West Marin County’s KWMR officially went on the air on May 2, 1999. The first sounds heard on the station came from the David Thom Bluegrass Band playing in the Red Barn, but for several years before KWMR became a licensed radio station, people in the area known as “West County” had been putting on radio shows, delivered via the local cable TV system.
The idea for the station had been born in 1994, when community activists including Donna Sheehan, James Starke, John Goldthourpe and Richard Dillman started talking about a need for a local radio outlet to serve their remote community. Cablecasting began in the fall of 1995, just about the time the Mt. Vision Fire scorched more than 12,000 acres in the area. The fire knocked out the cable TV system and drove home a reality of radio: it can be a lifeline in times of disaster.
Incorporated as West Marin Community Radio, the group obtained a construction permit from the Federal Communications Commission in July 1998. The station’s transmitter would be situated at 1300′ on Mt. Vision, adjacent to the Pt. Reyes VORTAC radio navigation station that guides many aircraft along the West Coast.
The station’s meager 320-watt signal wasn’t strong enough to cover all of West County, so repeaters were eventually installed in Bolinas and in the San Geronimo Valley. The combined signals reach an estimated 14,000 potential listeners as well as tourists and visitors who often descend on the bucolic region.
From the start, programming was eclectic and largely home-brewed. KWMR describes itself as a “vital local institution that serves as a lifeline during emergencies, a hub of local journalism, and a vibrant platform for diverse voices.” By 2025, the station said it was regularly broadcasting 90 different locally-produced programs and 26 syndicated shows over the course of a two-week rotation.
Widespread flooding in 2005 and another major Marin County fire, the Woodward Fire of 2020, gave the station a chance to deliver on its promise as a source of disaster information. Updates on the Woodward Fire, which broke out during the Covid pandemic, were delivered every half-hour — often from volunteers’ in-home setups — reaching residents who had no access to the internet or cellular phone service.
Funding is largely from the local community, offering enough money for the station to employ two full-time and five part-time members as of 2025. Federal funding cuts for public broadcasting triggered by the Rescissions Act of 2025 shaved an estimated $160,000 from the station’s operating budget, forcing a bigger-than-usual fundraising push.
