Dubbed the Wheat Palace, this funky old log building, with an entire ceiling covered in psychedelic murals by a local artist from the ‘80s, was transformed into a radio station.
But Whole Wheat Radio has no terrestrial transmitter, no DJs flipping switches and taking calls, and no extensive record collection to chose from.
 Photo courtesy of Jim Kloss Whole Wheat Radio's webcasts include playlists of music from local and independent artists, and on occasion, live shows. |
This is no conventional radio station, by any means.
Furthermore, Whole Wheat Radio (WWR) is not found on the FM or AM dial, in the car or on the home entertainment radio.
WWR can only be heard on your computer.
In early August, Whole Wheat Radio recently moved from the home of Jim Kloss and Esther Golton to the site of . The 24/7 web broadcast originates from the cabin behind the home of Jim Kloss and Esther Golton.
WWR has been web-casting since 2001 and presenting live house concerts to local and worldwide Internet users since 2005.
In the beginning, Kloss and Golton managed to build a small loyal following known as Wheatheads, spreading independent music throughout the speakers of computers around Alaska.
Over time, with a little perseverance and Kloss’ shameless publicity, WWR shot through a few home and office computers around the globe as well.
Instead of disc jockeys, WWR has EJs (Electronic DJs) to keep things running smoothly most of the time. The songs are programmed by Kloss, his partner Golton and even the listeners, choosing play lists based on a specific artist or by genre.
On his website, Kloss boasts that WWR is a “non-profit, non-hype driven labor of love,” featuring more than 4,000 independent artists and their 40,000 songs.
Since conception, WWR has broadcasted more than 11 million listens across the globe.
“It is a hobby that has gone completely overboard,” said Jim Kloss, co-owner of Whole Wheat Radio.
Kloss came up with the idea to start up a webcast radio station seven years ago. With a background in computer programming, Kloss noticed other stations online that were able to broadcast music over the web effortlessly, and quickly caught the bug.
“It only took a day or so to do it,” Kloss said. “I loved the idea, but then I looked around and noticed I didn’t have a lot of music to play.”
Putting out the word locally, Kloss was able to recruit music from artists trying to be heard, from Fairbanks to Juneau, slowly building a collection worthy of heavy rotation.
Kloss began to focus on the independent artists, musicians without a major label deal, no air play, who were relatively unheard of. Acoustic, folk, jazz, classical, bluegrass, singer-songwriter, swing, big-band, new-age, instrumental, blues, black-gospel, Alaskana, spoken word, and humor are all heard on WWR.
“I found that independent music was easy to get a hold of it. It was Alaska and local people at first, artists that gave me these CDs to play,” he said. “The thing that amazed me at first was that people were actually logging on and listening. It was and still is an Alaska station.
Through an e-mail and chat system that he built onto his now active website, Wholewheatradio.org, Kloss was slowly getting a response to the independent artists from listeners in the Lower 48. They were giving him kudos for his dedication to the underground music scene and liked that WWR was not commercial radio.
“It really just evolved from there,” he said. “At one point, a year into it, I was covering all the expenses at first. But the bills started to mount as more web pages were built and I decided to stop. But the listeners wouldn’t let me.”
Kloss began accepting small donations to keep WWR on the air, later expanding into selling WWR merchandise, everything from cups and T-shirts to stickers and even underwear, all donning the Whole Wheat logo.
Kloss said that the more Wheatheads that tune in will help expand WWR into a full-time staff of DJs in the near future.
“I’d love to have more people volunteering,” he said. “We just opened the new location, which is also publicly accessible, so that will help bring in the curious, I suppose.”
Kloss notes that WWR is a listener involved radio station, allowing participation on a bigger scale.
Listeners of WWR can call a number and leave a message, supporting the station through recorded kudos. They also can record jokes, shout outs or other notable messages for WWR’s public to take notice.
Some of the bigger names in the music industry have taken notice of WWR as well.
“Carol King left a message,” Kloss said. “Ani DiFranco called in and left a message promoting our cause as well. Pretty cool.”
Another way for the public to participate in WWR is by DJing the music themselves, from their computers.
“The audience can log on and through programming, can play an hour worth of jazz, or whatever genre they like,” Kloss said.
Kloss said that by allowing the public access to the music choices gives them a sense of worth as well as gives the artists themselves an opportunity to see who is listening to them.
“I know many of the listeners, what they like, what they’re listening too,” Kloss said. “It is a wonderful way to keep this thing a hands on experience.”
Another area of WWR maturing since conception is the live house concerts, live shows performed at WWR’s studio cabin and webcast to their audience.
Kloss said the main reason WWR moved to a larger locale was due to the growing interest that WWR could host live shows. A concert exclusively presented online.
WWR is not the only gig in town for locals to get their ears wet with music.
“Real radio,” KTNA, provides all the bells and whistles of a radio station, recently moving into the webcast world by providing online music, news and concerts.
Kloss said KTNA is not a threat to WWR, as they are two very different peas in the Talkeetna pod.
“We really have been on two very different radio missions,” Kloss said. “The provide real news, reporters, DJs, and so we really don’t step on each other’s shows. People can only listen to us on the web. They are focused on a running a traditional radio station, so there’s not much cross pollination.”
Kloss has started up his own variety news show called “Ranting and Raving News,” covering local politics to the entertainment world.
“We bring about 40 to 50 listeners to our station each day,” Kloss said. “With the news show, that number goes up to 90, our maximum. I like being able to give my opinion on things too.”
Kloss noted that starting in November, WWR will be hosting folk music classes, a felting class (knitting with felt materials) and he is also in the works with a local dancer to teach ballet classes. Kloss plans teaching computer classes, from beginners courses to advanced programming classes, early next year.
WWR has slowly become a community bunker for arts appreciation in Talkeetna.
Recently, Kloss set up a few computers at the Wheat Palace to allow the public access to the Internet.
“Many people are afraid of computers and the WWR building is a fun enough place for people to hang out and not feel intimidated,” said Kloss.
Kloss’ partner, Esther Golton, is co-owner of WWR and a musician in her own right, having got her start and motivation from the artists she’s played on the radio show. WWR helped her pursue her own musical dreams as she spends November touring through the west coast.
Kloss said there are bound to be some skeptics about Whole Wheat Radio and independent music on a whole, but that people should give it a try regardless of the unconventional nature of his webcast.
“If you like regular radio, then you probably won’t want to check us out,” Kloss said. “But, if your interested to see what happens, then feel free to tune in.
Whole Wheat Radio can be found online at Wholewheatradio.org.
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