WEQY News

Tune in on Monday night November 5th starting at 7PM for specials WEQY recorded live throughout St. Paul. First up is It Takes a Village, a forum recorded at the High School for the Recording Arts in Frogtown this past Saturday. Put together by the local group, Individuals with Dreams (IWD), the event brought together three keynote speakers: Elizer Darris, Anika Bowie, and Rena Moran. We'll listen to all three speaking about the importance of voting, the history of the Black vote in the US, and the power of voting to make real change.

Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts center storefront at night with Vote posters
Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts center storefront at night with Vote posters

WEQY has been taking to the streets this election season talking to people in the community about the importance of being heard by voting. We've also been taking the pulse of our community by hearing what you are saying is important to you as we look to the mid-term elections this upcoming Tuesday November 6th. Tune in to hear special programming we've produced as we took our mics out into the community. We'll start this Sunday November 4th from 4-6PM with Michael Warre's Rock the Vote special recorded live at Caydence Records and Coffee on Payne Avenue.

Shay Glorious Martin talks to Nick Muhammad in radio station studio.
Shay “Glorius” Martin, aka DJ Huh What, left, and Nick “Mastermind” Mohammad bantered about the news of the day during their morning show. [Photo by Elizabeth Flores as originally published on StarTribune.com]

In the early days of WEQY -- 2016! -- Shay Glorious Martin and Miss Brenda Reid talk about WEQY and the East Side in the Minneapolis StarTribune. Read the article via the link to the StarTribune below.
 

Bearded Ben James sits in headphones before a microphone in WEQY's production studio.
WEQY's jazz DJ and founding technical advisor and trainer, Ben James, in WEQY's original production studio on E 7th Street. [Photo by Patrick Larkin as originally published in the East Side Review]

Back at the beginning -- 2015 -- the East Side Review, a newspaper that covers and is distributed to residents all across the greater East Side, covered the dawn of WEQY's days on the air with the following quote courtesy of WEQY's DJ Huh What? :

"We're here to get some starch in your slacks... to tell you the best of what's going on on your block."

Read the full feature via the link below.

Photo of Google map representation of WEQY and sister stations' broadcast range.
Predicted broadcast range of WEQY and sister stations

If you talk to a DJ, volunteer or staff person involved with gettting WEQY on the air, creating programming or just advocating for equity on the airwaves here on the East Side of St. Paul, you're likely to hear the term "low-power FM" (LPFM for short). What exactly is this? An FM signal broadcasting at a very low wattage, yes, but it's more:  it's a movement to diversify the voices available on the otherwise corporate-dominated radio airwaves.  Read about LPFM and WEQY's role in this movement...

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