Howell Doka, 67, a retired HVAC salesman who goes by the alias DJ Howl, was in the final hour of his “Freeform Wednesdays” afternoon program on WOZO 103.9 FM last week when he made an interesting editorial decision. 

The station takes a collectivist approach to managing operations.

With no introduction to his listeners, Doka queued up a lesser known Pink Floyd song: 1969’s “Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered in a Cave and Grooving With a Pict.”

The track’s title should be taken literally: It’s a cacophony of bizarre, reverb-soaked squeals and pants that culminates in a barely intelligible rant from the band’s bassist Roger Waters, who employs a thick Scottish accent — suffice it to say it’s not the kind of thing you’ll hear on Top 40 radio.  

When asked why he picked the song to go over the airwaves, DJ Howl chuckled, “I’m not 100 percent sure — because it was weird.”

But it's that freedom to play and talk about virtually whatever he wants that makes the alternative, low-power station appealing for Doka and most of the other 30 volunteer DJs, he said. 

After all, none of them are in it for the money — all DJs have to pay monthly dues to the nonprofit station and receive no compensation.

“Everybody is passionate about their music,” said Doka, who estimates his music collection at over 2,500 vinyl records and 1,900 CDs. “I just do it because I finally have a chance to show off my albums.”

DJs have to live with the physical limitations of the station's low-power signal — WOZO can only be picked up reliably in Downtown Knoxville. But its programming is also streamed online, so at least theoretically it can be heard anywhere in the world with an internet connection.

Pan Walker, who has been with the station since its inception in 2015 and manages the website and alternative news programming, told Compass that all DJs have “full autonomy” over their shows, barring any racist, sexist or homophobic speech. 

Part of what makes that system work is that the entire organization has to reach consensus before any new DJ can be onboarded or any major decision is made about the station’s operations.

“We’ll probably go off the air before any one person decides ‘this is what we’re going to do,’” Doka said. 

The collectivist, anti-establishment approach is reflected in the decor of the station’s main recording room. The walls are adorned with concert flyers for left-leaning, politically-charged acts like Public Enemy and Rage Against the Machine, and haphazardly displayed stickers with anti-capitalist and progressive slogans.

Recently, the station used its consensus approach in welcoming several local DJs left without a place to do their shows following the recent upheaval at WUTK 90.3 FM, the University of Tennessee’s student radio station. 

That station’s longtime director Benny Smith — a staple in the Knoxville music scene — retired earlier this month amid a consolidation of the university’s student-run media under the same umbrella, which the university is calling The Media Center. It will also contain WUOT 91.9 FM, the Daily Beacon student newspaper, Ablaze Magazine and Land Grant Films. 

In a statement announcing his retirement, Smith said, “With the changes coming to WUTK, for me it was the right time personally to make this move.” 

The restructuring also means that all of the station’s non-student, volunteer DJs were let go, although the university said in an email to faculty and staff of the College of Information that it would seek future opportunities for engagement with them. 

Several of those DJs have turned to WOZO to keep doing their shows, many of which amassed solid followings while on WUTK.

“We’re thrilled to be in a position to help the Knoxville community in whatever way we could with what UT did,” Walker said. “And that totally fulfills our mission of … bringing stuff to the airwaves that you could no longer hear.”

One show formerly on WUTK that has come to WOZO in recent weeks is “Fire on the Mountain,” hosted by Lee Bridges, a marketing coordinator by day, who uses the alias DJ Wharf Rat, a reference to a favorite Grateful Dead song. 

Bridges, a self-professed “Deadhead” who plays jam band music during his program, told Compass that WOZO approached him after he was let go by WUTK, and that he’s “so thankful” for the new opportunity. 

“My show didn’t miss a beat,” he said. “I just switched days … same time, 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Now it’s Monday instead of Tuesday.”

Bridges expressed discontent with the “impersonal” way in which he and other former WUTK volunteer DJs were let go, but said that, so far, he likes the lack of “hierarchy” at WOZO. (Many former WUTK DJs have said publicly that they were abruptly locked out of the station’s studio without prior notice). 

WUTK “was run like a business,” he said. “This radio station is run by a community … everyone has a say. It’s good, it really is.”

Anthony Owsley, who plays experimental and avant garde music on their WOZO show “Audio Collision” under the alias DJ Cadmium Red, said the WUTK restructuring was a hit to the local music scene, but expressed optimism that WOZO can help fill the void.

But Owsley qualified his optimism with the reality of WOZO’s broadcast range. 

“I am happy to have (the former WUTK DJs) aboard and glad that they can continue their shows ('Pour Some '80s on Me' is a particular favorite of mine),” DJ Cadmium Red said in a statement to Compass. “It's only a shame that our broadcast range is considerably more limited to what they're used to.” 

“I only hope our effort can help continue the struggle to keep the musical airwaves creative and diverse.”

Owen McCarthy is a Compass summer intern.