For nearly 14 years, KNNZ 89.1 FM — also known as Ken’s FM — was a labor of love for the late Ken Bartz. As a radio engineer and broadcaster, Bartz valued artistry over corporate interests and built his station from the ground up to provide a fresh alternative to the usual commercial content.
Ken’s FM brought local musicians, independent artists, alternative rock and classic favorites from Bartz’s own “Vault of Vinyl” to the airwaves. When Bartz passed away last year, the station went off the air, though its programming remains available to be streamed online.
Now, KNNZ Associate Trevour Meyer, in conjunction with Ken’s FM DJs Adam Bursack and Kris Gardner, has launched a GoFundMe page in the hopes of keeping the radio station running and honoring Bartz’s legacy of supporting local artists.
“Radio used to mean something personal,” Meyer says in a video posted to the GoFundMe page. “It was an unfiltered connection between a human being in a radio studio and you in your car, or doing homework, working in the garage, or just hanging out on the patio. Radio was just there, and it was yours. But over the years, especially lately, corporate broadcasting changed everything.”
The video includes an audio clip of Bartz himself stating, “There is something that you can’t do in a corporate format. It takes the human element to make radio. And radio is the only medium that can do that, effectively. You take the DJ out of radio and all you’ve got is a badly programmed iPod on shuffle, a.k.a. corporate radio.”
Meyer knew Bartz back in the 1990s, when Bartz hosted a radio show called Manchester Avenue. When Bartz founded Ken’s FM in 2012, Meyer helped with merchandise, advertising and public events.
Back in December, Meyer told KVRR Fox, “If we can continue it in the future, we wouldn’t want to radically change anything about it at all. We’d obviously want to keep adding new content as we go along. But, at the same time, we would want to keep Ken’s FM as Ken’s FM as much as we can.”
The fundraiser officially ends on September 7.
