By Jean Ponzi
CRSTL the PhEniX and Me
“Jean, you get involved with this,” my friend Sarah Linquist said.
She was an artist, very cool. And she liked (actually, LOVED, as it turned out)) – me!
I followed her direction, which set me on a Green-focused wordy-artist way. I got involved with St. Louis Community Radio, KDHX. That was Summer 1988, three seasons after 88.1 FM came alive with the voices of regular joes and janes.
Community Radio! Ordinary people On the Air!
This was broadcasting, way before MySpace, YouTube, podcasts, influencers. Before www-dot and you’ve got mail. When editors sliced magnetic audiotape and spliced it with transparent editing tape. Soundwaves, tape and a razor blade. I was there.
KDHX, oh KDHX. You gave so much to our community. And so much to me, getting to do a radio show: Earthworms. Once a week for an hour, I talked with fellow humans, local and from all over our world, about environmental stuff I cared about. People in the audience cared too. I got to be a strong, local voice for Earth, by enjoying conversations.
This extraordinary creative gig was my volunteer community service for 38 years. My radio show. Since 2015 a podcast, as communication forms evolved. Using my best skills for stuff I care about. Such a deal. 100 or more at a time of my fellow ordinary people got to do the same, mostly with Music, the force universally beneficial, appreciated and understood, Earth-wide. Yay!
RIP dear KDHX. October 14, 1987 – June 9, 2025.
This was not a sudden demise. Summer of 2023, I got involved again, in efforts by my fellow joes and janes to free our beloved KDHX from destructive control. We did not succeed, yet . . .
We experienced in another form what the heart of the Nature of KDHX was about: ordinary people doing profound stuff, ongoing and creatively, for our community overall. Over the last era of KDHX, we volunteers did this in a big, diverse group. We worked together toward a common goal for common good, no matter what. What we did with our radio shows, we carried into Society’s legal and leadership systems. For the record, the shows were fun.
Perseverance furthers, and justice can prevail. Though you can’t always get it in the form you want. As the song says, you get what you nee-ee-eed.
Meta enviro-ed for me, working with fellow members of Earth’s main Species of Concern. Using my best skills for stuff I care about.
Our audience cares too. St. Louis values and needs Community Radio. By the time you read this, we’ll have it again! For starters, in the media form of today: internet radio, “broadcasting” online. With the stretch goal to also create a CRSTL FM Radio place.
I got to write the official announcement. Here’s some of what it says.
“At noon CT Sunday, February 1, 2026, eclectic music and perspectives will once again beam into St. Louis and around the world from a new all-volunteer internet station, Community Radio St. Louis, CRSTL.
“Commercial-free webcasting from CRSTL.FM revives the strong grassroots voice supporting regional culture that was silenced last year by the radio frequency sale demise of KDHX-FM.
(Through collaborative work by a big group of human volunteers) ”CRSTL’s 24-7 flow of music shows reconnects listeners (like you?!) to familiar personalities and welcomes new talent. Calendars, reviews and commentaries will spotlight regional performing arts, history, ecology and more, to support local enterprises of all kinds. (Especially through MUSIC!)
“Community Radio St. Louis is led and programmed entirely by local volunteers, many of whom were longtime contributors to KDHX, which was founded in 1987 at 88.1 FM to cultivate community benefits.
“The 501c3 nonprofit League of Volunteer Enthusiasts (LOVE) is dedicated to filling the hole left in the hearts of listeners. The organization operates Community Radio St. Louis, broadcasting online at www.CRSTL.fm.”
This is a phoenix story, embodying the ethos of today, in today’s vernacular. Like any good story, it has plot and characters, peril and potential.
I’m in it! As an ordinary person, a volunteer. As a strong, local voice for Earth, I’m contributing my bit. Literally. To conserve your attention, instead of conversing for hours, I’ll be sharing perspective on Green. Commentaries. I get three minutes, about 350 words. A challenge (fun!) for an eco-logical word-artist.
CRSTL’s Earthworms Castings are coming soon. CRSTL the PheNix is live online now, volunteers serving Community with Music at www.CRSTL.fm. Thanks for listening! Stay tuned!