Retirement from radio not enough for Mike August

When people start retirement, they can vision themselves on their back porch sitting enjoying the golden years.

Despite coming to Wimberley following retirement, the rocking chair just wasn’t comfortable enough for Mike August.

Instead, what followed was helping establish the radio station now known as KWVH as well as hosting his own show on Saturday’s “Rootin Around.”

Starting his radio career in Houston, August was soon bitten by the radio bug during the days of his youth.

“It began when I was a teenager,” August said. “The radio was a personal listening device, and I had the opportunity to go to one of the stations in Houston where I was growing up. I visited there and helped do street promotions when I was 15 years old at the time. I was just bitten by the bug. I would go out and do ‘Party Patrol’ where we would bring new records to a party and give them away then call in to the radio station and do a remote (broadcast) from the party while just talking to people. That is where it all got started, and I started doing more and more.”

As August went to college and later into television, his love for the radio industry never waned.

“When I went off to college, I decided to study radio, TV and film,” August said. “I started volunteering at the community radio station in Houston called KPFT and really enjoyed myself. Later on I moved into television, but I always kinda missed radio.”

That passion soon came back when he saw a particular flier when moving to Wimberley following retirement.

“So when I moved closer to retirement, I started looking for things to do,” August said. “I moved to Wimberley about nine years ago and one of things I did was go to the Chamber of Commerce to find ways to keep busy, because I wasn’t ready for the rocking chair. I then saw a flier about some people wanting to start a radio station even though they didn’t have a broadcasting license, so I decided, since I have worked in broadcasting, that this was a way to get back into radio, which I had missed for all of those years.”

Helping kickstart KWVH in the early years, including surviving the time the radio station broadcast license was put on hold due to the 2015 floods, what was just an idea has now become a reality.

“When I first got involved, it was just an idea,” August said. “Now the things that we dream about, such as a good clean traffic system, which keeps the system on the air and keeps all the messages and programming organized… It’s now gone from an idea and all these dreams to now one by one it is all materializing because of the support of the community.”

That support from the community is something that makes August happy as the entire Wimberley Valley helped build the small town radio station.

“To me it is really gratifying to see how the community has rallied around the radio station,” August said. “It seems like people realize how important it is to have a little radio station that serves their needs with that kind of information. It’s what I call hyperlocal in that most of the programming is created right here by volunteers, which is very relevant to the residents of the Wimberley Valley community. It’s a unique source of information that is not available otherwise.”

As for his show “Rootin Around,” August felt like his show could help strengthen the connection between the community and the station.

“The radio show is in its second year since the fall of 2020,” August said. “One of the things that I’ve felt about community radio is that the more people it can touch on a personal basis, the better and more solid that connection is going to be with the community. So I came up with this concept of asking people with my goal of being able to invite everyone in Wimberley to participate in this.”

One of his segments includes inviting somebody from the Wimberley community to talk about their favorite songs that mean the most to them.

For August, the segment gives a little snapshot into the Wimberley Valley.

“In the traditional DJ show, the DJ picks out all the sounds and tries to hope those tunes will appeal to their audience,” August said. “I’m basically giving up 30 minutes of a two hour show to get people to compile a list of their favorite songs, usually about three to five, that hold a special meaning to them and then come on the air and listen and talk about those songs. By this fall, the show should have had at least 100 people from Wimberley come on the show… One of the things I like doing if somebody is working with a nonprofit organization, I invite them to come on as well as talk about their list of songs to talk about then ask them about their organizations that help… It’s really a snapshot of the people I run across from city council members, and just all kinds of folks.”

The one thing August has realized is that many of the song choices his guests make show how much the songs that they listen to are either influenced by their parents or how a particular song can unlock special memory.

“It’s interesting because one of the things that I’ve really learned is how the music our parents listen to influences us in our choice of music,” August said. “It’s an ongoing thing that, overtime, musical experiences unlock memories that everyone has. Just hearing a song can put you in a place of time in your past and just crystallizes that moment in time.”

In the end, August is happy that many residents can come on his show. His end goal is to have everyone in the Wimberley Valley to be on the radio.

“It’s great that people can come on the radio and share their stories with their neighbors,” August said. “If I can identify with a lot of the stories then there are a lot of people in the audience that can identify with that too. My optimistic goal is to have everyone in Wimberley to be on the show. It might take years to accomplish but it’s a good goal to shoot for.”

“Really the radio station should be a reflection of the entire Wimberley Valley community.”

If you want to be a part of the “Rootin Around” radio show, contact Mike August through his email at [email protected].