Maggie McGuire
Moab Sun News
KZMU Radio announced hiring Jenna Whetzel as the new KZMU Radio station manager last month, after a lengthy transitional period at the community radio station. Whetzel, who is returning to Moab after completing her graduate degree, will oversee operations and help form the station’s future.
“Her experience and enthusiasm for the station, the arts, and community will be invaluable as we move towards KZMU’s 33rd year of bringing music and public affairs to Southeastern Utah,” Neal Clark, chair of the KZMU Board of Trustees, commented in a press release.
The Moab Sun News sat down with Whetzel to talk about her history with the station, what listeners can expect going forward, and her new radio show.
Moab Sun News: You’re already almost a month into your work as executive director at KZMU Radio. What’s that initial impression been like?
Jenna Whetzel: I feel like I’ve already learned a lot! It’s a lot of institutional knowledge. I don’t come from a radio background, but I have an arts and cultural management background, sort of the public administration side. So now I’m learning the radio side of it.
MSN: What do you mean by the “radio side”?
JW: Well, one thing is to learn all the equipment and what it’s like to be a DJ. Now I have a weekly radio show, so that’s how I’m learning the board. I want to be able to troubleshoot for DJs and know how to answer any questions people may have. My DJ name is DJ Voxie. You can listen to me every Thursday at 11 a.m., it’s a theme show. This week’s theme is history. It’s such a fun way to learn and also for people to get to know me!
MSN: You said that your background is cultural management. For people who aren’t familiar with that, what does that entail?
JW: I lived in Moab for five years from 2017 to 2022 and worked at the Housing Authority of Southeastern Utah, which is a wonderful organization. That work made me realize that I love all the details. I love budgets. I love planning and love nonprofits, but I’m also a theater kid at heart and I love using the creative side of my mind as well.
So I went back to school and received a master’s of public administration with a concentration in arts and cultural management, which just means learning about how arts and cultural nonprofits work differently than other nonprofits and the nuances of how to manage those organizations specifically.
MSN: That sounds a lot like KZMU!
JW: This job is the perfect marriage of those things, and I am so lucky to have gotten a dream job right outside of grad school, especially to be able to come back to Moab.
MSN: You have some deep connections at KZMU already, too.
JW: I do. I was never a DJ, but I acted in a few of their radio shows and then was the writer and director of two: “Wormhole!” in 2020 and “Choreomania!” in 2021. I got to know the people at KZMU and saw both the creative side and the detail-oriented project-management side. I loved that. I feel like I’ve always been part of the KZMU family, and this is a full-circle moment of bringing all that together.
MSN: How do you see KCMU functioning in the Moab community?
JW: First, as a radio station, people can listen and that’s the only engagement they might have with the station. But there are also other community initiatives, events, and programming on KZMU that’s not just music, but finding all of these ways that we can connect with the community and build partnerships.
KZMU has been in a transitional period [the last KZMU Radio station manager departed in December 2023. – ed.], so things have been quiet but the station’s a lot of things. It’s media, it’s news, it’s public engagement. Starting this job, that’s really going to be my focus: interacting with our community and listening to what people want, especially with our new service area in San Juan County and Emery County.
MSN: Right, KZMU’s broadcast area increased significantly last year. How does that change things?
JW: Yes, Some people have told me they can even hear us in Dove Creek, which is really cool! It means that we’re not just engaging with the community that we’ve always engaged with, but reaching out to San Juan County because though we’re close geographically, we’re very different communities with different needs, different news, different events. It’s part of the three-year strategic plan I’m hoping finish in early 2025.
MSN: What else are you working on to put in that plan?
JW: Well, what I want is to hear from the community about what our main strategic goals should be. There’s a survey on our website and I would love for people to fill it out. We’re going to leave it out there for about six weeks and then compile the results. So please tell us what you want to hear more of. We’re broadcasting, but we’re also listening.
MSN: As of now, what do you think lies ahead for KZMU?
JW: I think we will be out in the community more and holding more events. We have our first of many Tiny Station Concerts coming up on Thursday, August 1 at around 7:15 p.m. with local band Ancient States. People can head up to the station or listen to the live broadcast. We want to highlight local and regional artists. Musicians, of course because we are the radio, but also other artists.
We have a platform we can give people to share their art. There are so many great artists in town and regionally in our whole San Juan, Grand and Emery county area, and we would like to lift up those voices.
