By Chuck Clenney
I came to WRFL in fall 2004. It was a Wednesday and I was in between Astronomy and English when I walked past the on-air room and I found something I would come to love. The General Manager at the time, Michael Powell, was DJing and I wandered in the on-air room with a million questions. I was wearing a T-shirt that I won from Cincinnati’s WOXY (97X), a fellow independent station, and that struck up a conversation that ended with us disagreeing about the quality of the latest Cure album
and me filling out an application.
I went on to a 3am – 6am slot for a year (with an English class at 9am—what crazy
times). My sophomore year, I moved up to Midnight-3am on Wednesdays and hosted an underground hip hop show called “Underground Beef.”
My junior year, the current general manager, John Edwards, recommended that I apply for the training director position at WRFL. I applied, got the job, and trained 80+ people how to operate a board, FCC guidelines, etc.
Then in May 2007, I became General Manager of WRFL and have been bringing the jam since. I’ve come to love WRFL because it is a rare community of true auralphiles: 100+ volunteer DJs who love music, talking about music, playing music, and teaching music who have been educating Kentuckians, without automation, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year since 1988.
This is a monumental feat, especially in lieu of a radio market saturated with cookiecutter corporate stations playing the same 35 songs over and over again. WRFL is, truly, the only alternative left.
Chuck Clenney is WRFL’s 88.1 FM General Manager.
