Quaint radio station airs intriguing reading hours
On a recent early morning, with the hills so green it made my teeth hurt, I motored out to Point Reyes to take a hike. My phone was running out of juice, so I couldn’t continue listening to my audiobook (“Black Buck” by Mateo Askaripour, which I highly recommend). So, I turned on the radio.
What a stroke of luck. I stumbled onto KWMR “Homegrown Radio,” serving Point Reyes, Bolinas and the San Geronimo Valley. I came in midway through the “Man About Town” program from “downtown” Point Reyes Station, the highlight of which was the report of a fumigation going on at the Bovine Bakery. Great hyperlocal radio.
I should mention I lived for five years in a small town in Colorado where the tiny radio station, 50 watts strong, was a lifeline, covering local news, playing eclectic music and giving the allimportant snow report. That started me on a lifelong appreciation of community radio.
It was what came next on KWMR, however, that really caught my attention. A woman started reading from “Raven’s Witness: The Alaska Life of Richard K. Nelson” by Hank Lentfer, which tells the story of Nelson, a cultural anthropologist and writer who focused primarily on the Indigenous cultures of Alaska and, more generally, on the relationships between people and nature. And for the next hour, the host simply read from this intriguing book. I was riveted.
A little sleuthing revealed that the reader was Stinson Beach librarian Kerry Livingston, who has hosted KWMR’s Thursday “Turning Pages” program for 11 years. Her mother, Kathy Munger, also a librarian, was the host for 15 years before her.
Livingston told me that when she started doing the show, she exclusively read books published by HeyDay Books, due to her relationship with founder and publisher emeritus Malcolm Margolin, whose own books include “The Ohlone Way: Indian Life in the San FranciscoMonterey Bay Area.”
Livingston has to get permission from the authors or publishers for the books she wants to read. Over the years, she has also been able to feature writers, including Barry Lopez and Kathleen Dean Moore, from the annual Geography of Hope Conference, founded by former Point Reyes Bookstore owners Steve Costa and and Kate Levinson. Held in Point Reyes Station, the conference gathers noted writers, poets, environmental leaders and activists to deepen an understanding of the relationships between people and place.
“Every time I do the show, I’m so grateful I get to read someone who’s spent his or her life getting the right words on the page and help bring those words into the world, ” Livingston told me. Her favorites among the books she has read are “Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer and Moore’s “Wild Comfort: The Solace of Nature.”
“I spent all of 2020 reading Moore on the air,” she notes.
According to KWMR Station Manager Amanda Eichstaedt, “Turning Pages” airs 10 to 11 a.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays (the schedule has been a bit disrupted due to COVID19), with each host reading books of their choice. And the shows are popular.
“People love to be read to,” Eichstaedt explains. KWMR has six staff members, only one of whom is full time, and more than 90 volunteers.
KWMR is on the air 24/7, she adds, noting proudly that during the 2014 Napa earthquake, the station was back on the air in seven minutes and broadcasting a full hour before anyone else. The location of the transmitter on Mount Vision extends the signal into Sonoma County, and during fire season, the station is an important source of news.
So the next time you’re heading out West Marin way, tune in. If you’re lucky, you’ll catch a great book. Or maybe “A Cuppa Jo with Dr. Joe,” cardiologist Joe Blumenthal’s show, which features only good news.
Barbara Lane can’t remember a time when she didn’t have her nose in a book. Her column appears every other Tuesday in Datebook. Email: barbara.lane@sfchronicle.com.