Church had taken up, along with a few
thousand other churches and schools, the offer of Bill Clinton to open the
radio airwaves to community broadcasting.
Just like “twenty acres and a mule” in the nineteenth century, the FCC
issued low power licenses (1-100 watts) for community-based, free radio. The licenses are non-transferable and only
owned by a nonprofit institution with established physical property in the
community.
 |
| Wayne Rieke and Wife |
The paperwork took three years to come through, but finally
we received call letters and a frequency.
We also had twelve months to begin broadcasting to keep the license in
force. The Church raised $500 to buy a
do-it-yourself shed for the tools. This
turned out to be one of those activities that straddle a grey line – Is it a
Church thing? or something for the radio?
It wasn’t clear. I only achieved
clarity when I joined the Church and it became a non-issue, as it was at the
time for Beth Hearn, who was leading us.
The “team” crossed the grey lines – Wayne Rieke, Bill Hearn
and Micah Andretich pitched in from the Church side. Ferd Sabino, I and Ferd were clearly
radio. Beth Hearn and Damien Olsen were
straddling the fence between both organizations. Most of these people became friends during
the ensuing year. It turned into one of
those bonding experiences that characterized 2006 for me. Everyone pitched in to the best of their
abilities. We were novices at
“shed-building,” but we finally finished.
It took an unplanned second day with a sustaining effort by Wayne Rieke
to keep moving forward.
It amazes me now that the structure still stands and keeps
the tools, etc. dry and safe as planned.
When I retired to Monte Rio in 2001, I became involved in mostly solitary
activities; the library and my memoir groups were reading and writing. But with the Church/Radio group, I became
involved in group doings, and of doing positive things for the community.
After re-housing the tools, we cleaned down the walls,
floors, and ceiling. It looked big when
it was empty – a cement slab on the floor.
Wiring was important and that came first, followed by egg carton
Styrofoam along all the walls for echo-proofing. A large kitchen-counter type “desk” was the
major hub for radio equipment. We
chopped out a window over the desk area so the DJ could look out on the
gardens. The wiring was like a modern
automobile or airplane: big lines out to the transmitter and back in from the
remote antenna; telephone lines in and out for voice and another set for
streaming; a dozen source devices, each needing power along with battery backup
power and the sound streams wending through a rat’s maze of processing boxes to
control the ultimate signals. Speakers,
headsets, and chairs for three people were the final steps and we were ready.
It was now an electronic closet.
Home Expo
“Here is the studio and this is how it works.”
I learned from Bill Hearn (fuzzy picture) and
Ferd Sabino and then I taught Elena Welch.
None of us had ever done this sort of stuff before. Well, Nancy Fullmer had, and I noticed you
couldn’t pry the microphone away from her.
She could have stayed on-air for hours, and after a while, I could
too. It was addicting. We did interviews over at the Elementary
School, where the Expo was taking place.
 |
| Bill Hearn |
These were “sink or swim” training lessons – “Here, take
over the studio for an hour!” and “Go over an interview this person coming up
on stage.”
Strawberry Festival
 |
| Hayley and Peter |
Our initial fund-raiser was a great success, that is, we
made money. It never looked as though
there were a lot of people there.
Escaping the heat, the attendees spread out throughout the Church
parking lot and inside of Birkhofer.
Bands played – that was the first time I’d heard the
Fullmers and they were great.
I got my face painted by Suki Aaker.
A lot of work goes into these events and the profitability
stems from long hours put in by many volunteers: food prep, putting up and
tearing down the stage and sound equipment, all sorts of booths selling things,
doing things, and serving the food, not to mention clean-up.
The attendees elected Ronnie from the Church as the Queen.
“Story Lady”
I can still vividly picture our conversation, in the “quad”
in front of Birkhofer Hall, during the Strawberry Festival. Lee Meryl Senior was frenetically (I’ve since
learned that she’s always frenetic) telling me she didn’t know what to do about
her program.
She was telling me she had to have sound effects as a
feature of her plays, but how was she going to achieve this? “Sounds to me,” I said, “that you need a
professional sound engineer.” “Well,
Yes,” she said, “so who’s going to do this for me?”
As it turned out, this was me. It turned into an interesting learning
experience, for the both of us. Putting
together a 20-minute playlet requires a huge amount of time – hours of original
scripting, then cast rehearsals, leading to three 1-hour recording sessions,
then an hour or two of editing, cutting a CD, and playing it on air.
Lee did a special production with her regular cast at the
River Home Companion event and it was one of the best things that night.
The Scoop
 |
| Diane Spain |
Reading the Russian River Senior
Center’s monthly newsletter, “The Scoop” every month along with Diane Spain
is exactly what I was aiming for with my initial concept of “The Senior’s
Show.” My plan was to have half a dozen
of these regular monthly interviews.
I’ve made a start on others with the Russian
River Health Center, the Guerneville Regional Library and the River Friends of the Library, and the Chamber of
Commerce. But, by the end of year one, I
hadn’t had the requisite time to pursue other possibilities nor even to
establish these interviews on a regular basis.
Diane and I have a lot of fun doing our Scoop reading and I
think it turns into good and useful listening.
Of course, it is the rare program that gets any feedback, so I really
don’t know how it went over. The best
part of our repartee is when we go off on a tangent, away from the Scoop, like
theater or diets, events around town or just life in general.
“She said” & “Theme Park”
 |
| Valerie BerdaLee and Kit at RHC |
Berdalee has made a great success
out of a writing show, which is something I struggled with and gave up on as
too difficult – my hat’s off to berdalee.
Her Theme Park is my good
listening music.
“Jam Session”
We’ve had two El Molino seniors in our midst and they were
both talented and very sharp witted.
They took to electronics and the studio like ducks to water.
David Kornfeld came over to do
some promos and an interview when school started in again in September, as he
was taking over for the old “Skate Club” show. It was hard to keep up with him, and his show
became a delight, always different and interesting.
Ari Hermann The High Five
This is what I was my true calling and tons of fun to
boot. I love doing interviews.
It’s also something that can highlight and benefit the
community. I started with FOL staff,
then library staff. I started doing The Scoop regularly, then branched out to people like Dawn Bell, the RR Heath staff, Pegasus directors
These things are of great community interest and I put on a
good interview.
“Hawaiian Music”
 |
| Janie Roberts at NYE Party |
Janie Roberts did an accent that
was impressive. Her Hawaiian music was
one of those genres that I learned to love over that first year, and now I
wouldn’t miss her program
When Janie moved out of the area, Timothy
Dixon eventually took over the show; he changed the name to Pacific Island Music.
Guy Fox & GAX
 |
| Guy Fox and GAX at RHC |
When I first put out the call for more promos from everyone,
Guy Fox blew
me away by coming in with 17 professional short track promos, with music and
multiple voices. He set the pace for
promos that have followed.
Guy Fox, nee Chris Blunt, put on
“This Vicious Cabaret” and it was always weird but
fascinating, a pleasure to listen to.
He’s a professional and has elegance to the way he runs his shift.
He had to miss his show one Sunday and Christina
Gaxiola, GAX, filled in for him. She became hooked, of course, as we all
have. Within a few months, she had
launched “Coyote’s Juke Joint” twice a month,
following Guy Fox.
These two, Chris and Christina, were the perfect community
radio volunteers. They each had great
(popular) radio shows; successful because they were committed to the research
necessary to keep new music and ideas flowing from their airwaves. They kept up with and were professionally
knowledgeable about contemporary music.
They’d bring in artists passing through the River area.
They were also helpful at fundraisers for the station, but
had no personal agenda, and didn’t want to be involved in the internal politics
of a group of fifty people.
“Dangerous Jazz”
 |
| Pat Nolan |
Pat Nolan, with his “Dangerous Jazz,” is another one of those DJs that has
reawakened by appreciation for older, “classic” Jazz. Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Dizzie Gillespie,
those are the guys I heard in the fifties.
These were the musicians that I found for myself; although I still loved
the Big Bands that my parents listened to.
I’ve added many CDs into “The Bridge Mix” from Pat’s
line-up.
Stephen Gross
 |
| Stephen Gross |
Stephen wasn’t sure he wanted to
do “The Mystery Train” and he had to be coaxed into
driving the train, but like all of us, once he tasted the magic elixir of being
“on-air,” it was hard to pull him away from the microphone. So hard, in fact, that he wanted to keep running
on past his “end-time” and this became a problem with those following him. It got to the point where I had to walk in to
the studio one time and switch him off.
He never ran over again.
Stephen has reintroduced me to Bob Dylan amongst many others
from the era he features.
“Community Express”
 |
| Patrick Hardman |
These two guys are an inspiration to me in several
ways. Patrick
Hardman is in my Weight Watchers group at the Koret Club in Monte Rio.
We’re both trying to maintain or lose weight.
He commented to me once, “Aren’t you hungry all the time?” when we were
talking about a thousand calorie a day diet. “Of course I am,” I replied, “the
trick is to ignore being hungry.”
Seeing me lose 35 pounds in six months, Pam Tinnin and Beth
Hearn joined this Weight Watchers group for a few months, but there was no magic
secret. I found that losing weight must
be your number 1 priority, because there are so many things in our hectic lives
that can preempt the best of plans and intentions.
 |
| Michael Adams |
Michael is such a steadfastly
sincere, hardworking, and loving person.
When they moved their live broadcast from Sundays to Saturdays at 5pm, I
got a chance to transition to their show after I board-operated and trained
Suki for “Klubhouse.” They always start
their program with a prayer, which included me in their circle for several
weeks.
Only a few failures in 2006 and Richard was one that didn’t
work out well. His drinking was a
problem from Day 1. Literally. We were having a party at my house in Monte
Rio and Richard was slowly downing beers in the late
afternoon, due to go on at 8:00 pm.
Questionable, but ok. Then Noel
shows up from Korbel with a good bottle of champagne in hand, and Richard goes,
“Oh, my, I’ll have some of that!” Randy
and I exchange worried looks and I hid the bottle. Randy gives Richard a ride, stopping for
coffee.
Two months later, I had to let him go.
He had two shows
Melannie “Insights: Into Your Life”
 |
| Melamie Thomas |
Melanie Thomas is serious about
her career and took on a noontime program as an integrated part of her overall
Intuitive Counseling. She had Robin, a
friend of Randy’s, come in and help her with Board-Operating
Melanie was one of the first to receive underwriting from a
sponsor and she and I worked out an underwriting contract format.
Robin was a possibility for Board-Operating a show for the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in exchange for doing a
show of her own in a shared time slot.
Roots
of Mexican Music
 |
| Natasha Pehrson |
Natasha Pehrson had several radio
shows over the years, but she started with a prime spot, mid-week at 8:00 pm
for an hour. That was Roots of Mexican Music.
It was a fun and pleasurable show, where the listener always learned
something.
“Eclectic Mix”
& “Open Mic”
 |
| Kit Mariah and Pat Nolan at NYE Party |
Kit has been my advocate at the radio station for about a
year now. She recruited me to join the
group at the beginning of 2006. She also
recommended me for taking on the duties of Treasurer at the Church and the
radio station
Masada & Dr. B.
 |
| Cynthia Berman |
Cynthia Berman is the best thing
that ever happened to John Fendley (Masada).
Masada was running out of steam after
starting out with a M-W-F show at noon-times.
Life Couch was the original name. Cynthia came along as a guest, then she was a
regular guest and by year’s end, co-host of their new show, “Life Matters”.
They have a lot of fun with the show and have attracted a
committed following of listeners.
Elna Nilwin
 |
| Noel Yates and Henry Bruce |
Noel Yates ( nee Elna Nilwin) worked out at Korbel Wineries, halfway to
Mirabel. Noel’s husband, Henry Bruce, carried a significant part of the load many
days. Their program, Ten O’clock Tales consists of reading stories to help
listeners drift off to sleep.
It takes a special talent to be able to read well, page
after page, live and without error.
Robert Feuer -
Blues
Robert is one of our most knowledgeable DJs, especially when
it comes to local blues and jazz performers and festivals. Blues Up the Riveris
Robert’s twice-monthly musical listening and informative show on what’s going
on in the River Blues world.
Book Discussion Show
There’s never enough time on our Book Discussion
program. Pat Nolan and I do a monthly
one-hour call-in and talk show called, “Off the Shelf”. I focus on fiction and Pat on
non-fiction. I usually talk about the
upcoming selection for the Brown Bag Book Discussion group at the Guerneville
Regional Library. We do a lot of plugs
for the library and the books we discuss are exclusively from the library.
My reading was significantly curtailed last year due to my
excessive involvement with launching KGGV.
I hope to achieve a better balance in 2007 and get back to devouring my
more usual two books a week.
One of the reasons that so many things fell into my lap in
2006 is because running the studio depends quite heavily upon computer and
other electronic knowledge and comfort.
I tried holding several classes on various technical
subjects, so that I could spread what I had learned to others. This met with limited success.
“The Family Hour”
 |
| Sharon Anne Wikoff at Parade of Lights |
“The Family Hour” is Sharon Anne Wikoff’s Friday night show targeting family
relationships. I Board-Operated for
Sharon for a few weeks and she put me on air a few times, “to give the male
perspective.”
I continued “The Family Hour” the first Friday of every
month as a regular guest, but Sharon does all her own Board-Operating these
days. In fact, Sharon became my sparring
partner co-host on “The Morning Show,” taking over solo three days a week. She is also picking up responsibility for
Saturday’s Children’s Hour, for now on alternating
Saturdays. I think she wants to become
the next Don Sherwood.
One of the final steps of learning something new is when you
turn around and teach it to others – I love teaching.
“Old Time Radio”
aka Old Radio Favorites
I’ve had fun with old radio programs, but it’s kind of a
thankless task. It’s a problem holding
off the slot-thirsty DJs, their hunger for fresh time-slots drives them into
frenzied lust.
We desperately needed a survey to tell us if this is as big
with listeners as Randy and I think it is.
Theater Show – Devil & Daniel Webster
This was great fun and accomplished what I set out to do.
I hoped to have several other “directors” pick plays and
assemble casts in the future.
Thriving
with H.I.V.
 |
| Hunter |
This was Hunter’s signature radio program. Hunter opened the
KGGV week at ten am Monday mornings with Thriving with H.I.V
Hunter did have a second show for a short time called, Classic Disco Hits.
Only Hunter could pull that one off.
He was a tireless worker and supporter of KGGV. He became involved
In most of the support activities always going on.
Programming Director’s Choices Year One
 |
| Kit Mariah and John Chapman |
This first year, I started an award for the best community
music show and the best community talk show.
I stressed “community” because that was a mission statement goal. Music and Talk were our two primary hosted
genres. I aimed the awards at beyond
service to the station.
All our hosted
shows had good music and wonderful talkers.
I wanted to reward those who went the extra step toward achieving our
community goals.
 |
| They each got golden Mics and their names on a plaque. |
This first year it was
John (Milo) Chapman and Kit Mariah. Milo was there every day for his evening news
and talk show, covering all aspects of community life Kit hosted a local musician’s show that
provided airing to community musicians.
2006/7 – A Major Year of Change for Peter
There had been a radical change in the life of Peter Andrews
that first year. First, the radio
station, then the Church – both making major impacts on the way I lived my
life. Both had quickly become families
to me; certainly dozens of new friendships sprouted.
I’m an active, nay, energetic participant in many
activities, but I can’t recall jumping into two organizations as
whole-heartedly as I have the radio and the GCC this past year. It’s karma or Kismet, or plain being in the
right place at the right time.
Paying their dues drives radio people to dedication and
career-orientation; spending twenty years just to get a shot at a show of their
own. And there I was, involved in every
aspect of running and being on a radio station.
 |
| Schedule at the end of 2007 |
And then, there I was, attending Church, recording and
broadcasting Church Services, befriending most of
the congregation, and joining the church, becoming the Treasurer and sitting on
the Council. Isn’t this transformation
supposed to take six years, not six months?
Well, I can’t think of a year that I have enjoyed more than
that first one. Thank You KGGV, and
Thank You GCC, for allowing me to flower in your gardens.
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