Yaaw Tei Yi Dancers. Photo credit: Sydney Akagi.

To celebrate Public Radio Music Day, we are pleased to partner with the Alliance of Rural Public Media and showcase how public radio music bridges divides across the country and plays a unique role in supporting access to music in rural communities. This special guest blog is part of ARPM’s “United States of Rural Radio” series.

Nestled in the heart of Alaska’s capital, public radio organization KTOO has been a cornerstone of Juneau’s cultural life for a long time. On October 12th the station celebrated its 50th anniversary in style, and while the event, called 50 Fest, undoubtedly reflected on the station’s storied past, it was just as much about looking ahead. As Cheryl Snyder, KTOO’s Vice President and General Manager of KTOO Music & Arts, puts it, “We act like a large station even though we’re small. We’ve always had big ideas and vision.”

Snyder, who has been with KTOO for over 27 years, arrived in Alaska in 1995 and quickly found herself drawn to public media. “I started my Alaska life in Sitka, and public radio was in my view from the beginning,” she recalls of her time at fellow CoastAlaska station KCAW. After working in fundraising and development, Snyder eventually joined KTOO, where she has stayed ever since. “I love our organization, and I love Juneau. This is where I want to live. Getting to do public media at KTOO feels like the best of the best—it’s so locally connected, yet we’ve always had this larger sense of purpose.”

KTOO’s President and General Manager, Justin Shoman, shares a similar deep connection to the station and the community. He started his public media career at WMSE in Milwaukee before joining KTOO for two years as a development officer. After a stint at Colorado Public Radio, Shoman returned to Juneau in 2022 to take the helm. “There’s just something about Juneau,” he says. “Public media felt like a calling career-wise, and I walked away from here all those years ago knowing I would be back.”

This deep connection to place and community will be on full display during 50 Fest, an event that Shoman describes as a celebration of both KTOO’s history and its future. “We’re really trying to put our finger on both ends—honoring our history and the community that has supported us, but also engaging younger audiences with a modern, forward-thinking approach,” Shoman explains. The event will feature a diverse lineup of local musicians, from folk and acoustic acts to rock bands and a hip-hop showcase. “This event speaks to the diversity of what we program, and it reflects our investment in local artists across genres and generations.”

KTOO operates three radio stations: its namesake KTOO broadcasting news and talk programming, as well as two music stations, KRNN and KXLL. Each station serves a different segment of the community, but they all share the same mission of amplifying the voices and stories of Juneau. “KRNN is a patchwork quilt of sounds, leaning towards traditional public radio with jazz, classical, and volunteer DJs playing everything from contemporary to classic rock,” Snyder says. “KXLL, on the other hand, is all about hip-hop, soul, and contemporary rock. We feature a lot of Alaskan artists, including Indigenous musicians, which gives the station a really unique sound.”

The growth of KXLL over the past few years is a testament to KTOO’s commitment to serving younger and more diverse audiences. “KXLL has been the only station in Juneau to grow its audience since 2018,” Snyder notes. She attributes much of that success to KTOO’s intentional focus on bringing in more Indigenous voices and reflecting the actual makeup of the local community. “Our music director [Chandre Iqugan Szafran], who is Inupiaq, has done incredible work curating content that reflects the diversity of our audience. She’s prioritized Indigenous voices and those of other minoritized people, and hosted conversations on air about how lived experiences shape art.”

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Read the full blog as part of the United States of Rural Radio story series from the Alliance of Rural Public Media.