KZSM — Saving a Life: A volunteer’s story
Everyone at KZSM.org—program hosts, producers, editors, administrators, promoters—is a volunteer. And every volunteer has their own story. Six-year veteran Carole Coburn hosts “Friday Night with Care” (Fridays 8-10 p.m.) and “Sunrise Soul Food” (Sundays 6-8 a.m.). And you’ll hear her distinctive, compelling voice on many of our Public Service Announcements.
“Friday Night with Care” features live and recorded music and interviews with performers. The show grows out of her personal passions: “I love music. I love local artists. I love introducing our community to the amazing creatives that live, work and play amongst us.” She has interviewed Wynonna Judd, Henry Winkler, Bart Millard and David Crowder, among others. Her guests readily open up to her conversational interviewing style, which feels like a friendly exchange across your kitchen table. Her skill is such that she gives workshops at Texas State on “The Art if the Interview.”
After a couple of years’ experience with her Friday show, Carole developed “Sunrise Soul Food,” a show designed to share the beauty of the sunrise with friends, prayer, and Christian music.
Carole’s path to KZSM began with a frightening disruption — two strokes in three days. The effects were devastating, especially for a writer and avid reader: “Reality entered swiftly as reading produced frustration — the ability to string two sentences together and have it make sense was impossible. There was no longer joy, just depression. People would lean in to finish my sentences, my speech as broken as my comprehension.”
She searched for a new outlet for her creativity. “If I could no longer write, if reading brought anger, I needed to find something that reclaimed my passion. Something that allowed me to express myself.”
At that low point, she discovered KZSM Community Radio. Volunteering to create a broadcast required learning new skills — becoming familiar with the mixer board, the DJ software, and the sound editing program, and mastering the sense of timing that radio demands. “Through the course of learning the skills,” she reflects, “I learned a new self-confidence and sense of accomplishment. KZSM.org not only saved my sanity — it saved my life.”
Not every volunteer can say that the experience saved their life, but everyone who’s become a part of the KZSM family feels changed and enhanced by their accomplishment. The “crazy, goal oriented, eclectic, larger than life people” who are now Carole’s family can be yours. Contact us at KZSMSanMarcos@gmail.com.
