On a sunny, spring afternoon in 1992, Tom
Egert drove home to Carbondale from St. Louis propelled by the sounds
of reggae and salsa on his car radio. This enlivening musical mix
broadcast by KDHX, St. Louis' community radio station, brought Tom
happily within 20 miles of his home before he'd driven out of range of
the station. Scanning the local radio dial, he could find no comparable
musical programming and in that moment of frustration the idea of
creating an invigorating, culturally diverse, community radio station
in southern Illinois was born. Heterodyne Broadcasting Company, a
501(c)3 non-profit organization was founded in 1993 and ground for the
station building was broken in the fall of 1995. The first Volunteer
recruitment meetings were held February 6, 1996. Over 100 people
attended the two meetings that day; from those, 40 completed training
and began regular operations about two weeks later. At first the
station was on the air from 4-10pm daily and grew quickly from there.
Currently, over 100 volunteers produce more than 80 weekly programs.
Several have been on the air from the very beginning. The programming
is a mirror of the diversity of our community, with music from across
the street to around the world, as well as a vibrant section of local
talk programming and more.
WDBX
is governed by a ten-member Board of Directors, made up of the three
permanent members of the Board of Directors of the Heterodyne
Broadcasting Company and seven directors elected from amongst our
membership. Anyone may become a member of WDBX simply by making an
annual membership contribution. Elected directors serve a two-year
term. Up to two members of our volunteer staff may serve on the Board.
The Board supervises the sole employee, Station Manager Brian R.
Powell. The WDBX Board is comprised of: Francis Murphy, president (term
expires Dec. 2011), James A. Wall, vice-president (term expires Dec.
2011), Tom Egert (founder-permanent member), Gene Turk
(co-founder-permanent member), Navreet Kang (permanent member), Kathy
Livingston (term expires Dec. 2010), Tim Damian (term expires Dec.
2010), Dr. John Hochheimer (term expires Dec. 2010) Bonnie Cotter (term
expires Dec. 2011) and Alex Paull (term expires Dec. 2011).
In August 2003, thanks to the efforts of our
founder Tom Egert, the late US Senator Paul Simon, and the generous
contributions of our listeners, we upgraded our broadcast power from
700 to 3,000 watts. WDBX now covers all of Jackson and Williamson
counties, as well as most of Perry and Franklin, and parts of Union,
Johnson and Saline counties. In all, our signal can reach over 100,000
southern Illinoisans.
