About KHOL - Jackson Hole Community Radio
About
Jackson Hole Community Radio produces innovative public radio programs, in-depth local news and cultural reporting, and events that touch a passionate community of more than 40,000 people monthly on-air, online and in-person. From its studios in the Center for the Arts in downtown Jackson, Wyoming, KHOL is shaping community radio for a new generation of listeners.
KHOL has received multiple accolades for its programming, including from RTDNA’s Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards, the Society of Professional Journalists and LION Publishers.
KHOL adheres to the ethics standards of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Mission
To serve the Jackson Hole community of residents and visitors through independent local and regional news and by creating a forum for the free exchange of ideas and music discovery that informs, entertains and promotes a deeper understanding of the world around us.
Diversity Statement
As a public radio station funded and supported by the community, KHOL knows that cultivating a diverse team of employees and volunteers is essential to understanding and serving the multifaceted communities of western Wyoming and eastern Idaho.
KHOL is committed to recruiting and retaining a talented, dedicated and diverse staff, governing body, Community Advisory Board and volunteer corps through our core belief in valuing difference and by promoting an environment of inclusion. We seek diversity in cultural, ethnic and economic backgrounds, personal experiences, age, gender and sexuality, ability and skills that reflect the diverse needs and interests of the communities served by KHOL. We also prioritize diversity in the station’s selection of music and cultural programming as well as in our news coverage.
KHOL supports an inclusive and antiracist environment through equal opportunity in employment and by diversity and implicit bias awareness education.
History
KHOL was more than a decade in the making before its maiden voyage on the airwaves in April 2008. It was the long-time dream of the station’s founder and first executive director Jim Tallichet. The station’s launch happened from a windowless office space under Teton Barbershop. It was a grassroots beginning, with a handful of dedicated volunteers keeping the station afloat through dogged perseverance. The station transmitted from the top of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort with Saddle Butte hampering the signal. After a few years of basement broadcasting, KHOL moved above ground, at first to an attic space across from the Wort Hotel, before landing in its permanent home in the prestigious Center for the Arts in 2012.
Since then, KHOL has grown exponentially. Home to Jackson’s only nonprofit newsroom, KHOL has become a trusted community source for in-depth reporting, cultural commentary and community programming that reflects the diversity of its listeners.
KHOL Staff
Emily Cohen
Executive Director
Emily has served as executive director of KHOL since June 2019. She has a background in ecological design and urban planning and has worked as a teacher on the US-Mexico border in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, as a policy wonk in Washington, DC and as a land use planner in Wyoming. She is an avid fiddler of Appalachian old time music and other traditional folk styles. She has produced projects for the DC Fringe Festival, MIT’s Listening to the City Conference and the Megapolis Audio Festival and performed as a supernumerary with the Washington National Opera for over a decade. When not playing tunes or playing in the snow, she is working to tell the story of America’s favorite poor gal, Li’l Liza Jane.
Jack Catlin
Music Director
For more than a decade, Jack, a.k.a. KnewJack, has worked numerous parties and events as a DJ, employing his genre-hopping, finger-on-the-pulse style that always manages to move the crowd. Jack has worked in post-production music and sound design on major advertising campaigns, an experience that helped fuel his breadth of musical knowledge. He takes pride in tracking down the rare and obscure, the new and unheard, the re-tweaked and remixed, and, of course, the classic and undeniably funky. All music, he says, is in some way connected no matter the style and Jack’s mission is to provide listeners with a memorable experience each time they tune in to KHOL or see him spin live. Catch him during his show, “The Heavy Warmup,” 8 to 10 a.m. weekdays.
Hanna Merzbach
Senior Reporter/Managing Editor
Hanna Merzbach joined the KHOL newsroom in September 2022. Before this, she worked as an independent journalist in Bend, Oregon, reporting on housing and homelessness, state and local politics, and the environment. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, High Country News and NBC stations across the country, and she’s fact-checked stories for The Guardian and the Vox Media Company. Hanna first dipped her toes into the radio world in 2020, when she participated in the Next Generation Radio workshop at Oregon Public Broadcasting. She has a bachelor’s degree in international affairs from Lewis & Clark College, where she ran the student newspaper. When not reporting, you can find Hanna scaling rock walls or backpacking in the mountains. (Illustration by Ard Su)
Reed Russell
Development Manager
Prior to joining KHOL, Reed’s daily commute took him up the Jackson Hole Aerial Tram as a market researcher (and Corbet’s Cabin waffle ambassador). Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Reed studied English literature, anthropology and creative writing at Kenyon College, where he also played lacrosse. Now graduated from the NCAA grind, he pursues more “freeride” forms of recreation, including backcountry snowboarding, mountain biking, rock climbing, and kitesurfing. After an adventure, you can find him at home with a Michalada in one hand and his guitar in the other, peering over his computer for the next day’s forecast.
Dante Filpula Ankney
Reporter
Dante Filpula Ankney comes to KHOL as a lifelong resident of the Mountain West. He made his home on the Eastern Montana prairies before moving to the Western Montana peaks to study journalism and wilderness studies. Dante has found success producing award-winning print, audio and video stories for a variety of publications, including a stint as a host at Montana Public Radio. Most recently, he spent a year teaching English in Bulgaria through a Fulbright Fellowship. When he isn’t reporting, you can find Dante outside scaling rocks, sliding across snow or winning a game of cribbage.
Zoe Curran
Social Media Coordinator
Local DJ Zoe Curran (aka The Western Gem) believes in the absolute power of music. Zoe was born and raised in Jackson Hole before skipping town to attend college in Poughkeepsie, New York. It was there that they began DJing with the Vassar College Sound System and WVKR 91.3. After returning to the valley in June 2022, they sought a similar impassioned music community, quickly joining KHOL as a volunteer DJ. Their weekly Friday night show, “Last Night a DJ Saved my Life!” showcases diverse electronic sounds and artists through a cultivated live mix. Zoe brings skills from their time at VCSS, WVKR, and as Layout and Outreach Coordinator at Grey Matters Journal, an undergraduate journal on neuroscience and psychology. When they aren’t spinning fresh electronica for radio and local throwdowns, Zoe can be hard to track down, but they’re probably tattooing, getting outside as much as humanly possible, or dancing in a low-lit bar.
David Dudley
State Government Reporter
Chris Clements
State Government Reporter & Digital Media Specialist
Governing Board
Email: board@jhcr.org
Alex Kerr
Bill Burford
Garth Gillespie
Jill Baldauf (Chair)
Jolie Nelson (Secretary)
Kevin Cohane (Treasurer)
Phil Hartl
Our next board meeting is:
Tuesday, April 9, 2024 at 2:30 p.m.
Meetings are generally held in the Center for the Arts conference room.
Community Advisory Board
Email: cab@jhcr.org
Anita Miles
Ben Read
Bill Helm
Christine Murdoch
Hanny Hindi
Jim Stanford
Josh Eavis
Karyn Chin
Liz Barrett
Liz King
Pat Wright
Will Finnie