Reaching out across the airwaves: WMKV 89.3 FM keeps the Big Band era alive, to the delight of listeners around the globe.

It may be difficult to fathom in these days of home satellite dishes, multiplex movie theaters, and the Internet, but there was a time in the not-so-distant past when the radio was America's most popular form of entertainment. The musical sounds most associated with those halcyon days are those of the Big Bands, led by artists such as Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, and Artie Shaw, as well as the golden-throated "pop" singers like Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Rosemary Clooney. These names may be unfamiliar to many youngish Americans nowadays, but rest assured, man y seniors still recall when these stars ruled the airwaves. But where can these lifelong fans hear their music today, in this era of Britney Spears and P. Diddy?

One long-term care organization decided to take matters into its own hands. The campus of Maple Knoll Village, a Cincinnati, Ohio, CCRC that is part of the LifeSphere family of services, is home to WMKV 89.3 FM, the nation's first FM educational public radio station to be licensed to a retirement community. WMKV uses a 1,000-watt transmitter to serve approximately 30,000 listeners weekly in the Greater Cincinnati area (and another 12,000 via the Internet, through its Web site www.wmkvfm.org) with the sounds of the senior community--Big Band and classic pop music, as well as a number of talk shows devoted to senior issues, broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Since its on-air debut in May 1995, WMKV has been met with open arms by Maple Knoll residents, as well as Big Band lovers around the globe.

The WMKV success story has been a labor of love for General Manager Alan Bayowski. "I always had a love for radio," recalls Bayowski. "I grew up with a father" who was in dance bands and we had a radio on in every room. His music was very much the music of the 1930s and 1940s. lie enjoyed Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw. Then I went off to college, where I worked at WMUB FM at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. I was very interested in radio and TV, and actually had a minor in it, but my major work was in gerontology. When I graduated, I went into community work with older adults, and then several years later, into services through long-term care facilities and got my administrator's license, I started at Maple Knoll village 23 years ago."

Once he was at Maple Knoll, Bayowski started to think about new and creative ways to expand services: "I was trying to think of ways to take our services out to the larger community. One of the things that always challenged us was the fact that as people's health would change, they would go from being very active in our senior center operations to a point where we would hardly ever see them. We kept wondering how we could keep in touch with these people. What could we do?

"We got to wondering, in an effort to provide services for older adults in their homes, if we could use the radio as a companion, both by way of providing elders with music that they grew up with that they love, which was no longer being played on other radio stations, and also by providing them with health- and wellness-related information that could make a difference in their lives and actually support their independence."

Once the idea was in place, it took a bit of time to actually implement the plan. "It took us about 10 years to get the radio station from conception to actually putting it on the air," explains Bayowski. The 89.3 FM frequency had previously been used by a local high school, and when that station went dark, both Maple Knoll and Miami University applied for that frequency. Eventually, Maple Knoll negotiated with Miami for the frequency.

The surrounding community took to the idea immediately, providing all types of support. "It's really been a community project," says Bayowski. "Our organization, which dates back to 1848, has always been innovative in the way that it has approached services. Initially, we worked with the resources within the organization; the Board of Trustees was very supportive, and initial funding came from the board and from our endowment. From there, we were able to gather other support in the community--our area Agency on Aging was very supportive, and through their efforts we were able to garner additional financial support to actually make the radio station a viable service within the community."

The station's unique situation sets it apart from other radio stations. "Most commercial broadcasters are in a situation where, if they have a bad ratings book, they'll change the format," Bayowski explains. "We're committed to serving this population. We know what music our audience enjoys, and all we need to do is go one year into the newer music every year, just to stay current with the flow of things. So, right now, we're playing music through 1963. We stay away from rock and roll. From the early 1960s, we play Andy Williams and Bobby Vinton, but we don't play Elvis. I'm still toying around with things like 'Love Me Tender,' that were more pop records. We realize we've got a niche. No one is doing anything like this at other radio stations. Many radio stations will try to reach, for example, women aged 34 to 39. Contrast that with us. We're trying to really reach everybody 60 years of age or older. You're talking about a great challenge with such a wide era, but we've been very successful."

The fact that the station's playlists revolve around music from the 1920s all the way to the 1960s gives it lots of room to maneuver in terms of styles and eras. The station's 100,000+ record library only features about 75 CDs; the rest consists of 78 and 33N RPM vinyl records, which have all been donated by listeners.

WMKV's four-person paid coordinating staff works with a volunteer base of 125. "Our dedicated staff is small but extremely talented, resourceful, and flexible. Our philosophy as staff is that we're there to facilitate the efforts of our volunteers," Bayowski says. "We've got more talent than probably any radio station in the country; we've got 12 on-air personalities who each has more than 50 years' experience in broadcasting. Those individuals are augmented on the air by others, some of whom had experience in the past with broadcasting and are returning to it, and then others who have never stepped inside of a radio station but have come to us and are now on-air personalities. It's pretty awesome."

The volunteers have come from many different walks of life to call WMKV home. "A lot of our volunteers have worked here in Cincinnati broadcasting, and a number of them have been associated with WLW-AM radio and WLWT-TV," Bayowski says. "We also have a number of our volunteers who are residents at Maple Knoll Village and are very much a part of what we do here. Out of 125 volunteers, about 15 are residents and the rest are people from surrounding communities."

Despite the fact that he has such a large staff to coordinate, Bayowski has nothing but praise for all of his volunteers: "Everyone who participates in this program is passionate about what they're doing. You find out what it is they're interested in and make it possible for them to do that within the vehicle of this radio station.

"For instance, we've got one gentle man, Pat Harmon, who for 35 years or so was the sports editor of the Cincinnati Post. He's moved into Maple Knoll Village, and he is now sharing his favorite memories from across his career with our listeners. We regularly air some three minute pieces that he's put together. We have another gentleman, Bill Nimmo, who had a wonderful career in broadcasting, both locally and nationally. He was the first sidekick to Johnny Carson on TV--this was before Ed McMahon. Interestingly enough, he's the one who introduced Ed to Johnny. He moved back to Cincinnati to retire, and he now does a program for us called Two On The Aisle, which is a program of Broadway musicals that airs a couple of times a week," In fact, Nimmo won a "Best Award" from Cincinnati Magazine in 1995 for his work on the station,

WMKV's appeal comes from the music and memories that listeners--both seniors and younger aficionados--have of it. "People love it," says Bayowski, "They say that this is their music. Although some of the music has made it to CD, not a lot of this music is commercially available now. Plus there's still a significant number of people in that 60-and-older range who just aren't into compact discs yet, so to be able to get that music out there for them is a real joy. We have regular listeners all over the world who hear us on the Internet who will write and tell us how much they love the music--people from Australia, France, Italy, England, Switzerland, and Russia--people who love Big Band music."

In addition to serving the community with its programming, WMKV serves as a great marketing tool for LifeSphere. "It's a great way for us to get the word out about LifeSphere and our philosophy, programs, and services," Bayowski explains. "Over a period of time, we develop a close affiliation with our listeners. When you think about somebody maybe tuning in at age 60, and then maybe not needing senior services for another 10 years or so, our hope is that through their affiliation with us over that period, we'd then be seen as their provider of choice. They will have built a relationship with us--they know us; they know our programs, activities, and services. They feel at home with our organization, and it's natural that when they might be looking for services or for residential opportunities, or for skilled nursing or rehab care, all of which are available here, they'll know that because they've been listening to the radio station. So we are regularly identifying on air the programs, activities, and services of our own organization, as well as serving as a bulletin board for the community's other wellness-related programs an d in formation about senior advocacy."

Much of this is accomplished through WMKV's nonmusical programming. "People love the music, but the popularity of the informational programs just continues to grow," says Bayowski. These nonmusical shows, carried from 1 to 2 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday, enable WMKV to address the issues of the elder community in earnest. Programs include Grandparenting Today, which has included luminaries such as Art Linkletter as guests, and Senior Computer Talk, among others. All of the programs have something to offer the senior listener, be it helpful advice, uplifting messages, health related news, or simply entertainment.

Regardless of the reason seniors tune in, the fact remains that they are rewarded for doing so in many different ways. While WMKV may seem like a simple form of entertainment to some, a closer look reveals that it is much more than that to others. "I don't think you can put a price tag on the value of a companion," Bayowski reasons. "I remember speaking with one of our supporters who, because he was on inhalation therapy, had to get up at two o'clock in the morning, and he often couldn't fall asleep again until 4 or 4:30. During that time, he was always listening to the radio station and enjoying that opportunity. There are a million good stories like that."

WMKV has been so successful that it has spawned other activities in its wake, and if Bayowski has his way, many more beyond that: "We do a dance on the first, second and, when there is one, fifth Sunday of the month, from 2 to 5 p.m., at our Maple Knoll Center for Older Adults, our senior center here on campus. From one until two, we have dance lessons, and then for $9 they have an afternoon of dancing, beverages, and snacks. Typically, there will be 100 to 120 people in attendance enjoying a great afternoon of wonderful music, always provided by our 15-piece Maple Knoll/WMKV Big Band. The band practices every Tuesday afternoon for three hours, and do a fair number of gigs all across the area."

Bayowski's plans for the future are even farther reaching: "We're looking to develop other Internet-only radio stations. Computers are a great way to deliver that signal, and there will be more vehicles in the future to make it even more user friendly. We'll be able to have stations on the Internet that are, for example, classical stations that play older recordings of pieces, such as Toscanini's version of a piece from the 1940s, as opposed to the most recent version from the Boston Philharmonic in 1997. There may be stations that play nothing but music from a certain decade, for example, only the music from the 1920s or the 1940s, along with the health and wellness information. We'd like to have a station that would focus on educational information in regards to aging. We're also working on the development of a 'positive news' network. We think that there's way too much negative information out there, and we need as an alternative something positive. I think people would really welcome something like that." And the forward-thinking Bayowski doesn't want to stop there either: "Down the road, I'd like to see some senior-targeted cable channels--the media opportunity is very exciting."

Through it all, Bayowski remains a humble and down-to-earth leader, one who knows that his most important job is to help others fulfill their interests and dreams. When asked to explain his own role at WMKV, Bayowski says, "I see my role as resource identification, recruitment, and allocation. I'm always trying to find somebody who's got an interest, and then find a way to work it in to what we're doing. Then I'm always trying to see if we can also identify a source of support for a program. That could be anything from engineering support to talent support to research support to financial support--all of the things that are required to keep a radio station up and operating. And then to be a cheerleader on the sidelines, to keep people enthused about what they are doing and keep them in the communication loop. It's an exciting opportunity. I just couldn't be more thrilled."

With an innovative leader like Bayowski behind the projects, one suspects that senior-oriented media won't be confined to the radio for much longer. And with the baby boomers coming just around the corner, we may see more mainstream media outlets turning to serve this growing demographic. In short, Clear Channel and MTV had better watch their backs.

For further information or to listen to live audio streams of WMKV, visit the station's Web site at www.wmkvfm.org. Contact Alan Bayowski, general manager, at [phone], or e-mail [e-mail]. To comment on this article, send e-mail to [e-mail].