Kentucky's Real People Radio

For World Radio Day 2026, we visit WMMT in Whitesburg, Kentucky, one of many small community radio stations in the US existentially threatened by cuts to government funding. At a moment when news has become increasingly polarised, these stations are even more needed, often providing communities with their only source of essential information and emergency warnings.

WMMT was founded in 1985 with a mission to “be a voice of mountain people’s music, culture and social issues.” Known to listeners as "Possum Radio" or "Real People Radio," WMMT broadcasts to the coalfield communities of eastern Kentucky and neighbouring Appalachian states, home to people whose voices are among the least heard in the United States. Reaching out beyond the local area, the popular weekly program Calls From Home broadcasts messages from family and friends to a large incarcerated population from across the United States in nine regional prison complexes, built in the late '90s as a band-aid "solution" to the decline in mining jobs. 

WMMT also acts as a communications safety net when cell towers, telephone lines and the internet go down during increasingly severe natural disasters. Powered by volunteer DJs and at best a skeleton crew of paid staff, WMMT currently has only one full-time employee, station manager Jared Hamilton, who is scrambling to raise funds to keep it on the air. At this critical moment in America's history, the station is helping to keep the community steady with one foot in Appalachia's traditions and the other in the future.

Presenter: Maria Margaronis
Producer: David Goren
A Storyscape production for BBC World Service

(Photo: Beckie sits in front of a mic in the WMMT studio. Credit: Maria Margaronis)