AUDIO:

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DJ RHI MARIE:

All right, as promised, we have a very special guest here in the studio. I am so happy today, not only because I have a friend in the studio, but also because I have station manager Neroli Devaney. Hi.

NEROLI DEVANEY:

Hi! Thank you so much for having me on today. I'm happy to be here. It's my first time in the new KSLG studios in Eureka and they are looking beautiful. And, uh, it was exciting to take a little spin when I arrived. Yeah. So thanks for having me.

RHI MARIE:

I've been, oh you're so welcome. Thanks for coming in here on an afternoon.

DEVANEY:

Yeah, I love to check out other radio stations too, which we'll dive into the things that I'm doing with radio here at Humboldt. But, um, it's always inspiring to me and like genuinely like educational to like, you know, really what, how other radio stations are set up, what type of equipment they're using and stuff. So it's cool to see, to see the setup here.

RHI MARIE:

Yeah, no, definitely. First, I want to mention that Humboldt Hot Air is a program of Playhouse Arts. Playhouse Arts is a non-profit arts and education organization, and today we're gonna talk about the transition of Humboldt Hot Air to KHHA to what it is now. So, I want to kind of get into why you started the idea of making Humboldt Hot Air a LP station.

DEVANEY:

Yeah, so Humboldt Hot Air was founded sort of in 2020, roughly, then sort of really started growing in 2021. And we were, since then, up until somewhat recently, we were an internet radio station for about three years. And that was really fun to be an internet radio station. I actually, to be totally honest, didn't have that many plans to ever leave being an internet radio station. Being an internet radio station has a lot of freedom, and we were able to basically follow a community radio platform just, or format, but on the internet.

And then, you know, in the process of getting a license to really broadcast is quite complex and wasn't really something I ever saw myself doing, but I was invited by Joseph Orozco, who is the retired but former station manager of KIDE, which is the Hoopa Tribal Radio here in Humboldt. And Joseph is like one of my radio mentors. I love him, and he's so inspiring. And the history of KIDE and Hoopa is really inspiring, too. They're like the first tribally-owned radio station in California, and the first solar-powered station, maybe, in California, as well. They're really cool.

So, anyways. But Joseph reached out to me and told me about this event called the Grassroots Radio Conference. And so, you know, I was doing community radio. We were just on the internet, but we really, in every other way, were doing community radio. And so, he saw that that would be a good match for me. And so, I went, and it was in West Virginia, and that was where I learned all about this upcoming window to apply as an LPFM, which stands for low-power FM, which basically means a radio station is broadcasting at a lower wattage, which means that we are broadcasting to a smaller range, so a smaller geographical.

RHI MARIE:

I like that you mentioned the definition because I know a lot of people would be like: LP, but okay, what does that mean?

DEVANEY:

And then low power, what does that even mean? That's what low power FM is. And so the window, the last time that the FCC opened up the window for folks to apply for a low power FM license was 10 years ago. And so it was a really big deal. And basically, you know, the energy at this conference was telling everyone, hey, if you're a part of a nonprofit, encourage anyone, even if they're not a radio nonprofit, to apply because this is kind of possibly a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Of course, the point of low power FMs is for the community to regain control of the airwaves. And so especially low power, it's easy to hear low power FM and think, okay, so it's like full power but less. But actually, low power FM really serves the community in a unique way. Low power FM is really hyper local because of our smaller broadcast range. And so we're able to, a lot of low power FM stations have really niche kind of communities that they serve for they're really specific and they can have this kind of hyperlocal aspect to them because they're not trying to cover very much land.

So they're like, you know, here at Humboldt Hot Air, we're really like, we are serving Arcata and we're serving Eureka and like McKinleyville. And if it reaches further than that, that's awesome. But we get to really like focus in on the community that we're serving and really be like a station by and for that community.

And so anyways, so the FCC opened the window and it was like, wow, it's like, this is something I've sort of thought about but I wasn't really necessarily ready. But when will I be more ready for this? And we'd already been building this station for three years on the internet. And so we applied.

RHI MARIE:

Wow. Honestly, that seems like fate to me, especially since it had been 10 years since they hadn't opened up the application, and then you just started on this journey. The fact that you were having these signs of like, okay, it's time to take it to the next level, were you nervous?

DEVANEY:

Definitely, and I still am, all the time. Yeah, I definitely was nervous, but something really cool that I definitely wanted to shout out today, but just in general, something really amazing about the process is the amount of support that Community Radio has, for sure, locally. First, I'll start with locally, because we've had so much local support. First of all, shout out to you, and to LCCI, and KSLUG, and KHUM, and everyone here, because y'all really were supportive of us, and you donated the broadcast board that we're using now. You helped give us advice when we needed it, and along with some other equipment that's really valuable equipment to us that really changed the game, so that has been amazing, and thank you all so much here for that.

And we've also had a lot of really amazing collaborations with KMUD and KRFH, the student station here. They have been so wonderful. I just feel like we entered into the community here with everyone just came to us with such open arms, and was so excited, and it hasn't felt competitive. It's felt really sweet, and just everyone is stoked to have us, and has been really supporting us and guiding us along the way, and so that's been amazing, and then, on an even bigger level, Community Radio across the country has so many networks that I didn't know existed until I started doing this work, but there's multiple email listservs and Facebook pages where I'll post and be like, hey, for example, I'll be like, hey, does anyone have a brand of a CD player that actually works and doesn't break every two weeks? Or something that, or even going as like, hey, this FCC rule, is this a, how do you do this? What does this even mean? Because obviously, that language can be hard to understand, and people are just so willing to support, so it's been a really, really, really wonderful industry to get my feet into, and also, locally with the community as well.

RHI MARIE:

Yeah, no, that's awesome to hear that you came into a fairly new industry for you and feel like everyone was welcoming. The competition wasn't that crazy. I think in other towns, you hear of radio stations and you don't hear of them connecting usually. I think that's kind of like the norm. I think Humboldt, I mean, speaking personally, I think Humboldt really needed Humboldt Hot Air. I think it came at a good time, which I think it also just helped everyone being like, yes, let's raise up this really awesome community-driven station.

DEVANEY:

I think that, like I said, this area is so radio rich, but when I think of each radio station in this area, I think every radio station is doing something really unique and each radio station, I can kind of point out, oh, that's their thing, and that's the communities they're serving, and this is why they're valuable in our area. And then Humboldt Hot Air came in, and we're in Arcata, which is different than some of the other radio stations. We have KRFH-FH in Arcata, and they're serving the student population in this really beautiful, powerful way, but we don't have a community station based out of Arcata, and so Humboldt Hot Air came in, and we're serving our little thing, and everybody else is doing their little thing, but we kind of can join forces. And I don't know, listeners here in Humboldt County, y'all are real lucky. You have a lot of options of quality programming you can skip through the channels for.

RHI MARIE:

Heard that? Lucky. Now what I want to say, congratulations to KHHA for becoming Humboldt's newest low power radio station, and talk to us a little bit about the highs and the lows of the transition. I think you touched on it a little bit in the beginning, but I want to hear a little bit more of like your personal like highs and lows, whatever that means to you.

DEVANEY:

Totally. I mean, highs are just like, I really feel like doing community work like this is so wonderful. I love like seeing, well, okay, one of the things about Humboldt Hot Air that I think is really pretty unique is that we're really open and welcoming to pretty much anyone. And our training process isn't, like, super-intense. We're not making people take a class for months. We're not, you know ... our goal is that we're the voices of the community. And so if you're a voice in the community, which you are, anyone who lives here is a voice in the community, we really wanna like make room for you within our platform.

And so being able to see people go on air for the first time maybe, and like, you know, talk about something they care about, or have their first interview and just tell me about how like amazing that was, that is something that like really brings joy to my heart, as well as listeners being like, I don't know, it's a small community thing. This is that LPFM like hyperlocal thing where it'll be someone will be like, my friend just got a show and I listen to her every week. And it's like, so cool to hear people I know on the air. And I'm like, yeah, that's what we're all about. You're like, we are the voices of your neighbors. We are the voices of the people you see at the grocery store. You know, that's what we're trying to, what we're all about at Humboldt Hot Air.

And I mean, you know, it's always hard for me to pick out lows. I think my lows can be boring. Like, to be honest, a low is like, I definitely am learning how to be a manager.

RHI MARIE:

I think that's worth mentioning, especially for I think our generation or people that are in our circles of this transition of being out of college and we're supposed to have everything, doing air quotes, we're supposed to have everything figured out or whatever, getting into your career, but I think it's important that you mention that, that you're still figuring things out because a lot of us are still figuring things out in the chosen careers that we just picked. So I think it's important for other students out of college or starting a new venture, starting a new company even to hear like...

DEVANEY:

Yeah, and transitioning into leadership roles is always gonna be challenging, but you kind of learn it as you do it, and it's been good as well, and we have such a solid team. We have almost, it kind of fluctuates as people come and go, but I usually stick to this number that we have about 60 volunteer programmers with KHHA, which is so many. So that's all of a sudden, oh my gosh, I'm managing almost 60 human beings in all their different ways that they exist in a really small space.

But it's been really, it's been generally really, really smooth, and people are so great and supportive and willing to volunteer to help out with things, and it's exciting. I'm looking forward to seeing what we grow into, really. It's gonna be cool to see where, I think KHHA could take a lot of different directions, so we'll see.

RHI MARIE:

What are one of the directions you are looking forward to?

DEVANEY:

Um, well, again, this is like the first things that come to mind is I'm like, I'm really looking forward to when I feel really, really confident with all the equipment. I'm definitely still learning the equipment as we go. We launched actually a couple of months ago. So this is a story of after of our launch. We launched a couple of months ago and then we had a ribbon cutting and it was really exciting. But then we were up for about two weeks and we were having so many technical issues. So if anyone who's listening now tried to tune in, yeah, it was like dropping a lot. So there was a lot of dead air. And then it was also making like weird glitching noises. And so, um, we took ourselves off air, but then only for a short period of time while we, uh, really learned also, I learned so much about how a transmitter works and, uh, you know, how things, different equipment will talk to each other and interfere with each other.

And so with the guidance of a group called Prometheus radio, who has been sort of alongside of us this whole time -- they're a nonprofit, they're not local, they're actually based out of Texas, but they guide community radio stations across the country and help people. They're all, like, FCC certified engineers. And they're just like such an incredible group to work with. And so they helped us and we got back on air and we've been doing pretty good.

So we still have a few, you know, every once in a while it's not perfect, but, you know, we're also, of course we're a very small community radio station. As you mentioned, we're a program of Playhouse Arts. We are pretty much, you know, donor-led and, or like community funded, as they say. And so, you know, our budget is, is pretty low. So we have had the amazing things like, um, LCCI giving us a soundboard that's like a huge, huge, and people have donated and really been so lovely.

But yeah, we definitely are working with sometimes with equipment that isn't always, like, always up to par. But so yeah, I guess a dream is like, I look forward to the days when, you know, we'll maybe have a bigger space that's in my dream and that's like fancy equipment, like a really nice soundboard and really good mics. I was just admiring the mics in this room are like really nice.

RHI MARIE:

You know, I was really happy to move into this new building to just be going through transitions of different radio stations. And it was nice to see Humboldt get a, in my opinion, a high quality radio station with high quality equipment. I was like, yes, Humboldt deserves this. And the people that work in radio stations here deserve that, deserve good equipment. So that's awesome that you mentioned the equipment.

Also, just personally, the fact that you are like dealing with a transmitter, just me working at a radio station, knowing the sort of the ins and outs, that seems like so much work. So I just want to give props to you, because listeners, dealing with a transmitter is no joke. And every time we, KSLUG, goes down, we have amazing people to help us. But the fact that your team is even smaller and that you guys are troubleshooting through that, just more props to Humboldt Hot Air for going through those things.

DEVANEY:

It's kind of interesting, I've learned a lot. And we do, we have a really awesome team of folks that have been mostly volunteering their time and really helping out and all just for the love of community radio and for Humboldt Hot Air. And yeah, it's been really amazing.

I will say LPFMs are slightly more simple than full-power FMs, so that's also helpful. The setup is a lot more straightforward than I think full-power FM stations that have multiple antennas and all that type of stuff. So it's an interesting technology because it is complex, but then at the same time, it's been around for a long time. And once you get the feel for it, it can be intuitive, sort of.

RHI MARIE:

You're learning so much, but yeah, if you're wondering what that antenna is on top of the Creamery District, it's Humboldt Hot Air's.

DEVANEY:

Right on top of the Creamery building. If you stand across the street and look at the Arcata Playhouse, which is over at 1251 9th street in Arcata, and you look all the way up to that tower, we have a little antenna that's a little smaller than I thought when I was first starting this process.. I thought radio antennas, like, I don't know, 30 feet tall or something, but it's actually about five feet tall, I think, and I thought it's not, it's not too noticeable, which is great because we're on top of a historic building. So it's important that we preserve that. And so you can barely even see it. But, and then our studio is just right next door and we kind of shoot our signal over that way. And, uh, you know, it's kind of amazing that it works every time I drive around in my car and I'm listening to Humboldt Hot Air, I'm like, wow, I can't believe it's working.

RHI MARIE:

You did that, you did that. One of, something I'm very curious about is what kind of voices and stories can someone expect to hear on Humble Hot Air?

DEVANEY:

That's a great question. Humboldt Hot Air, like I said, we want to really be the mouthpiece for the community. We are all sorts of different people, and that is what makes Humboldt Hot Air really beautiful, I think. So we've got talk shows where they interview local artists. We have late night hip hop shows. We have metal shows. We have a ton of variety shows. We've got jazz shows. I'm really happy to have sort of ... I mean, this wasn't even very intentional, but just kind of naturally, we really grew a relationship with KRFH, the student station, and they're completely student-ran, which is incredible, and they, so when you graduate, a lot of times folks don't want, don't, you know, they want to stay on the airwaves.

RHI MARIE:

That's happened to me. I was feeling that separation and dread of, what am I going to do if I can't talk to you on air?

DEVANEY:

Humboldt Hot Air has been a really awesome platform for so many KRFH graduates who are sticking around in the area, who want to keep enjoying Humboldt County, and want to stay on the airwaves. And so, they're awesome and enthusiastic and young and know all the rules. And I'm like, absolutely.

So, we love KRFH DJs. We also have a lot of folks who have never done radio before and maybe they're local musicians or they've just like love community radio. I have a lot of people that are like, I've been tuning into KMUD my whole life. And I'm just like, always thought that'd be so cool to do, but I never knew how. And I'm like, now you can totally do it. We would love to have you. And so, that's been really special too.

I would say, yeah, the main thing is just that our voices are very diverse and we have a lot of different types of people on our station doing a ton of different type of music and talk. And that's kind of the joy of community radio. So, yeah. Tune in. And if you don't like what you hear, that's totally fine because probably in two hours, it'll be something completely different, but maybe you will.

RHI MARIE:

Yes, no, I love I love that because that gets us into why should somebody volunteer, and I think you touched on that perfectly. Like if you ever wanted to tell your stories on air, if you ever wanted to share your very niche style of music. I think Humboldt Hot Air is a home for all those variations of shows and people, which I think it's really fun. Cuz like you said, you can hear something and then maybe in two hours, you'll be like, oh this is completely different than what it was before.

DEVANEY:

It's awesome. And like, I think it takes here in 2025, I think it takes a little bit of retraining of our brains to find the value in that. I know a lot of us, including myself, absolutely are like so used to the algorithm and we can go on Spotify and get something curated that's exactly for you, but that's not really like community, is it? Like, community, is hearing things that you would have never gone out and intentionally listened to.

And so just remembering when you listen to the radio, like right now, we are two human beings in this room talking to each other. We are probably geographically kind of near where you are as a listener. And so remembering that, and that that's actually a really powerful thing and that we're like, community radio is all about uniting the community and like finding places where we can appreciate and hear one another where we maybe otherwise wouldn't. So maybe you wouldn't necessarily go to a local metal show, but maybe you listen to the show and you're like, yeah, it's interesting to hear from someone talking about these different things.

And yeah, so with that, just to say, like sort of preaching to the choir because the people listening are KSLG listeners, but to really like take time to listen to community radio and the LCCI stations. And like we said, there's so many different stations you can tune into in this area. And remember that like we're all very lucky to have it and support it when you can, whether that's monetary or even just by listening, texting in and calling in and making a request, it feels silly this day and age because you're like, I could just go on YouTube and pull up a song I want to hear, but it's not. It's valuable to DJs. It means something to us. It's those little human connections, those little moments that are really special to, I think as a listener, it'll feel good to do it. And also as programmers, it's the reason why we're all doing it, you know? So yeah.

RHI MARIE:

100%, because I'll get a caller, nobody had called me all day, and they'll get that one person that is very excited or tells me something personal about their day or tells me something little, and it'll just make my entire day and just be like, it'll give me that boost to keep going for the rest of my show. So people, I don't think listeners understand also the power that they have as listeners and as supporters of radio. We're doing this for you, you know? So it's like, call us, tell us what you want.

DEVANEY:

It's really different than streaming something online or anything, it's like, like you said, we're in your area, we're local people, and we are doing this to serve you. And we want to entertain and educate and ignite all of these things. All things that we love. For you, and I know with Humboldt Hot Air, too, being a program of Playhouse Arts, we have a creative angle. Playhouse Arts is the local arts agency for the city of Arcata. We have a million different programs from placing artists in local schools. We have a mobile art service for rural areas. We do a shadow puppetry program with the Yurok Wellness Coalition. There's a million different programs that we have. And KHHA is one of those programs. And so we also have an arts angle. And so we love to uplift local artists, whether that be musicians or visual artists or theater artists.

And that's a highlight that we have at Humboldt Hot Air, too. Like I was saying, how each station has a little niche. That's definitely one of ours, among others.

RHI MARIE:

Definitely makes Humboldt Hot Air stand out, I would say.

DEVANEY:

I didn't even, I didn't even know until recently that arts and culture radio station is a thing and I was like, Oh, we're an arts and culture radio station. That's good to know. Yeah.

RHI MARIE:

That's so funny. My last question is just, does Humboldt Hot Air have anything coming up, anything in the future? We mainly wanted to talk about the transition into becoming an LP station and how that has been, these like starting off a few, couple months, but what about, what do you got going on? Or anything that you wanna tell the listeners to end off?

DEVANEY:

That's a great question. We don't actually have any events going, coming up. Playhouse Arts absolutely does. And there, you can, folks who are interested in that can head to playhousearts.org. We have a kid's camp that is still taking this summer, it's called Pageant, and it's a fun circus camp. And they are still taking sign-ups if you have a kid that wants to join. And I think you can apply for full scholarships as well. And then, as well as a bunch of different events that you can head to playhousearts.org. I know we've got music and theater and all sorts of stuff like that. As far as Humboldt Hot Air.

RHI MARIE:

What are you looking forward to for this year for Humboldt Hot Air?

DEVANEY:

Yeah, I'm looking forward to the growth. I'm looking forward to collaborations with other radio stations. I was just on a Zoom call this morning with some folks at KMUD and we're always scheming ways that we can collaborate. They're amazing folks over there. So I'm looking forward to just like stability and growth as we kind of like plant our feet. We're still a little wobbly, you know, we're still figuring stuff out. But I'm looking forward to kind of being really confident in the foundational aspect of the radio. So that then we can move forth and have, we are eventually gonna have a big launch party. I don't have a date or any plans for it yet, but it will happen. So I look forward to that. That will absolutely be within the year.

And I'm looking forward to seeing how our programming evolves. It's always evolving. People are like joining and people are, you know, taking breaks and it's just like, I love that about Humboldt Hot Air as well. Like our people are always like, you should print out our program schedule. And I'm like, it changes so often, which is actually really cool. That's something that I love about the station. So I look forward to like seeing who all, just like, yeah, how it all evolves. It's an ever-evolving project and it's been wonderful to be kind of steering it forward. But hey, it's not even in my control most of the time. It's like the volunteers, this is a volunteer ran project. I kind of help keep it afloat, but people are, it's built by the voices on the airwaves for sure, so.

RHI MARIE:

I love that. I love that. Well, thank you so much for coming on to KSLG and chatting about Humboldt Hot Air and just letting our listeners know about what's happening in the LP world.

DEVANEY:

And if I didn't say it enough, because I feel like I maybe didn't even say it once, we're 94.7.

RHI MARIE:

There you go, huh? There you go.

DEVANEY:

When you're done listening to Rhi Marie be amazing, you can go to 94.7, really solidly in Arcata, pretty solidly in Eureka, decent in McKinleyville, go tune in and find out.

RHI MARIE:

Yeah, definitely tune in, everyone, and thanks so much. Neroli not only does a lot of work with Playhouse Arts and Humboldt Hot Air, but she's also a member of Woman on Air in Humboldt, so it's also amazing. I love any chance I can get to get any of my WOAH members here. I am so happy, and you, since the beginning, have been, I think, such, for me, an important person, just as a mentor, as somebody I look up to, and also, as a friend, just been always there since the beginning, and I think I love that we're on the same journey together, so thank you so much.

DEVANEY:

It's been wonderful to watch your journey as well. And yeah, shout out Rhi WOAH. WOAH, aka Women On Air Humboldt, amazing organization that Rhi here started and is just continuing to grow. And a huge, has actually really impacted my experience on radio in this area and the way that I'm talking about radio stations being so supportive and all these different connections I've made. It's like a lot of that is because of WOAH and the different ways that we've been able to collaborate through WOAH. So very grateful for that as well.

RHI MARIE:

I can't wait to see what the future holds.

DEVANEY:

Thanks for having me on.