Willis hired as Radio Free Palmer’s new project manager

PALMER — Caroline Willis, who took over as Radio Free Palmer’s project manager earlier this month, is focused, for now at least, on the near term.

“Radio Free Palmer right now has a construction permit so that they can do everything that is required to get on air, such as have a studio, test all their equipment and put out a signal,” she said.

The goal is to have all of that accomplished by mid-summer — July 4 in fact. After that, she said, the plan is to, more or less, walk away.

“I’ll be giving them further research — here’s other things you need to do while you’re on the air,” Willis said.

Willis said she knows that going from a web-only station to a full-on radio station broadcasting over the airwaves is a tall order. But she thinks she has enough support to make it happen.

“Radio Free Palmer has been working on this for quite some time, so they’re pretty excited and I’m excited. It’s a big project and if everyone works together, which is what they’ve been doing for a long time, it can happen,” she said.

The project manager job is a temporary one, and Willis said she hasn’t decided whether she would take on a permanent role if offered.

“They asked me if I was interested in that and right now I just want to focus on getting them on air and going from there,” Willis said.

She comes to the station from KRUA, the University of Alaska’s radio station. She was the station manager there, a position she rose to having started as a volunteer. She graduated May 1 with a liberal studies degree and told the University of Alaska Anchorage’s alumni magazine that, after taking a year off, she is headed to University of Alaska Southeast and a master’s in education, then on to a career as a teacher.

Also in the magazine, Willis discusses how she left high school early to enter the workforce, having at that young age failed to see the relevance of education. A stint as a pre-school teacher made her realize a college degree was the only way to move up in her field, so she went to UAA.

The station manager at KRUA, like nearly everyone else there, is a UAA student. Anyone who isn’t a student is a volunteer.

It’s also kind of similar to Radio Free Palmer, at least it is in the sense that both seem to be aiming at the same pool of talent. A recent Radio Free Palmer press release describes its potential future disc jockeys as “area volunteers, students and just regular folks creating the programs that will be meaningful to our local area.”

The station is having its annual meeting this Sunday, May 15 at 2 p.m. in the conference room at Turkey Red in downtown Palmer. That date also happens to be Willis’ birthday. She will give the keynote speech.

“The board members have all worked very hard giving their time and money and so have a lot of individuals that see what Radio Free Palmer is doing,” Willis said. “There’s a lot of community support when it comes to this endeavor.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.