Takoma Park, Maryland, is home to its own radio station.

Partridge: You are tuned to Takoma Radio, WOWD-LP, Takoma Park.

Curry: at WOWD-LP, also known as WOWD, the LP stands for low power.

The signal only reaches about 5 miles from their antenna in downtown Takoma Park, but the station doesn't only reach the community through the airwaves.

Man: Come on up front.

We saved a seat for you.

Curry: World-renowned radio personality Bob Boilen is at the station, hosting an event of his own invention.

Partridge: We're heading off to a listening party now, joining Bob Boilen and a group of listeners.

Welcome to the party.

Boilen: Good evening, everybody.

Welcome, and WOWD.

Everybody, WOWD!

[Cheering and applause] Ha ha!

Aw.

Welcome to Tonal Park.

Here's what we're doing in this listening party.

We're gonna play some amazing tunes for you.

Each DJ is gonna pick a song, we're gonna listen, and then you will hold up a number 1 through 10, and then I'm gonna go around the room after the DJ tells you a little about who we just heard, and we'll talk.

I want your honesty because that's where the fun happens, OK?

So we're not gonna tell you what you're about to hear, but let's play the first song.

♪ Rose Darling, come to me ♪ ♪ Snake Mary's gone to bed... ♪ Curry: If Boilen's name sounds familiar, it's likely because he's the visionary behind National Public Radio's "Tiny Desk Concerts," a globally celebrated series showcasing musicians, both famous and emerging, performing stripped-down versions of their music from behind Boilen's desk.

♪ And I have seen what I seen... ♪ Boilen: The intimacy of "Tiny Desk Concerts" was capturing people, and so I loved that and continued with that.

♪ ♪ September '75, I was 47 inches high ♪ ♪ My mom said by Christmas I would have... ♪ Boilen: At the point I left NPR, we'd done about 1,300 concerts total.

Anderson.Paak: ♪ You drank up all my liquor, come on... ♪ Van Etten: ♪ You don't do nothing that I do... ♪ Boilen: It's just been this thing for 40 years now.

♪ It's all you now.

Curry: While Boilen's desk became a stop on tours by internationally celebrated musicians... Jeff Tweedy: ♪ I've been lost, I've been found... ♪ Curry: it wasn't well-known pop stars that fueled his passion for "Tiny Desk concerts."

Boilen: The one thing I have a passion for is music and discovery, and so "Tiny Desk Concerts" was a way to expose people to new and unknown artists.

Isaksson & Tornqvist: ♪ With lots of money... ♪ Curry: Unknown artists are exactly who listening party DJs are invited to feature.

The downside of being a DJ is you never see your audience.

One of the beautiful things about the listening party is you get people in a room, and you see your community that you're talking to.

Isaksson & Tornqvist: ♪ Rose Darling ♪ ♪ Rose Darling... ♪ Boilen: It's such a wonderful thing to be able to take what you love and share it.

♪ All right.

Everybody ready?

Here comes the moment.

Raise your cards.

What do we got?

I see a lot of 8s and 7s and 9s, and I see a 3.

Better than I thought, you know.

Boilen: Ha ha ha!

Curry: The songs in the 90-minute event elicit a wide range of reactions.

It felt completely unproduced, and that felt very special.

It was very deep and rich without being boomy.

I found myself getting a little bit bored with the repetition, and then as soon as it shifted, I was like, "Oh, damn."

[Laughter] Boilen: There's not a right or wrong to music.

It's what hits you, what is it that draws you to a certain kind of music.

Curry: Boilen was drawn to music from an early age.

Boilen: I loved to go and discover music at music venues in D.C.

There are so many good ones.

I worked in record stores growing up in this area.

I got inspired by the punk movement and the new wave movement in the late seventies to buy a synthesizer and wound up forming a band called Tiny Desk Unit.

Singer: ♪ Xs, Xs, Xs, Xs, Xs, Xs, Xs, Xs ♪ ♪ Xs, Xs, Xs ♪ ♪ Xs, Xs, Xs, Xs, Xs ♪ ♪ Xs, Xs ♪ ♪ On to the next one.

♪ [Dalt singing in Spanish] ♪ Boilen: It's really interesting to hear the differences where someone might really love repetitive dance music that goes thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.

That's what gets them charged.

Some people just want music to be in the background.

Other people want it to be very much in the foreground, like myself.

[Singing in Spanish continues] ♪ [Tires squeal, glass breaks] Boilen: Wow, that took a dark turn.

[Laughter] Let's see numbers.

10s, 8s, 6, 7.

I see a 3.

Wow.

So, Clyde, that was a car ride that turned into a crash.

Clyde: That's right.

In this listening room, you could really hear the squeal of the tires and the impact of the car in a way that even with my headphones I didn't hear that before.

Woman: I don't enjoy those kinds of sounds.

It just wasn't pleasant.

Partridge: I loved that.

I like music that really bosses me around, right?

[Laughter] So I gave it an 11.

Clyde: Thank you, Marika.

Boilen: That's Marika, our station founder.

Curry: Marika Partridge and Bob Boilen first crossed paths at National Public Radio, which he joined in 1988.

Boilen: I was directing "All Things Considered," which was my favorite show on the planet.

One of the ways it happened was because Marika Partridge, who was directing "All Things Considered" when I started there, went off to start a new radio show.

Curry: Boilen stepped in for Partridge, hosting NPR's flagship news program "All Things Considered" during Partridge's year-long absence.

Partridge: When I returned, I wanted the job, but I didn't want it full-time.

Curry: They shared directing "All Things Considered" for over a decade.

At WOWD, they are working together again, this time in a different way.

Partridge: Job sharing means you're there, and he's not.

He's there, and you're not.

Now we work in a way that we get to see each other and take bird walks and listen to music and play music together.

♪ Curry: Boilen discovered WOWD when he heard Partridge DJing a variety show.

She was doing a ballads-in-the-morning show, and I thought, "This is really cool," and I texted her, and I said, um, "Wow, that's really good.

It'd be cool to have a radio show."

I just texted back.

I said, "Why don't you get your own radio show here?"

like, to my big friend and the big guy on the radio nationally, and he goes, "Oh, oh.

I didn't know I could do that."

Boilen: Check one.

Still working at NPR but took on a Wednesday morning radio show called "My Tiny Morning Show."

WOWD, everybody.

Welcome.

I'm really excited today because one of my very favorite bands of the 21st century announced a new album.

One of the things that excited me was that "My Tiny Morning Show" could be a mix of discovery but also make connections with the past and the music I was passionate about.

Curry: Partridge learned in 2011 about the Federal Communication Commission's new class of radio station called Low Power FM.

Partridge: I love radio, so when someone told me there was this opportunity that radio was gonna come and there could be a frequency here, I was all positioned to be the number-one cheerleader.

Curry: WOWD's community access is made possible by an FCC licensing program that activists had spent decades fighting for.

Man: We were up against some really powerful people.

The National Association of Broadcasters, NAB, is a very powerful lobby.

I believe we need to address broader issues, who controls our networks, who controls our newspapers, and who controls our radios.

Some of these corporations, they own, like, hundreds of broadcast stations around the country.

They have a place, but they need not take all the seats up at the table.

There ought to be room to feed others.

It's access of people to power, and even if it's low power, it has power.

Telecommunication reform has been about one thing.

It's been about competition.

It was like a dare.

"Can we actually beat these guys?

Can we get it done?"

And eventually it got done.

Partridge: The federal government is giving away airwaves.

You just have to fill out the form correctly, and you can have some.

That's a very ideal challenge for me.

Curry: Partridge called her neighbors to her house to strategize.

Partridge: We sat right here on the porch and talked about the vision, the idea, just the notion that we could bring radio here, and it seemed so good.

I was actually at the second meeting.

We sat around, and Marika, with her dynamic nature and her creativity and her inclusiveness, I just said, "I'm sticking with her.

"This radio idea, whatever happens with it, I want to be a part of it."

Curry: They began by earning the support of the community.

Partridge, on radio: Takoma Radio on the scene here in Takoma.

Partridge: We showed up at the street fairs and festivals.

We had a little donation box, and that said, "Takoma Radio," and people would walk by, and they'd say, "Takoma Radio?

we have a radio station?"

And we'd say, "Not yet, but if you'd like one, please donate, please," and eventually, um, Marika hand-made these T-shirts.

We would sell these at Takoma Street Fest... 4th of July, whatever, any event.

Right, just set up a table at the farmer's market, and we'd sell these handmade T-shirts, and by the time the FCC released the application -in 2015... -Mm-hmm.

we had a real base to start buying, you know-- The equipment.

♪ We went on the air in the summer of 2016.

Partridge, on radio: Good morning, world.

This is Takoma Radio, WOWD-LP, Takoma Park.

Woman: People in Takoma Park really respect our DJs and our radio station for thinking for ourselves.

The authenticity is what is so meaningful for the Takoma Park community.

We have a position of great importance as the only place that has an open door for the community to come in and make noise, the good kind of noise.

Yeah.

Curry: Randolph became WOWD's station manager, and in 2024, Boilen became program director.

Boilen: I teach the DJs how to run the board and also about talking to the audience.

When you're on the radio, you're sitting in a room by yourself, but you're talking to lots of people very personally.

We like to introduce you to new music.

Welcome to another episode of "Afrobeats Orbit."

Oh, my gosh, these people who work here are so passionate about the music they bring to the table, and then that goes out to the community, and that's really wonderful.

Where are we going next?

Hit it, Charlie.

♪ One of the wonderful things about working with Bob is he's such an ideas person.

He had an idea for a listening party, and I said, "Well, let's try it," and it's bringing people in.

[Short humming] Everybody ready?

OK.

This is good.

Woman: I like how the chorus sounds so intimate, you know, like he's kind of mumbling like he's singing to himself or he's singing, like, right to you.

That contrast between the highly beautifully produced kind of tight backdrop to that really relaxed, almost improvisatory vocal, it just created this beautiful soundscape.

Boilen: That was awesome.

Now, there were a few people that didn't like it.

Is that OK if I call you out?

Man: OK. You can call me out.

Um... [Laughter] I like a lot of music, a lot of jam, and it was just words over top of words over top of words, and that turns me off.

Boilen: I love the way the same thing hits people differently, and that intimacy is what I remember so much when I had my little Westinghouse transistor radio to my ear growing up and what I love about radio.

Washington, D.C., hasn't had great radio for many years.

I'm so proud of this crew and this station, so happy to be a part of it, and I'm happy that you're all here in this audience tonight.

Thank you so much for coming.

[Applause] Griffin: It was a lot of fun.

You never know what people are gonna think.

This station is so important to me because it is the heart of this community.

Randolph: I'm just always so wowed with what the DJs draw out of people and also what Bob draws out of people.

Boilen: Did you see how receptive people were to all sorts of music?

Our audience has big ears, and I love that.

Curry: If you're outside WOWD 94.3 FM's 5-mile broadcast range, go to takomaradio.org for more information on how to livestream and even play past programs.

While you're there, sign up for the newsletter to learn about upcoming listening parties and other events.