For the love of radio

General manager's lifetime experience in the business has enhanced KUNM's statewide presence

by STEVE PAINTER

Blessed with a passion for the radio industry and saddled with the responsibility of making public radio easier to access, Richard Towne has made KUNM a vibrant presence throughout the state in the 14 years he has spent as the station’s general manager.

The experience of a lifetime in radio is what stands out to people like Jim Williams when they talk about Towne.

“He has a thorough understanding of public radio and is able to pursue projects and effectively implement them because of that experience,” said Williams, the station’s news director.

Towne grew up in Tucson, Ariz., where he acquired his love for the radio business.

“When I started high school I was interested in journalism,” Towne said. “Toward the end though, I hung out around different radio stations.”

After completing high school, Towne enrolled at the University of Arizona, where he majored in radio, TV and film.

While Towne was in college the university didn’t have a campus radio station so he had to go other places to satisfy his passion. This helped lead Towne down a path of freelance work which eventually took him to San Diego, where he was self-employed in radio.

In 1994 the opportunity to return to the Southwest presented itself when KUNM announced it was hiring a general manager.

“My wife’s a freelance writer and we wanted a family,” Towne said. “One of us needed a steady job, so when the opportunity at KUNM came up, we took it.”

When Towne arrived at KUNM he impressed Tristan Clum, a production department employee, who had already spent a couple years at the station.

“He has a long career in non-commercial radio,” said Clum, now the interim program director. “He has a good temperament, is a good leader, he’s not easily riled up. He can focus on something and get it done.”

Towne and the KUNM staff have accomplished much since he arrived. Early in his tenure the station became one of the first in the country to broadcast Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now” program. The award-winning program is a flagship show of Pacifica Radio network and reaches over 650 radio and television stations in the country.

He also appointed the station’s first program director in more than a decade in 2003 in order to keep track of everything that was going on at the expanding station.

Expansion of the station includes four new licenses granted by the FCC in 2008. Now listeners in Socorro, Taos, Española and Arroyo Seco can listen to their own FM stations, rather than being forced to listen to the 89.9 frequency coming from Sandia Crest.

For the most part though, Towne keeps out of the day-to-day running of the station. He is responsible for the bigger picture.

“He’s more concerned with how we produce stories,” Williams said. “He wants us to work on stories in the community.”

Any decisions made at KUNM are run by Towne first, but he doesn’t have all the say in the process. A production work group that includes the program director, the news director, the music director and the production director hold meetings to go over ideas. Towne attends these meetings and gives his stamp of approval to those ideas that everyone likes.

Although some popular shows like “Native American Calling,” which is the only nationally syndicated call-in talk show focusing on Native Americans and is done live daily at KUNM, and “Street Beat,” the longest running live hip-hop show in the country, have been around before Towne arrived, he understands KUNM has quality programs and only needs a little tweaking.

“He’s like the caretaker of KUNM,” Clum said. “He wants to preserve the jewel that KUNM is, sometimes at the expense of making KUNM different.”

His experience has helped Towne keep KUNM an important radio station for New Mexicans. He said one of the reasons why he is able to adapt so well to the changing of times is because he listens to all kinds of music.

“I like to keep up with what the kids are listening to,” Towne said. “My personal tastes run from experimental to challenging music, though.”

The task of being general manager of a non-commercial radio station is challenging as well, but it is one that Towne has worked hard at. He said he has succeeded through the experiences that come from a life in radio. This experience is not lost on the people he works with.

“I’ve worked with other managers and seen how it shouldn’t be done,” Williams said. “But with Richard it’s different -- he knows what should be done and how to do it.”

Written April 15, 2008

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