Episode 51 Nostalgic Airwaves: Chuck Rice Reflects on the Evolution and Impact of Community Radio
Jun 02, 2024
Randy
What happens when you blend nostalgia with the evolving world of community radio? Join us on this episode of Hot Mic with Houston and Hogan as we embark on a heartfelt journey through the past and present of small-town broadcasting with our esteemed guest, Chuck Rice. Together, we reminisce about our early days in radio, sharing cherished memories and amusing anecdotes from the legendary Hogan Holler. Chuck brings a wealth of knowledge, discussing how the internet has transformed the media landscape and the importance of local voices in an increasingly digital world.
In a captivating continuation, we share the trials and triumphs of setting up a community radio station in a small town, recounting everything from fundraising challenges to broadcasting from a train caboose. Chuck sheds light on the global impact of community radio, especially in Africa, where youth-led programs tackle critical social issues. Discover how radio remains a vital source of information and community cohesion, even in regions with limited electricity. This episode is a must-listen for anyone passionate about the enduring power of community radio and its potential to foster positive change worldwide.
What happens when you blend nostalgia with the evolving world of community radio? Join us on this episode of Hot Mic with Houston and Hogan as we embark on a heartfelt journey through the past and present of small-town broadcasting with our esteemed guest, Chuck Rice. Together, we reminisce about our early days in radio, sharing cherished memories and amusing anecdotes from the legendary Hogan Holler. Chuck brings a wealth of knowledge, discussing how the internet has transformed the media landscape and the importance of local voices in an increasingly digital world.
In a captivating continuation, we share the trials and triumphs of setting up a community radio station in a small town, recounting everything from fundraising challenges to broadcasting from a train caboose. Chuck sheds light on the global impact of community radio, especially in Africa, where youth-led programs tackle critical social issues. Discover how radio remains a vital source of information and community cohesion, even in regions with limited electricity. This episode is a must-listen for anyone passionate about the enduring power of community radio and its potential to foster positive change worldwide.
Speaker 1:
Welcome to Hot Mike with Houston and Hogan. I'm Randy.
Speaker 2:
Houston. And this is Dave Hogan from Hogan Holler.
Speaker 1:
Hogan Holler. I've tried to find that on so many maps but I've never been, Because you've drilled that into my brain. I've heard that.
Speaker 2:
It's like Grinderswitch. Where is that? Or what is Garrison? Keillor's Lake?
Speaker 3:
Wobbegong Lake Wobbegong.
Speaker 2:
Over in the Tri-Cities, when I was in Johnson City at WJCW and I would mention Hogan- Holler go home to. Hogan Holler over near Andrews, north Carolina, in the mountains and actually I had several people that went looking for Hogan Holler and they'd go to Andrews and ask people where's Hogan?
Speaker 3:
Holler and nobody knew where Hogan Holler was.
Speaker 2:
I'm one of those people. The radio is the theater of the mind.
Speaker 1:
Oh, and you were so good at painting a theater like Hogan Holler. That was just one big old theater to me where you talked about your mom's leather britches, mom's leather britches, and, uh, actually we've got a recording of you interviewing your mother about making leather britches and that is something we need to put on our podcast so we can do it. I've been meaning to bring that up to you, so why not just put our laundry out there for everybody? That's? Uh, this is. This is called a staff meeting.
Speaker 3:
We're having a staff meeting.
Speaker 1:
Chuck Rice is in our studios here, our world headquarters of Hot Mike, with Houston and Hogan, and I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to welcome a fellow broadcaster and one who also has that passion that we share about radio, this guy, chuck Rice. Chuck, welcome back.
Speaker 3:
Thank you, sir, and it's a pleasure and an honor to be in the presence of two radio personalities that I've admired for a very long time.
Speaker 2:
Well, you're very kind, chuck, and as I said on the beginning of our previous conversation with you on our last podcast, I'm a little bit intimidated because your background is so rich in not just radio but so many other things and community radio.
Speaker 2:
Let's talk about that a little bit. We've talked about small town radio numerous times on our podcast and Randy and I both started, as you did, in small town radio, which is community radio. But the media has changed down through the years, all media, not just radio, but newspapers, magazines. Remember when the Reader's Digest was about that thick and now it's about that thick. So all media has changed. The Internet has probably been the biggest influencer in changing the media, but there's a new type of community radio nowadays. Talk about it. What is it? Define it for us and your role in community radio.
Speaker 3:
Community radio is fairly new to the United States. It's probably what? 10, 15 years old, okay, but outside the United States I used to tell folks in Africa where I work. Now you guys need to come over and teach us how to do community radio, because you've been doing it so much longer than we have. Community radio is what it sounds like. It's owned by the community. They can't usually run commercials, but they can do sponsorships. Usually run commercials, but they can do sponsorships and it the idea is to give everybody a voice living in that community a chance to, to give voice to an issue that they may have, a solution that they may have discovered that can help the community be better.
Speaker 2:
It's about bringing positive change how do you get a license for community radio here in?
Speaker 3:
the United States you wait until they open up the licensing of low-power FM's is what they call them. In Marshall we had WART and about a week before the license window was expiring and about a week before the license window was expiring, the Madison County Arts Council folks asked me if I could help them get the license. And I was working with a couple of different people down at the Arts Council and we sent off an application and we just made deadline To the Federal Communications.
Speaker 1:
To the FCC. That window for applying for those FMs, that window doesn't open very often.
Speaker 3:
It doesn't. I think it's been three or four years since it has opened again.
Speaker 3:
I know that our little antenna is on the tower of WHBK, which used to be WMMH. It's where you and I worked, randy Right. Wkbk, which used to be WMMH, is where you and I worked Randy Right, and they applied for a low power FM frequency in that last window that opened and they got it Okay. And, interestingly, when I sent the application off we sent the application off we were surprised that WART, a few months later we get a construction permit and then we had to raise money to buy transmitter and equipment.
Speaker 2:
What is the broadcast range of one of these low-power FM community radio stations?
Speaker 3:
Well, you mentioned the internet. Today it's worldwide, but for broadcast purposes. I'm listening in my automobile, in your car you can get us out to about Weaverville if you're in Marshall, sometimes to New Bridge. If the wind is blowing right Over at Hot Springs in Madison County you can't really hear us over there because it's so mountainous. Parts of Laurel Big Laurel, which is very mountainous actually comes in over there.
Speaker 1:
I don't know how, but you can sit down at the computer or your phone if you have the internet and listen to it anywhere yeah, I've listened to it in uh in africa and I I, you know, I've been around a while in this radio business and, uh, the streaming part of, uh, of what we do is more and more important and more and more a bigger piece of the pie, and I predict it's gonna take over the whole pie one of these days. Terrestrial radio is not what it used to be, but it has been. We still alive because of streaming and, uh, you guys, you can take wart with you anywhere, okay, so so we, we caught this dog, the dog caught the car and we got this radio station. Now what are we gonna do with that?
Speaker 3:
chuck. Well, we gotta. We've got to raise money, we've got to get transmitting equipment. We needed about $15,000. And we just went out and started shaking trees around the county and we raised the money a few months I think you had an 18-month window to get that construction permit active and we came in just before the wire and we went on the air. We were in the storefront at the Madison County Arts Council.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, on Main Street.
Speaker 3:
On Main Street next to the post office and we eventually moved up to the. You came to visit us. You guys came up to visit we're in the train caboose, the Southern Railroad train caboose, at the end of town next to the Old Depot.
Speaker 1:
Where that has become a big part of the community headquarters is the Old Depot, and you were so gracious to take us on a tour of the Old Depot where my dad worked for well, he worked off and on at that depot during his 44-year career at Southern Railway and so I kind of halfway grew up in that old depot. But it has now been totally transformed into a performing arts center and they have events every week.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, we want to thank Pat Franklin for making that happen. She's been the driving force behind that and on occasion we actually broadcast some of the Friday night shows Not always, but on some Friday nights we do, when there's somebody that can come down and take the mic over there and hook it up and bring up the level on the board and take the mic over there and hook it up and bring up the level on the board.
Speaker 2:
Is community radio across the United States getting to be rather common?
Speaker 3:
I think so. Here in Asheville we have what? Three community-based radio stations. You drive through large cities. They usually have three or four, but the signal is very limited because they can't interfere with the commercial broadcasters. So it's very limited. Now in Africa some of the signals can go. They might have 1,000 watts. What does 1,000 watts of power mean? Their signal can go maybe up to 75, 100 miles over a flat terrain. I know I've worked with a number of radio stations in Africa and they just get in the car to leave and you just drive to see how far you can hear the signal. And you can drive 60, 70, 80 miles sometimes before it fades out.
Speaker 2:
One of your responsibilities currently is providing training to TV, radio and social media journalists across the African continent. Now talk about that. Expand on that.
Speaker 3:
That sounds like a lot of work. It does. Yeah, we currently are working in Malawi with community-based radio stations. We're working with nine stations and we're working to end teen pregnancy, child marriage, reduce HIV infections, and we're doing that working through youth organizations. We train youth how to produce the weekly radio program that they do on the nine partner community-based radio stations that we work with. Those broadcasts are heard. The potential listening audience for the nine stations is around 11 million people and we have stations all the way in the south of Malawi and all the way to the north and it's truly amazing to see the impact that when kids are talking to kids on the radio, these kids listen. If they say we use a condom, you should use one to protect yourself. Use a condom, you should use one to protect yourself. It makes a difference. They hear it. They hear it and they follow that guidance Are radios or receivers pretty common.
Speaker 2:
Does everybody have a radio? Almost everybody.
Speaker 3:
In Malawi just Malawi about 70% of the population, according to recent survey work they listen to radio to get their news and information. It's the main source of information. It's because it's cheap and everybody has a radio and you can. If you don't have electricity, you can get a solar-powered radio. We have radio listening clubs. We set up radio listening clubs in each village that we work in. We give them a solar-powered radio. That way, if there's no electricity, these 20 or 30 kids can come together, they can listen to the radio program and they can then go out and do outreach in the community on places where they can get contraceptives or places where they can get an HIV test. They might report on a parent who's decided that their daughter at age 13 should get married. They will report that to the police and the police will go and meet with the parents and make sure that that doesn't happen. So it's kind of a youth grapevine network of people, but it all starts on these radio programs that our organization, developing Radio Partners, helps fund.
Speaker 1:
I find that fascinating. I really, really do, and that is core communication. But you can liken that back to the day of when the teens in our era were tuned in to the Dick Clark show and, uh, Ed Sullivan show, watching Elvis and the Beatles come across the pond and and and we were bonded together as this age of people who liked a different kind of music, who, uh, were, we were teenagers and and I hear what you're saying, that that that form of communication work.
Speaker 3:
It really does. And one thing that we do is we have these community gatherings. They're like town hall meetings. The radio station organizes and hosts them. We teach them how to do this and they will have a two or three-hour event that may be talking about how girls need sanitary pads so that they don't miss school, so that they don't fall behind, so that they don't drop out of school, and they will use local musicians who will do jingles on the radio saying you know, help girls stay in school. People love jingles. They will have a radio drama. On the stage They'll do a dance performance, Then they'll have a panel discussion with health experts. It's a production and this is all broadcast live on the radio and radio is at the center of all of this creativity.
Speaker 2:
When we say missionary work, we think of religion. Isn't this a type of missionary work, but not of a religious nature?
Speaker 3:
It is. We do work with faith-based radio stations, okay, and they don't have a problem talking about condoms and avoiding HIV. They go on the air. They're some of our best partners, the faith-based stations Right. We work with one in the second largest city in Malawi and one in the north and they have tremendous broadcast coverage and, uh, they, they have really made a difference in in protecting young people from sexually transmitted infections, including hiv, and limiting child marriage.
Speaker 1:
That's great, that's great. I'm very, uh much becoming a fan of developing radio partners. You can fan of developing radio partners. You can Google that developing radio partners and there's also the ability for you to donate if you would like to help in this mission. Well, back to WART 99, 95.5. I'll get this. I work at a couple of different stations already and I'm getting old and I get them confused. But it's W-A-R-T 95.5 there in Marshall, and give us a little rundown, chuck, of the programming that you have.
Speaker 3:
There it is a wide range of programs, mostly music. But, dave, if you wanted to come in and you wanted to host a one-hour country music program, you come in and host the one-hour program, or you produce it here and you send it to me, I upload it and I schedule it. Or if you wanted to do a gospel program, we have gospel music on Sunday mornings from seven till eight. I really want to push that, because you don't hear a lot of old bluegrass gospel music on the radio a lot of times You're preaching to the choir.
Speaker 3:
I have to say, Dave, let me say this I have to say that this program was inspired by your gospel hymn time program that was on WSKY all those years ago. That ran from 6 in the morning to ultimately 11. I took it to 11 when I did it, but it went till 10 when you were doing it. It was inspired by you.
Speaker 2:
Well, it's nice of you to say that, but I grew up with gospel music and bluegrass music and of course, got into early rock music when Elvis came along. But you know, radio, and what radio has meant to me, to Randy and to you, is just wonderful. Aren't we fortunate, aren't we lucky, to be in this kind of business and our podcast is heard now on WART 1030, on Saturday morning. Right, that's right.
Speaker 1:
I'm so proud of that. That's really an honor, you know, to have you guys ask us to be on that radio station.
Speaker 2:
Oh one more thing about gospel music, one of the guests that we're going to have on a future broadcast is also a Rice Arthur Rice.
Speaker 2:
Arthur was the lead singer for the King Demers Quartet. I call them the Dollywood Quartet because they perform at Dollywood and have been for years. But for 27 years Arthur Rice was a lead singer for the King Demers, was a lead singer for the Kingdom Heirs and he just recently has retired from the Kingdom Heirs. Before the Kingdom Heirs he was with the Kingsman Quartet also, but he is the music director of Trinity Baptist Church in Asheville, a large, well-known Baptist church. He is going to come in and sit in the chair that you're in right now, real soon, and talk about gospel music and we really look forward to having Arthur on the program.
Speaker 3:
There are so many gospel groups out there doing the research to try to find old albums. Some of them were recorded at Wes Studios here in Asheville the Primitive Quartet, but not just the Primitive. There were so many other groups Johnson City, Elizabethton, Irwin, Kingsport, little recording studios all over the place and you just don't find that anymore. I don't think, and I have quite a huge collection of gospel albums that I'm currently digitizing so that we can put them on the radio.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, what do you foresee? When I started in the business, I guess all three of us I know Randy and I worked with the business and I guess all three of us I know Randy and I worked with the reel-to-reel tape recorders. Oh, yeah, okay. And then cassettes came along and eight tracks, and now we have digital computerized music. What's next? What's going to happen next? Is there another step possible?
Speaker 3:
I think community radio is going to be around for a long, long time because it's the voice of the people in the community and everybody wants to know what's going on in the community and I think that's the link as long as people are allowed to have a voice on the radio, I think, because you know you're competing with Spotify and all these other things, podcasts and all these Thousands are.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, there's so much out there, but one thing that they can't duplicate is the localness. This podcast is a great example of community radio. It's very local. It's local voices. You just don't get that.
Speaker 1:
If you just want music, yeah, spotify's great, but if you want more than that, community radio is a great place to go to find the local voices, I think we do, uh, we do a lot of history on a hot mic with Houston and Hogan about Asheville, north Carolina radio and, uh well, uh, this has just been a highlight of my career here at Hot Mike to be sitting in the studio with Chuck Rice and Dave Hogan, my interest, the reason I brought it up.
Speaker 2:
What is the next step? My interest is preserving for future generations what we're doing today. You mentioned that we have the recording of my interview with my mom about leather bridges and cooking in the traditional way.
Speaker 2:
Before everybody could run out to a grocery store and buy what they ate at home and I had that on a cassette and I came over to your studio at whkp, where you work in hendersonville, and we transferred that to uh, digital, digital, yeah, uh. What are people going to be listening to 40, 50 years from Now? That sounds like a long time, but that's the length of time I spent in radio 57 years. So it doesn't seem like a long time to me, but are people 50, 60 years from now going to be able to listen to what we're doing today and how are they going to be listening to it?
Speaker 3:
I think they will. I think there they going to be listening to it. I think they will. I think there's going to be a massive archive. Everything's already archived, everything's on places like Spotify or Apple Music or wherever it is, and maybe we will have a little computer in our wrist with a little screen and we can say okay, I want to hear Dave Hogan's program from July 1, 1976. And if it's available then you can listen to it. You can kind of do that now, but you need a laptop or you need a phone.
Speaker 1:
But I think eventually it will be built into our bodies somehow, you know once that tape of your mother talking about making leather britches was converted to x's and o's, and it was. We took that tape and converted it digitally to x's and o's. That's what it is now. It's x's and o's and it's stored on a computer somewhere as x's and o's and also my dad's experience isn't world war ii.
Speaker 2:
We digitized a whole bunch of stuff there that we need to use but.
Speaker 1:
I think, since it's been turned to that digital format, it's going to be around?
Speaker 3:
I do, I think so, and let me just say this that's why I really wanted you guys to have the program on WART, because this is a local program and it really belongs on WART, I think.
Speaker 1:
Thank you so much for having us, we've got to run. This has been a pleasure, dave. Like you said, we're coming up, we're going to talk with Arthur Rice and looking forward to that, and we're going to cash out of here rice, uh, and looking forward to that, and we're gonna cash out of here on hot mike with houston and hogan.
Speaker 2:
Goodbye thank you, chuck thank you.
Speaker 1:
Be sure to click the subscribe button for another episode of hot mike with randy houston and dave hogan.