“Get Loud in the Library” reads the headline on a flyer posted on a table in front of KYRS-FM, a community radio station located inside Spokane Central Library in Spokane, Washington. Promoting a series of evening performances that were held in conjunction with the 2025 Grassroots Radio Conference (GRC) in mid-September, the flyer hints at the fascinating collaboration between an urban public library and a community radio station.
How a Community Radio Station Ended up in a Public Library
A serendipitous series of events and conversations led to KYRS’ move to the library in 2022. The station was outgrowing its space on the top floor of an old hotel building and Program Director Dana Matthews felt like the station was “invisible” to its listening audience. Longtime KYRS volunteer Jason Johnson is the library’s Community Engagement Manager and suggested that the station should move there after a library remodel. During a panel discussion at GRC, he explained that the library had become more focused on the arts in recent years. Its mission has much in common with the mission of KYRS, which strives to fill “needs that other media do not, providing programming to diverse communities and unserved or underserved groups.”
Johnson noted that having KYRS onsite allows the library to “have a bigger reach into the community.” In turn, KYRS is able to attract new volunteers, programmers and listeners due to its central location in a public space. Additionally, both organizations have benefited from a variety of broadcasts from the library, including a candidate forum and town hall hosted by the Spokane NAACP.
Touring KYRS during the Grassroots Radio Conference
Located on the library’s third floor in a beautifully remodeled space, 20+ year old community radio station KYRS overlooks an open common area where events, including loud concerts, are held. With a studio and two small offices, the station also has access to a podcast studio and a production studio that are run by the library.
At appointed times during the GRC, KYRS opened its doors to conference attendees to allow them to poke around and see the inner workings of the community radio station. As a small cluster of us wandered into the studio one morning, Matthews greeted us and answered questions about the station. Although there wasn’t a live show from the studio, he was carefully monitoring audio coming in from a conference session, a live edition of the Pacifica show Sprouts, which was being broadcast live on air.
KYRS Engineer Dale Sanderson built the KYRS studio that were were touring and noted that it was his third station build. With a background in audio, he pointed out vacuum tube pre-amps that he installed in turntables and microphones at KYRS. In addition to turntables, the studio is outfitted with CD players and tape decks, allowing DJs to play from physical media. The walls are decorated with posters for various KYRS shows, letters from listeners, promotional T-shirts, and a vinyl record covered with handwritten birthday messages for Matthews.
Tucked behind the studio is a small transmitter room and an studio/office with large windows overlooking trees, historic buildings and the street below the library. The multi-purpose room contains a mixing board, microphones, computer and some office equipment.
The compact station space has some whimsical details, including cabinets with unusual printed labels that read “incurable disease specimens,” “secret plans for world domination,” and “enriched plutonium and light snacks.” Nearby a black rolling library cart sits near the wall, perhaps waiting to be filled with items to be returned to the stacks.
Thin Air Community Radio’s Roots Date Back to 1999
Founded in 1999, Thin Air Community Radio is a non-profit organization that runs community radio station KYRS 92.3 and 88.1 FM in Spokane, Washington. Beginning in 2000, Thin Air began operating as a project of the non-profit Citizens for Clean Air and applied for a low power FM (LPFM) license. After being awarded a construction permit, KYRS-LP (for “your radio station”) launched as an LPFM in October 2003. Four years later, in 2007, Thin Air Community Radio became an independent non-profit. By November 2011, the station upgraded to full power license (KYRS-FM) and now broadcasts at 6800 watts. KYRS moved to its current space in the Spokane Library in 2022 and their office moved to the library the following year.
Documenting the Station’s History
During the 2025 Grassroots Radio Conference, KYRS Office Manager Lynnea Kaylor opened a session about KYRS with a timeline of the station’s history. She also provided details about her project to preserve the “treasure trove of an archive” that she found in the station’s former office. And while outlining the story of KYRS, she shared images from the archives and described the variety of projects that the station has undertaken, including film festivals, concerts, and music events at the library. After the KYRS session, attendees were invited to take a look at a display of Thin Air Community radio materials, including early newsletters, flyers, posters, program guides, and a binders full of clippings, listener correspondence and photos.
The collected items paint a picture of the breadth of programming and activities undertaken by KYRS. The station’s on-air schedule includes a mix of music, talk, public affairs and both locally-produced and syndicated programming. During a panel discussion at the conference featuring KYRS personnel, Station Manager Michael Moon Bear said that the station also trains programmers in all aspects of audio production. Matthews added that this has led to job opportunities for some volunteers, noting that KYRS can be a “ticket to a free technical education course.”
Thanks to KYRS + Station Tour Archives and GRC Podcast
Thanks to everyone at KYRS Thin Air Community Radio for hosting the 2025 Grassroots Radio Conference and for opening up your station for tours. We recapped the GRC, including the keynote from FCC commissioner Anna Gomez, on the Radio Survivor show/podcast episode, Catching up with Community Radio at the Grassroots Radio Conference and NCRC. This is my 189th radio station tour report and my 37th community radio station tour. You can view the entire collection of my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives.
