KP Whaley (Executive Director/General Manager)
KP Whaley has been involved in public and community broadcasting for nearly two decades. He joined 103.3 Asheville FM as the first paid General Manager in 2017, after nearly four years as a senior talk producer at Wisconsin Public Radio. He also cohosts a queer talk show on Asheville FM called Sweet Tea. He started his radio career as a volunteer and then News and Public Affairs Director at WORT Community Radio in Madison, Wisconsin in 2005. Between those two gigs he has also worked in community television, community food cooperatives, and as the manager of MAIN-FM (WPVM) in Asheville for a year. Once upon a time worked in the private sector in a variety of supervisory, management, and project management roles. KP and his husband also own and operate Tiny Bridge Farm in Hendersonville, NC, a small diversified organic vegetable farm for csa members, farmers markets, and wholesalers.
Jim Dougherty (President, Board of Directors)
Jim spent his formative years listening to WMMS in Cleveland, Ohio, one of the most influential progressive rock stations in the country, in the early 70’s. His love for music was a constant companion while managing a career in the corporate world as an insurance agent and financial advisor, and raising a family. He also spent time as a licensed massage therapist and small business owner, and served on several nonprofit boards. Besides music, he loves baseball and travel. In 2014, he and his wife and four pets, moved to Asheville to enjoy retirement and take in the vibrant art and music scene. Jim became a volunteer DJ at Asheville FM in 2015 and his music show, Closer to the Edge, airs weekly.
Erik Mattox (Vice-President, Board of Directors)
Originally from New York, Erik has made Asheville his home for over thirty years. An avid record collector and music researcher, he has remained a part of Asheville FM since its beginning. His show, The UnCola has been airing since September 2009 every Tuesday night, and he was also the host of The West Coast Breeze from 2015 to 2018. Along with serving as the Publicity and Promotions director in 2010, he joined the Board in 2011, serving a term as President while Asheville FM made the transition to its FM signal. Erik is very appreciative to be serving as a board member again. You can also follow him at his blog, Music In the Key Of E.
Gray Wheeler (Treasurer and Secretary)
For Gray Wheeler, working with Asheville FM completes a full professional circle started in 1987 when he and friends launched an AM carrier current radio station in Charlottesville, VA, in anticipation of “soon-to-come” FCC changes allowing low-powered FM transmissions… which ended up not being enacted for another 23 years! He has worked in media corporate finance in New York City and media marketing consulting in Greenwich, CT. In 2013, Ernst & Young named him Entrepreneur of the Year for the Southeast.
In the non-profit sector, Gray held a fellowship at Yale University’s Program on Non-Profit Organizations. For two years he worked at the Partnership for the City of New York, re-structuring and giving grants to small businesses located in and around the World Trade Center on September 11th . Gray holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School, where his classmates elected him to be their graduation speaker. He graduated with highest distinction from the University of Virginia. He has lived in Asheville since 2011.
Annelise Kopp (At-large member, Board of Directors)
Christy Rhodes (At-large member, Board of Directors)
Julio Tordoya (At-large member, Board of Directors)
Julio was born in Peru where he studied education and graphic design as well as photography and journalism. After teaching for four years in a rural community outside Lima in 2006 he moved to Charlotte NC to teach Spanish in an elementary school as a visiting teacher. After that, he moved to Asheville in 2010 where he got deeply involved with immigrant communities, working as a photographer in all of Western North Carolina.
After the US Social Forum along with Magaly Urdiales he founded MECA (Media Education for Community Action) to organize and train latinx people in areas of photography, reporting, editing, and broadcasting with the purpose to gain representation in the local media spectrum. Since 2014 he started JMPRO TV a local news channel running online. In 2018 Julio started La Neta a radio show on Asheville FM, with a series of segments and programs that are produced, recorded, and edited by members of our Latinx community.
At the moment Julio is working on creating new ways to contribute to the social justice movement from the side of the media, coming from the field of education he is willing to contribute their experience gained in the last ten years.
Misha Eli (At-large member, Board of Directors)
Misha has been a leader in the fields of Arts, Education, and Social Action for decades. In 2009, Misha graduated from East-West College of Natural Medicine, and as a Physician and Minister, formed Spiral Enterprises, a creative clearinghouse, in an effort to further build bridges across age and cultural gaps.
His portfolio includes projects such as Harvey Milk Festival, EARTHDANCE, Lovelight Yoga and Arts Festival, Volunteer Community Connections, TED, Florida Creativity Conference, Association of Florida Teaching Artists, The Flow Factory, FloydFest, LEAF Global Arts, Burning Man, Majestic Collaborations, Southern Atlantic Hemp & Arts Expo, and Art Army AVL. After moving here in 2018, Misha now dedicates his time “connecting the dots” in Asheville, as well as traveling the Globe, stewarding transformative experiences through Play.
Steve Plever (At-large member, Board of Directors)
Steve Plever, now retired after more than a decade of service in UNC Asheville’s communication office, also was host of Morning Edition on BPR, and before that, taught at both Asheville Middle School and Francine Delany New School for Children. Before moving to Asheville in 1999, he was senior press officer for Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood of New York City. In the 1980s, he was co-producer and co-host of Consider the Alternatives, a nationally syndicated weekly half-hour public affairs program that aired on some 100 radio stations. And he began his professional career at NPR affiliate WSKG in Binghamton NY, where he became the station’s first radio news reporter and news director. A jazz lover and music nerd, he informally majored in radio at Binghamton University and was voted manager of the student-run station, WHRW. He lives in West Asheville with his wife; their two children, graduates of Asheville City Schools, have grown and flown. Steve (DJ Shinytop) hosts Astral Jazz Travels, Wednesday evenings from 8-10 P.M.on Asheville FM.
TL Allen (At-large member, Board of Directors)
TL Allen (best known as CousinTL) has been a part of Asheville’s community radio for over 11 years now. In 2009 TL volunteered to help rebrand the Mountain Area Information Network to M@in-FM. At WPVM, he produced and hosted the highly-rated Supa Dupa Show, a talk show that was syndicated through the Pacifica network in 24 cities and distributed as a podcast in 6 different platforms. He later produced, revised, and hosted Asheville New Radio (to be retitled Asheville NU Radio). From 2014 to the present, TL has been producing, engineering, and hosting the popular show, CousinTL’s Stank Free Radio on 103.3 Asheville FM.
Originally from Detroit, Michigan, TL grew up as a fan of the city’s unparalleled radio market. Not knowing how good he had it, TL would consume shows from different radio stations in all genres (talk and music alike), listening to diverse radio personalities. He studied radio and television production in high school and later studied art direction and commercial marketing in college and art school. After that he went on to be certified in graphic/web design and animation. During this period TL moonlighted as a “mid-act” comedian, touring with headliners in the Great Lakes region (Michigan, Indiana, and Canada) and later, the New York/New Jersey circuits.
Since 2002 TL has worked in consulting for operational workflows that became ISO certified in corporations such as Ford Motor Company and Goldman Sachs. He would go on to freelance at different media companies (USA networks, Lifetime, American Broadcasting Company [ABC], and FOX Sports) assisting with the conversion from analog to digital HD.
As a freelance graphic designer, TL has worked on and has appeared in printed advertisements, publicity materials, newspaper comics, and social media, having created designs not only for corporate companies but also “Mom & Pops.”
From 2002 to 2008, TL would volunteer at Symposia Bookstore (a community center and internet café/ show venue and discussion forum place that happened to sell used books) in Hoboken, New Jersey. TL helped to create the nonprofit’s mission, as the store became a major asset to the Hudson County community. TL. Allen was awarded the Symposia Award for Building Community in Hoboken. This allowed him to speak at many seminars and workshops sharing the achievements (events, discussion groups, technology sharing, and fundraisers) with other community outlets and nonprofits for their benefit.
CousinTL has been volunteering at Asheville FM since July 2014. Serving as a “self-proclaimed” older cousin, mentoring other volunteers on-air and off. In 2015, he became Asheville FM ‘s first production director. Then, TL served as an interim-program director to be named program director the following year. He continued to serve as an at-large member of the programming committee until January 2020. In 2016, with the encouragement of that year’s program committee, TL help developed an on-air “test the waters”-type opportunity for new volunteers. This experimental show is now known as The Sandbox Hour, and it has become a valuable part of the Asheville FM training protocol.