Every Monday from 7-9pm, WMMT broadcasts Hip Hop from the Hill Top from its headquarters in Whitesburg, Kentucky, featuring the best of old school, new school, underground and southern hip hop. WMMT is the community radio station of Appalshop, a 50 year old media and arts organization in east Kentucky.
Following those two hours of music is a one-hour radio program called “Calls from Home”. The program broadcasts messages from friends and family of those incarcerated in prisons in the region. The calls are recorded during the hip hop show for broadcast the same night.
The project started more than 20 years ago to help loved ones communicate with those in prison who could not afford long distance call rates or to visit frequently due to transportation costs or other barriers.
Some of the calls are intense. People will share that a loved one has passed away, or that a relationship is ending. Others are about happy news, such as an award a child got at school or a new job.
“Ideally, they’d be able to talk directly to their loved ones,” Elizabeth Sanders, WMMT’s general manager, said. “I think there’s a lot that needs to change with our criminal justice system. But, given how it is right now, families should at the least have communication options that aren’t cost prohibitive. We need just and sustainable investment in our communities and in the communities where the folks who are incarcerated are coming from.”
Nearly 5,000 people are imprisoned in facilities in Eastern Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. WMMT’s local radio signal reaches US Penitentiary Big Sandy in Inez, Ky.; Wallens Ridge State Prison in Wise County, Va.; Red Onion State Prison in Wise County, Va.; Keen Mountain Correctional Center in Oakwood, Va.; US Penitentiary Lee in Lee County, Va.; Wise Correctional Unit in Coeburn, Va.; and, many regional jails and detention centers.
This year, Appalshop started a new program focused on prison justice called “Restorative Radio”. Airing monthly, on the third Wednesday of the month, the primary goal is to further support those incarcerated or affected by incarceration by giving them an avenue to generate and request their own content. Each episode is one hour long and features interviews with individuals working or affected by the prison system, as well as original writing, such as poetry or music written by those on the inside of prisons.
One part of their fourth episode, which aired in July 2019, featured Black Sheep Brick Oven Bakery and Catering, a program at Hemphill Community Center in Letcher County, that provides job training for individuals in the local drug court.
WMMT’s programming about prison justice reminds its listeners weekly of the huge number of Americans in our prison system, keeping those individuals and the need to invest in our communities at the forefront of our minds.
Creating places and spaces for communities to talk to each other about sometimes difficult subjects, such as incarceration, is an important part of forming Appalachia’s New Day.
About: This is story #24 in the Appalachia’s New Day campaign, a new storytelling effort offered by MACED to eastern Kentucky communities. We can work with you to help identify, shape and amplify stories about businesses, programs and initiatives in your community that are helping build a new economy in eastern Kentucky. Read more stories here. Contact us or sign up here if you would like more details.
