Thank you to our 2000 Volunteers of the Year!

Volunteers are crucial to Spokane Public Radio, and again KPBX thanks volunteers with a special event -- the live Zorba Paster On Your Health show on June 3. Tickets are still available for the show, which begins at 7:30 p.m. at North Central High School. (The event is not a School District 81 sanctioned or sponsored event.) Tickets are available at the door, or at (800) 328-5729.

Although we’re grateful for all volunteers, a handful of people gave outstanding service to KPBX this year. They are: Jim Armstrong, John Benham, Frank Delaney, John Johnson, and Eberhard Schmidt. Our thanks to all of you for your continued dedication for Spokane Public Radio!

Jim Armstrong, On-Air Fundraising Volunteer

Tune in to Living On Earth during the pledge drive, and chances are you’ll catch Jim Armstrong offering you a tree ‘if you pledge now.’ This long-time member and supporter of KPBX works with the Spokane County Conservation District, and is happy to offer additional incentives to call in with a pledge. “I really enjoy the pledge breaks because it gives me the opportunity to interact and work with all of the staff on a pretty intense project,” Armstrong says. “We’re there to get the listeners to call in and become active supporters of the station. That can be a real challenge at times, but when the listeners react positively it makes us all feel good. We love the sound of that gong!”

Armstrong also served as a community producer from 1987-91, writing commentaries on environmental issues. He just took his volunteering to a new level, accepting a position on the Spokane Public Radio Board of Directors. He says volunteering is one way to give back to a station that has been a help to his work. “As SCCD’s Public Information Officer, I have relied on KPBX to provide the in-depth coverage of issues that is available only on public radio. Many times it has been important for the District to let the public know about a specific project or problem. My first call is always to KPBX because I know I can work with the staff to provide accurate, complete and unbiased coverage of the issue,” he says.

Armstrong is taking his environmental message home, building the northwest’s first compacted straw bale home. “Our hope, as well as that of the Conservation District, is that straw bales will become a major, mainstream building material in this region very soon.” He also volunteers as a court-appointed special advocate for the Spokane County Juvenile Court, acting as an advocate for a child’s best interests in court.

John Benham, Special Events Volunteer

For a hint at John Benham’s passions, just look at his website. Many of his web pages are devoted to his own photographs, astronomy, and sailing in Western Washington. These pages also show off his fondness for designing web pages. But two pages truly demonstrate why he’s a valued KPBX volunteer.

One shows off “Benham Audiophile Recordings,” which is John’s way of saying he is a recording engineer. He attends dozens of concerts at the Met, Holy Names Music Center, and St. John’s Cathedral recording the likes of the Connoisseur Concerts, Annual Northwest Bach Festival. Many of these concerts air as KPBX’s Concert of the Week. Some of Benham’s recordings have aired on NPR’s Performance Today.

The other window into John’s soul is the new “Weird and Wacky Vinyl Page.” For the past two years, Benham has been the driving force behind sorting donations to the KPBX Recordings & Videos Sale. He spends more than two months deciding which category records and CDs belong, so shoppers can find their favorites faster.

“Mary and I volunteer for many organizations, of which KPBX is one,” Benham says. “I have technical knowledge of sound recording and a love of music, therefore sharing these skills with KPBX seems very natural. Plus it's always a pleasure to work with the staff of KPBX - which in reality is a family.”

Frank Delaney, News/Commentary Volunteer Producer

With so much attention to websites, e-commerce, and destructive computer viruses, KPBX is glad to have a commentator who knows the computer business. Every Thursday morning at 7:35 a.m., Frank Delaney brings listeners Raw Bytes, an update on the digital world around us.

Since the early 1970s, Delaney has been in the personal computing field, working for companies such as Xerox, Univac, and Spokane’s first personal computer company. In 1987, he founded Micro Technology Associates, and continues to offer computer programming, consulting, educational, and support services for businesses in the Inland Northwest.

Delaney heard about KPBX when his friend Joe Mincks was hosting Inland Folk. Soon after, he was producing the Backwater Blues Show, which would later evolve into the Blues Review. Nowadays, his favorites are Tina Bjorkland’s blues show, Saturday Café with Michael Patoray, Zorba Paster On Your Health, and Morning Edition. Delaney also acted as the station’s data processing manager, creating computerized systems for membership, accounting, and the music library. During that time, the idea for his commentaries came up. “In 1986 or ’87, some kind of personal computer issue was in the news, and I did a story on it. The news director said we oughta do a weekly computer show, and suggested the name ‘Raw Bytes,’” he says.

Most of Delaney’s topics come from whatever he is working on through MTA. “At other times, I’ll talk about something I’ve read, or something I just feel like talking about.” His hobbies and interests include playing guitar (especially with the Parchmen, and Little Spokane River Angel Band), teaching guitar through the Spokane Parks & Recreation Department, songwriting, folk music research, jogging, camping, exploring, cooking, reading, learning gardening, and recreational computing.

John Johnson, Volunteer Producer

Thanks to John Johnson, the 95% of records that never got commercial airtime now have a home. The Saturday night show Johnson’s Improbable History of Pop features those artists who fell through the commercial cracks.

When the program began, in February of 1995, Johnson said, “My mission is to provide that exposure, and give recognition to the fact that talent and hit records don’t have a lot to do with each other.” That still holds true five years later. “My goal has been 500 programs and so far I’m up to number 265,” Johnson says. “I’ve got enough ideas at various stages of development to take me up to 300. I don’t foresee any great changes or shifts in direction, although I would anticipate a few more retrospectives on ‘80s bands. I always seem to run a decade and a half late, and am now getting a grasp of what some of the Reagan-era music was all about (benefit of hindsight and all).”

JIHOP was originally meant to be a blues or soul program, but he then started talking about songs and artists without much exposure. He tries to include all the different musical styles that come together in pop music, such as rock, soul, rockabilly, country, jazz, folk, and international rock. “The most gratifying part has been the interaction with listeners, guests, and musicians,” Johnson says. “Without meaning to brag, there have been cases where my programs have resulted — at least indirectly — in reissues or first issues on compact disc for the artist. I’ve also had performers and bands in the studio. That helps prove, once again, that while recorded sound is great, ‘live music is best’ for its sheer energy and immediacy.”

Johnson works at Boeing Spokane, and spends free time with movies and movie history, golf, and jogging. “Thanks to everyone through the years who have contributed their time, talent, and thoughts to the show. As the saying goes, it’s an evolving organism, but I don’t know the species yet.”

Eberhard Schmidt, Community Volunteer

Come to the KPBX studios on any Thursday evening, and chances are you’ll run into a mild-mannered gentleman with a German accent, sitting in Verne Windham’s office, surrounded by classical music CDs, typing away furiously at the computer. Eberhard Schmidt has only been a KPBX volunteer for a couple of years, but he continues to put in several hours a week, updating the KPBX classical CD library. “He is crazy for classical music,” Verne says. “He loves it, sings it, goes to every concert he can, and owns a lot of recordings. On top of this passion, he has a keen analytical mind. He knows and understands the conventions of music terminology, and understands languages to boot!” Eberhard and his wife Susie have been members of KPBX ever since its start-up process. He says classical music was the main draw, but other programs, such as All Things Considered and A Prairie Home Companion, also caught his attention. “We’d listened to Dick Estell (the Radio Reader) before we came to Spokane, so that was a familiar voice. We just thought it was necessary to have that type of programming here,” he says. When his geology career took him down to Mexico for three years, he brought tapes of Verne Windham’s KPBX broadcasts with him. After returning to the states, he finally came to the station to see it in person. He had just finished entering his classical music collection into a computer database, and offered to do the same for KPBX. “I like to see a project completed,” he says, modestly. Schmidt loves listening to KPBX or his own classical collection while modifying his family’s HO-scale train set, or working in his extensive garden in the Spokane Valley. He is a member of the Friends of Manito, and just completed the WSU Master Gardener program.