KEDM People

Program Hosts

Deborah Chandler
Vocal Vibes
Deborah is Director of Choral Activities at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, is conductor and musical director of the Monroe Symphony Chorus, and is Minister of Music at Northminster Church in Monroe. At Florida State University, Dr. Chandler studied with Dr. Andre Thomas, Rodney Eichenburger, Dr. Judy Bowers, and Dr. Kevin Fenton. She serves as chairperson for the Louisiana American Choral Directors Repertoire and Standards Committee for Colleges and Universities. For over eighteen years, she served as a Director of Music in the Presbyterian Church (USA) denomination. She is also conductor emeritus of the Tallahassee Civic Chorale and a member of the American Choral Directors Association, Music Educators National Conference.

Richard Harrison
Mostly Big Bands
Richard has a record and CD collection that rivals most radio station libraries. His hobby is collecting recorded music, sports, news, comedy recordings ... in LP, 45's and 78 formats. With the depth of his collection, he can feature one artist or one band, presenting music seldom heard on radio. Not content to merely spin records, he likes to present a theme or topical show such as: Music of the war years, historical events, seasonal topics and Mardi Gras music during the Carnival season. Richard is adamant about presenting his show live, from recordings. Richard and wife Jean moved to Monroe in 1961, and he has been involved in a number of businesses in his time here. Most unique is the mail order business he developed and continues to maintain, which has resulted in Richard's other name -- The Boomerang Man. While traveling, Richard discovered public radio, and he subsequently become one of the early proponents of bringing public radio to northeastern Louisiana in the form of KEDM.

Mark Henderson
Best of Broadway, Encore
Mark is a native of St. Louis, Missouri, where he frequented the Muny, a large outdoor theater specializing in musicals. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, and moved to Monroe upon graduation in 1978 to begin work at The News-Star, where he is now the news editor. He and his wife, Elaine, have been married for 28 years. They have a daughter, Melissa, and lost a son, Greg, to complications with spina bifida in 1997.

Andy Isca
Bandscape
Andy is a native of New York and long-time resident of Louisiana. He holds two degrees from the University of Louisiana at Monroe and doctorate from The American Conservatory of Music. A retired music educator, Dr. Isca has earned numerous honors and is a Laureate in the Legion of Honor of The John Philip Sousa Foundation (an honor given to only ten music educators a year). He is also a past president of The Association of Concert Bands. Dr. Isca is active as a composer and conductor, and is the founder and conductor of the Riverside Concert Band and regularly guest conducts bands throughout the U.S. For three years Dr. Isca was associate conductor of the American Winds Concert Band, and while holding that position conducted in eleven different European countries.

Rob Lloyd
Highway 165 Revisited; Jazz, Straight No Chaser; R&B Showcase
Rob has been involved in music for more than 25 years. In the 1970s he was music critic for a New Orleans-based national college magazine. From there, his career carried him to the San Francisco Bay area where he was a graphic designer and president of his own graphic and printing company. He attended the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, and later opened a restaurant in San Jose -- he has even authored his own cook books. Music has always been Rob's first love. He was involved part-time at a R&B and a Jazz radio station in the Bay Area. A Bastrop native, Rob says coming home has been both a blessing and a challenge.

Kelby Ouchley
Bayou Diversity
Kelby was a biologist and manager of National Wildlife Refuges for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for more than 30 years. He has worked with alligators in gulf coast marshes and Canada geese on Hudson Bay tundra. His most recent project was the establishment of Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge and its development as a premier environmental education site. Kelby has an undergraduate degree in Wildlife Biology and a graduate degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Science from Texas A&M University. He has authored many scientific and popular articles. Among other honors Kelby recently received the National Wildlife Federation Governor's Conservationist of the Year Award. He and his wife Amy live in the woods near Rocky Branch, Louisiana, in a cypress house surrounded by white oaks and black hickories.

Jason Rinehart
Midday Classical
Dr. Jason Rinehart is the Director of Orchestras and the Assistant Director of Bands at the University of Louisiana at Monroe where he directs the Sound of Today, the Technical Fowls, the Symphonic Band and the Orchestra. He previously taught at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Benedictine College, and St. Louis Community College. Dr. Rinehart has degrees from Texas Tech University, Southern Methodist University, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. His conducting experience includes the Atchison (Kansas) Symphony, Kansas City Ballet, Fountain City (Missouri) and St. Louis Brass Bands, numerous collegiate orchestras and wind ensembles, and more than thirty main stage operas and musicals. Dr. Rinehart has been involved with the drum and bugle corps activity as a marching member of the Sky Ryders and Phantom Regiment and has taught with Pioneer, Capital Regiment, and is currently on staff with the Boston Crusaders. Jason has previously been a host of Classical music at KOHM in Lubbock, Texas.

Kenny Bill Stinson
Blue Monday, The Electric Circus
Kenny Bill has always been a music lover. Starting at a very young age, he started collecting records and musical instruments. Always a big fan of radio and television, he was soon "hooked and seduced" by Rock 'n' Roll music via Elvis Presley and The Beatles. Since then, he has gone on to pursue a career in music with his band and has kept up a collection of records, tapes, and CD's as a hobby and sideline.

Staff

Joel Willer
Director of University Broadcasting
Joel is an Ohio native, with undergraduate and graduate degrees from Kent State University. He joined the communication faculty at the University of Louisiana at Monroe in 1984, and has served as the faculty supervisor for student-operated radio station KXUL since 1985. Also in 1985, he began the preliminary work toward what would become KEDM, including contributions to the station’s original construction grant applications and equipment specifications. Joel joined the KEDM staff full-time in the fall of 2008. He is the recipient of the Reid H. Montgomery Distinguished Service Award and the Distinguished Four-Year Broadcast Adviser from College Media Advisers. He is a longtime volunteer at the Strauss Theatre Center Mainstage.

Jay Curtis
Program Director
Jay calls himself a "media producer" in a world of diversification. Jay earned a Bachelor of Arts in Radio/TV/Film Production from the University of Louisiana at Monroe and worked in video production for more than 10 years before joining KEDM full time. He started at KEDM in 1993 as a student board operator, and has worked since then in production and promotion on a part-time basis while working full time in video. In May of 2009, Jay became KEDM's Program Director. Jay still regularly freelances in sports television production for ESPN, Cox Sports, and others. Jay and his family live in West Monroe.

Susan Allain
Development Director
Susan Coats Allain grew up in Monroe and is a graduate of Neville High School. A 1977 graduate of the University of Louisiana at Monroe in Radio/TV Journalism, she began her broadcast career at KNOE-TV in Monroe as a reporter. After 20 years in television broadcasting, she became KEDM's Development Director in June, 1995. In 1998, she received the award for the Best Overall Marketing and Development program in the nation from National Public Radio and the Development Exchange. She also won a Special Innovation Award from NPR and the Development Exchange in 1997 for her "Restaurant Buddies Challenge" idea used during membership drives at KEDM.

Kenneth Sanders
Director of Technical Operations
Kenneth grew up in Mansfield, Louisiana. A 1992 Business Technology graduate of Louisiana Tech University, he began his broadcasting experience at student-operated radio station KLPI. Having an extensive background in professional sound and recording equipment, he quickly advanced to production manager of KLPI. In 1996, he started working for Gemini Concert Sound, operating a 50,000 watt concert sound system for many national acts, including Ricky Van Shelton, Brooks and Dunn, Run DMC, Tracy Lawrence, and many others. In 1998, he began working in installation of custom home theater, home automation, security and sound systems for Home Cinema and Hi-fi. In January of 2007, Kenneth became KEDM's Director of Technical Operations.