By Ben Cannon
Saturday, June 21, 2008

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-On a recent Friday afternoon, as the valley workforce commuted home or headed toward happy-hour drink specials, the sounds of obscure dancehall reggae, a particularly irie genre of contemporary Jamaican music, floated over Jackson Hole airwaves like fog carpeting a cool mountain lake.

The notion of reggae music neither performed by nor directly related to Bob Marley broadcasting across a western Wyoming valley was, not so long ago, a rather unheard of idea.

But ideas of what music can or cannot work on local airwaves have been turned on their heads, due largely to KHOL, Jackson Hole’s volunteer-driven FM radio station. KHOL, also known as Jackson Hole Community Radio, went on the air in early April, marking the culmination of a years-long effort to provide the valley with its first community radio station.

It was the vision of founder Jim Tallichet, who is quick to point out that the station could not have made it without some loyal support of donors and volunteers. Now, more than two months on the air, KHOL is working to establish regular programming as it simultaneously irons out the day-to-day operational kinks of running a nonprofit startup, station manager Walker White said.

“As an organization, we do not have a lot of real world broadcasting experience,” White said. White holds the only staff position in an organization ultimately dependent on literally thousands of volunteer hours annually.

“The biggest challenge has been to train our volunteers and put their enthusiasm onto the airwaves,” he said.

Making that effort more difficult, White said, is a confined studio space that does double duty as a DJ – or programmer – booth and also facilitates the studio’s gamut of operational needs. With a steady, growing cast of programmers who record or go live with one to two-hour, commercial-free segments every day of the week, the KHOL studio is in use as much as 18 hours a day, White said. As many as a dozen more would-be programmers are waiting for the opportunity to begin recording their own shows, which means laying tracks of their choosing and adding voiceovers.

But despite a promising show of volunteer support as community radio strengthens its long-term, sea faring legs, White and Tallichet said more volunteers are needed to help establish community-based, public affairs programming, including local and regional news and a talk-radio format.

Procuring more funding is also a primary focus for KHOL. The station has received one federal matching grant, but is looking for contributions large and small to help it expand.

Though the toughest road financially may be in the rearview, the station continues to operate “hand to mouth,” White said.

KHOL currently broadcasts at a modest 100 watts from a single antenna atop its building. City ordinances restrict the power, limiting the station’s range to High School Road to the south, and the crest of Teton Pass to the west. The station is permitted up to 2200 watts, though realizing that potential will eventually present its own challenges, Tallichet said, but declined to elaborate.

“But at this point I’m very happy with what’s coming out of the radio,” he said. “We need to finish building a radio station and figure out the logistics of staying on the air.”

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