--Written by Melissa Milton

Community radio is in Missy Bowen's blood. How could it not be, after nearly 50 years on the air, 30 of them here at WWOZ?

Missy, who hosts the Wednesday edition of the New Orleans Music Show, the midday program that runs five days a week, was first drafted into commercial free radio as a college freshman in Iowa. After graduation and initially pursuing a career in newspaper journalism, Missy moved west, making her mark at KDNK-FM, then a young community-based station in Carbondale, Colorado.

"I love radio. I love talking about radio! When I first moved to Colorado, I was living in a cabin on a mountain, I was all alone, it was snowing, I was really isolated, it was just me and my dog. And I had a radio. There was a voice talking to me through the radio. Someone keeping me company. It's the imagination, the part of you that connects in some way emotionally."

"When we talk about WWOZ, it's that connection, that emotional connection that we make, that feeling that this is a personal thing for me, and this is a place where I find some heart in myself, and that is what I think community radio does. It reaches into living rooms and cars and phones and devices anywhere, and it brings us together as a community."

During those years at KDNK-FM, Missy wore all the hats: DJ, program manager, music director, even station manager. While attending national conferences and working with federal government-sponsored initiatives in support of community radio, Missy met some of WWOZ's earliest leaders, including David Freedman, Michael Klein and John Sinclair. She also struck up a friendship with New Orleans musician Reggie Scanlan, the bass player who worked with James Booker and Professor Longhair before helping launch the much-loved band, The Radiators. Missy credits Scanlan with first schooling her about New Orleans music.

That friendship and exchange of mixtapes snowballed into, well, an avalanche, and by August 1995 Missy left the mountains for the bayou. Within months she began subbing at OZ before eventually anchoring the Friday night Kitchen Sink show and, ultimately, her current Wednesday gig. She also continued her career working with arts organizations and musicians.

"The other big thing about my life in New Orleans was spending thirteen years as the operations manager at the University of New Orleans department of music. I met so many people that I know through there, and I was able to have music as my professional life and music in my radio life. It was wonderful."

After so many years spinning music and connecting people, Missy's passion for community radio and its possibilities burns ever bright.

"One of the funnest recent developments in Missyland is being an interviewer at the Allison Minor stage at Jazzfest. It is an honor to be there, especially this last year with Carolyn Wonderland, Shelley King and Marcia Ball. That was an epic event. I've always loved talking with people who are doing interesting things and finding out what they're doing and what their motivations are. I'm fascinated by the creative process, and how music happens."

Missy on the Allison Miner Stage with New Orleans Guitar Masters John Rankin , Jimmy Robinson , Cranston Clements.  Photo by Michele Goldfarb.

She continues: "And one of the things I'm most proud of, maybe even in my whole life, is being part of the Festing in Place, the first time we did it during the pandemic. That was spectacular. On a personal level it gave us something to do, on a global level it gave everybody a thing to do that was positive and that connected us. We connected people around the planet with music, at a horrible time. How cool is that?"

Super cool, indeed. How fitting that Missy, one of WWOZ's most enduring voices, shares a birthday with the station. Happy birthday, WWOZ and Missy!