Imagine The Shift * Home of the Good News Muse

The idea for Radio Free Nashville was birthed by three Nashvillians after the 1996 Federal Communications act allowed corporate media increasing control over the airwaves. WRFN-LP was eventually granted a license.
Yet as with all heroic journeys, hurdles and threshold guardians awaited including the death of the gentleman who had offered his property as the place for the tower. These three heroes gathered their allies and persisted. New property was found and amidst rains of Biblical proportions Radio Free Nashville went on air in April 2005.Shows include Healthy at Any Size, Future Quake, The Politics of Dogs, Jazz and Blues Society Hour, Windows to Wellness, Democracy Now and yes, Wake Up & Live.

We're heard on-line at www.radiofreenashville.org, on radio in West Nashville at 98.9fm and via Comcast Cable on the SAP setting. In 2006, we launched Young Voices of Nashville training area students in broadcasting.
WRFN provides programming around the clock. Click on the radio to see our schedule, give a listen and learn more.

How did I go from vowing to never speak in public to co-hosting “Wake Up & Live”? RFN is a community station therefore to have my essays played on air I volunteered at the tower raising. My task? To follow the creative culinary orders of Kristi Rose as she turned loaves and fishes into enough for one hundred all weekend. Sunday afternoon, I stood chopping everything left in the fridge for a final creative endeavor when Mike Harkreader, a colleague from 1988, walked in and said, “Dawn, co-host a show with me.” I had no intention of actually hearing my voice on air. Hearing my recorded voice on essays was enough. I quickly responded, “Thanks, but no thanks.” Mike unknowingly forced me to reconsider my contract with God because he persistently asked me to reconsider. That was 2005 and we’ve been co-hosting “Wake Up & Live” nearly every Saturday since. Our guests may be found mid-air like Ellie Morse, the area teen, who I met on a plane then interviewed regarding her work with Invisible Children or via the internet like Jim Garrison the president of Wisdom University. In studio music’s often provided by Tony Gerber and Steve Sheehan as they play stream of consciousness music with wind, percussion and stringed instruments.

I hope we inspire people to engage in their lives and to become as I’ve heard it said “glocals,” people who think globally and act locally. Learn of weekly guests or find links to prior guests at www.mikeanddawn.blogspot.com

Listen to prior shows at www.seedsthestory.com/wakeup where you’ll find interviews with jazz artist Denis Solee, author John DeVault, songwriter/performers Beth Nielsen Chapman, Steve Conn and Ross Falzone, Jim Garrison president of Wisdom University, Olivia Barham the producer of the film “The Science of Peace,” Matthew Gilbert of Institute of Noetic Sciences, Jean Houston, Gay Hendricks on his book “Five Wishes” as well as shows on the relationship between songwriting and dentistry, shining light on our sexual shadow, the trance of scarcity, Invisible Children, laughter yoga, Swamp Gravy and Gathering to Save our Democracy just to name a few.

“Wake Up & Live is a wonderful example of what radio can be, thoughtful, enlightening and entertaining, where the audience is respected and the subject matter is meaningful and intellectually stimulating. This is great morning radio. Dawn Kirk is a natural and I was honored to be her guest.” Ross Falzone.

Read Ray Waddle's column in the Tennesseean regarding Dawn's journey: