In 2004 I was hired as the executive producer of the fledgling talk show, RadioActive. This live call-in talk show would become KRCL’s flagship public affairs show and Utah’s only progressive talk hour. With a team of volunteer hosts we discuss local, national and international issues that impact the residents of Utah. We regularly feature leading edge artists, activists, academics and community change-makers.
Our motto is to seek positive solutions to global problems.
Seven years later RadioActive remains an integral element in KRCL’s programming.
My responsibilities include crafting story ideas, researching topics, directing the broadcast, recruiting and training new hosts, organizing and conducting on-air fundraisers and integrating RadioActive within the larger mission and context of KRCL.
The RadioActive hosts are prominent activists, academics and community organizers.
In 2011, RadioActive won The Salt Lake City Weekly’s “Best of Utah” award for “Best Advocacy Journalism” We were voted by City Weekly readers #2 “Best Talk Radio” after KUER’s Radio West.
From the City Weekly:
RadioActive, KRCL 90.9
Most monotone radio news shows fall flat compared to the progressive head of steam built up weeknights by the hardworking crew at KRCL’s RadioActive. Troy Williams and company take pains to incorporate topical and provocative subjects along with localized pop-culture material, bringing regular listeners, young and old, to the dial, a feat rarely pulled off by anyone in local news. Williams looks out for underdogs and makes no apology for advocating for peace and justice, LGBT rights, feminism and the environment. Weeknights, 6 p.m., KRCL 90.9, KRCL.org
Sample shows I’ve produced/hosted:
In January, 2011 I spoke with Salt Lake City native, Roseanne Barr. We discussed how she became a feminist, socialist, bi-polar, obsessive-compulsive, paranoid Jewish Mormon. She was in Utah to promote her book, Roseannarchy: Dispatches from the Nut Farm.
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In November, 2010 I spoke with Jon Alpert, the director of the HBO documentary, War Torn. I was also joined by “John” a Utah Veteran recovering from PTSD.
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In January, 2010 I spoke with Jeremy Rifkin, author of The Empathic Civilization
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In October, 2010 I spoke with revisionist historian Thaddeus Russell, author of A Renegade History of the United States.
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Some of the hosts of RadioActive circa 2010
Photography by David Newkirk
