Meet The New Boss
We interview the new Board President at XRAY.FM
Tom Dwyer Automotive has been a strong supporter of XRAY.FM since it began in the wake of the 2012 KPOJ crash. XRAY started with a purchase of a low-power FM signal owned by Reed College, and step by step they’ve grown into a multi-faceted community resource for news, information, and politics, as well as music of ALL types, local musicians and radio hosts, and even more. XRAY represents the best and brightest of everything a community radio station can and should be, but they aren’t done yet. New management has new plans and we were privileged to sit down with Lee Shaker, XRAY’s new Board President, to find out what those plans entailed.
Lee’s deep roots in radio go all the way back to his years as a volunteer DJ and program director at KCSB in Santa Barbara. He began as a volunteer with XRAY around 2015 and has been on the XRAY board for 2 years. By day, Lee’s a professor of Communication at Portland State University. His educational emphasis on effects of communication technology on society, particularly the intersection of cities, media, and politics, makes him an ideal fit for a scrappy little radio station digging deeply into the society around it.
We sat down at Gino’s in Sellwood to get to know each other.
Lee started by telling us he saw the Board of Directors’ role as keeping the station itself strong and healthy rather than directly shaping the programming, which is handled by station manager Chase Spross and an army of independent producers and volunteers. “Budget is the Board’s number one priority”, he said. Living within their means, and getting that financial support from their members, is a critical part of living out XRAY’s values. Currently about half of XRAY’s support comes from their monthly donors with another quarter coming from individual donations during Pledge Drive. “Our job is to deliver what our producers need, when they need it, on their terms, so they can concentrate on building the content our audience is looking for.”
The Board may not drive show content, but they have broad overall goals for the station in today’s media landscape. “Trusted news sources like local newspapers or national news bureaus are vanishing because of new technology and ownership consolidation. One of our goals is to create a trustworthy, local media source where citizens can reliably inform themselves and relate with each other on important issues. We want to give our community a voice.” National and international media are still struggling with this problem, so there’s no ready road-map to do it locally. “We’ve been trying to figure out how to do it on the fly. Our staff and volunteers have been making up the new station as we’ve gone along, and I’m really impressed with what they’ve delivered.”
In keeping with their mission, the programming on XRAY is both deep and diverse. (Click here for full show schedule and descriptions.) “Our morning programming is heavy on news and current events. Starting at 5am you’ll hear Democracy Now, Ralph Nader, great local news and analysis with News With My Fiance, and on into Thom Hartmann through noon.” The rest of the schedule mixes news, community talk, and music, with a heavy emphasis on local bands and DJs. “Our programming is about discovery, happening upon things you might never have directly looked for. Our show producers are passionate about their subjects and are eager to share their deep knowledge with our listeners.” One of Lee’s personal favorites is Heavy Metal Sewing Circle, which he says opened new doors for him to old and obscure rock. Other musical adventurers can start with the oldies of Hoot ‘N Howl, the eclectic mix of The Last Schmaltz On The Left, or even the early medieval and dungeon synth of Music Medieval, and they’ll still just be scratching the surface. And the podcasts! Lee sees radio and digital media as complementary forms, with each reinforcing the other. The combination makes virtually all of XRAY’s vast news, music, sports, and other programming in podcast form to be available at your convenience.
You might think herding all the cats at XRAY would be enough to keep Lee busy, but XRAY.FM itself is just the center of the storm. Their first day of broadcast didn’t mean success, it meant the first day of a struggle for growth that is central to their success today. The original XRAY had to start broadcasting immediately (though on a limited basis) to secure their license after buying it from Reed College, a flickering low-power FM transmitter located in Maywood Park that barely reached downtown Portland. XRAY’s first move was adding a transmitter on 107.1, resulting in a much stronger signal covering almost all of Portland. A small XRAY office in a SE Portland ActiveSpace was a bridge to their current location at the Falcon Art Community in NE. In 2015 XRAY fostered their Vancouver sister station, KXRW 99.9FM, which is now itself an incubator for new radio talent. One of today’s growth opportunities on the Oregon Coast, where Lee’s trying to make their temporary presence at 91.7fm in Nehalem permanent. The other battle is, yet again, on the desk of the FCC. “While we own the bandspace at 91.1fm, we only lease the space at 107.1fm”, says Lee. “Soon, with the support of members and donors, we’ll have a very rare chance to buy the signal outright for about $100,000. That’s not cheap, but it will give us the security we need to build on for many years to come”.
Lee realizes the challenges they’ve faced and the weaknesses they still have. “Portland has welcomed XRAY with open arms but there is and always will be public pressure to move in other directions as well. We definitely had problems during Covid and in many ways we’re still recovering. Our community events and outreach opportunities were all shut down and we lost a lot of volunteers and staff, but as things have been returning to normal we’ve been rebuilding as well”. Overall though, Lee’s buoyed by the strength and energy of everyone he works with and has high hopes for the future. “It’s incredible the amount of time, energy, creativity, and passion our volunteers put in, and they’re just giving us more. In 2021 we had 120 shows in production with 25 new shows on the way. We currently add about one show a month with ten in development, on a huge range of topics. There’s no ‘kiss of death’ for a show idea. None of that is one way, it’s the result of a collaboration between our creators and an audience that really ‘gets’ them”. I think XRAY has a bright future because we’ll keep giving our community what they tell us they want”.
Lee wrapped up by saying how excited he was to be “applying some of the academic ideas that I spend my days with” in the real world. “I see many opportunities for XRAY to grow its cultural impact in Portland and beyond while also continuing to refine its presence on-air. It’s XRAY’s commitment to place, the relationships we’re building in the community, and the passion and drive of our volunteers, staffers, and supporters, that will keep us strong now and for years to come.”
If you liked this, you may be interested in some of our past KPOJ/XRAY coverage over many years…
