"It's really remarkable to have a station in your community with people from the community talking about your own community," said Randy Wynne, previous Program Director and current host at WMNF. "This is real radio for real people. And we want to keep it that way."
Walk inside WMNF 88.5 in East Tampa and you immediately get a sense of pride. A pride for the community, for their mission, and their work.
"We partner often with local organizations to help really bring change and positive change in our community. And we also make a point of playing local artists and other artists that were in bands that wouldn't normally get a platform anywhere else, as well as local news stories that might not get picked up nationally. So it's really radio with a purpose," Samantha Hval, Program Director at WMNF Radio, said.
This is what they do and where their heart is, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
WMNF Radio has been in the community for 43 years.
"At that time, we were housed in what's now a grocery store on Nebraska Avenue, just down the street, and in 1989, we moved into a house right where our parking lot is now just a little house. And we stayed in that house for 15 years and soon outgrew it, we're looking for a new place. To set up a station, we looked all over Tampa Bay for a building that would suit our radio station, we finally decided we need to build our own station. And we bought a couple more lots on Martin Luther King Boulevard, and got the radio station designers and we created this radio station. Listeners paid for it back in the early 2000s. It cost probably $3 million," explained Wynne.
An asset that has proven it's loved and needed in Tampa Bay.
"Because not only are we nonprofit, but we're also a community radio station. So that means that we really care. And we are led by our mission, which is peace and social justice and equality and equity. We really care about the people that surround us and not just about the music that we play or the news that we deliver," explained Hval. "So we actually have a show every Friday called the live music showcase that literally brings in mostly local, but also some national bands. And it's for an hour every Friday, we broadcast their music live and a live interview kind of jam session to the community. "
Gregory Bower is the perfect example. He's known best as DJ Spaceship.
"I actually grew up in this neighborhood. And I remember the days that my pops we used to, before this building was built, and it was just the house in the parking lot, and we used to be across the street listening to the music being played from Kenny K and other shows, and just enjoying the vibes and the good tunes coming out," sid Bower.
Bower is on the air with his co-host Nate Dog every Monday morning from 6-9 a.m.
"But I just like being able to connect with the people through music," explained Bower. "We play everything so funk, jazz, R&B, reggae, Afro beats, we play everything, because this is a community station that we want everybody in the community to know that you include it. So we're big on making sure that everybody, you know, is included. We put out interesting topics and questions to get everybody calling in and getting everybody's blood going in the morning; then we let you go sit and go about your day. "
