Radio Free 91 KRCL

From Issue 16, April 1990

If you’ve never listened to public radio before, you probably have a lot of misconceptions about it. Or perhaps you don’t know what it is at all. Tune your radio down to 91 and listen—not just one time, but at different hours during the week. It’s not the same thing every day. It’s always unique, always moving forward.

KRCL officially went on the air on December 3, 1979. It had taken the owner the previous seven years to get the license, money, building, and equipment to run a radio station. Out of these, the new FCC licensee began broadcasting in the Salt Lake area.

Donna Land Maldonado is the Program Director of KRCL and she has worked there since July of 1979, before they started broadcasting. Fresh out of college with a Sociology degree, she needed a job to support herself and her family. She had never worked in radio and had never even heard of public radio. A good friend introduced her to KRCL and she immediately fell in love with it. She’s worked there ever since. Community radio is the great passion in her life. “I think it’s all beneficial, allowing people to hear things that they don’t hear anywhere else, to hear different voices, different perceptions, different opinions, ideas, everything,” she says.

KRCL has many voices. There are a wide variety of musical programs ranging from reggae to rockabilly, bluegrass to blues, r&b to r&r, jazz, Latin, punk, industrial—if you like a specific genre of music, they probably play it. Plus there are news programs, women’s programs, book readings and talk shows. Opinions and musical styles may be counter to those on commercial radio stations but that’s one of the benefits of KRCL: giving everyone a chance to voice their feelings. As Donna says, “I think everyone should be allowed to voice their opinion whether it’s right or wrong.” This is the idea behind KRCL and community radio, allowing all to speak for themselves.

Recently KRCL had 48 hours of women’s programming. The event involved 30-35 women from various backgrounds. They were able to express themselves in their own words. They also did all the engineering and production for the weekend’s programs.

All these programs on KRCL are run with the help of volunteers and funded by donations from the listeners. Twice a year KRCL has a radiothon to raise money to keep the station alive. They operate on an incredibly tight budget, barely making it from one fundraiser to the next. That’s why contributing is so important,” says Sandi Terry, Development Director, “because it isn’t for free. We’re always on a shoelace around here. It’s amazing when you go through the budget. It’s bad!” But it’s not bad enough to keep the staff and volunteers from moving forward, regardless of financial strain.

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