The Future of Radio & Beyond

We envision a time when Grand Valley Public Radio Co. is an organization that owns and operates a radio station as just one of its many cultural resources and projects. These projects collectively will help keep KAFM vital and unique to our local community as well as a growing a community of support on the Internet.

A Little History...

Since the day KAFM went on air on March 5, 1999, we realized that our meager 16 watts at 88.1 on the FM dial had the potential to be an impediment to our mission as an alternative content provider to all of Grand Junction and Mesa County. Since that time we have learned to maximize that 16 watts to the fullest extend possible through an aggressive campaign to help potential listeners tune us in on their radios or computers.

The FM dial is full in Grand Junction in a way that makes it highly unlikely that our signal at 88.1 can ever increase to anything more than our current 16 watts. We have attempted numerous ways over the years to increase our presence on the FM dial. (See KAFM -A Mighty 16 Watts.)

When we moved into our present location at 1310 Ute Avenue and saw the potential of that big old ugly building, we realized we could be more than just a radio station. What has evolved over time is the idea that while radio is the source of our core mission, we can be much more.

Current Beyond Radio Programs

Radio Room Concert Series

These concerts are held in The Radio Room, our 75-seat live music venue.  We host at least 12 concerts a year.  We broadcast all or part of each concert live on KAFM radio at 88.1 in Grand Junction, CO and on the web at kafmradio.org.  We record these concerts in Studio D, our digital recording studio.  Each year, we produce a compilation CD of performances entitled, Live at the Radio Room.  We have also started video recording of all these performances.  Some of these can be seen on youtube.com and we envision other potential distribution channels.

Lifelong Learning Series

These are lectures and presentations that we present in the Radio Room on a regular basis.  They are part of a lifelong learning initiative involving storytelling, theatre and lectures.

Topics have included: a young man who spent a year in Antarctica, a Marine One helicopter pilot telling stories of his years at the White House, a presentation on the Burning Man Festival along with a fire dance exhibition in our parking lot, a program of a staged reading of a new play along with interactive feedback with the playwright, a lecture and demonstration on naturopathic medicine and a storytelling/musical performance by John Winn, a musician who was part of the folk revolution in New York City during the 1960s with the likes of Bob Dylan and Judy Collins.

Future Possible Beyond Radio Programs

KAFM Visual Arts Gallery

The KAFM Visual Arts Gallery would utilize our intimate space in our Radio Room as a venue for visual art media.  The dream is for different shows throughout the year, working with different artist groups in Western Colorado.

By leveraging the power of our airwaves and volunteer network, outreach to artists would be relatively simple.  The gallery would strengthen the already strong relationship between local and regional artists and the station.

KAFM Cinema

We are investigating the possibility of showing cinematic offerings that are not available at any other venue.  There are increasingly a large number of movies and documentaries that do not have mainstream or art house distribution and are not commercially viable for most theatres, but have considerable artistic merit.  We envision a time in the near future when KAFM Cinema would present two or more titles per month in the Radio Room.