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Meet the KMFA Music Hosts
Jeffrey Blair
(Weekdays, 6:00 am - 10:00 am)
Jeffrey has always known that music was in his blood. He eagerly began developing his affinity for audio production from a tender young age spending countless hours creating 'radio shows' on an old cassette recorder. Jeffrey brings over 20 years of radio expertise to KMFA, and as Production Manager he has produced, recorded and engineered countless live and in-studio performances of local, regional, national and well known talents. In this way he can best deliver his passion for the many sounds of music.
Jeffrey's other interests include the artistry of baseball, organic gardening, exercising his culinary muscle and working on his 1971 VW bus affectionately known as Grateful Phred.
Dianne Donovan
(Weekdays, 10:00 am - 2:00 pm)
Montreal born Dianne Donovan lives and breathes music, whether she is behind the microphone announcing or singing. One of Dianne's earliest memories is of marching around the living room to Ravel's Bolero. Having studied music with an emphasis on vocal jazz performance, she has been a radio announcer/programmer for twenty years - producing classical, jazz and eclectic programs.
When she's not "on the air" or producing Classical Austin for KMFA, you may catch Dianne singing with the Beat Divas or with the Austin Jazz Workshop. Her motto, "So little time, so much music."
Rich Upton
(Weekdays, 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm)
After stints with three other Austin radio stations, KKMJ, KOKE and KFON, as well as serving as News Director at KLSN in Brownwood, Texas - afternoon host Rich Upton joined KMFA in 1989 at the invitation of then-program-director Scott Dawes.
In addition to acting as KMFA's Operations Manager, Rich is also an accomplished guitarist, singer and writer of pop songs.
Sara Hessel
(Weekdays, 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm)
Sara Hessel is a native of the Detroit area, and learned to love classical music by osmosis as a child since her Mom listened all the time! Later, Sara earned a Master's degree in Historical Musicology from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. KMFA listeners will already know Sara as the producer and host of Ancient Voices, KMFA's early music program. Though she is a self-professed 'early music nut', Sara enjoys many types of music, including classical music from all eras, jazz and 70's rock.
When not on the air or searching the Kent Kennan Memorial Library at KMFA for hidden gems, Sara enjoys cooking, tennis and playing her digital harpsichord.
Jack Allen
Part-Time Announcer
Jack Allen wears many hats at KMFA, but none more proudly than that as listener's advocate. One of the founding voices in 1995 of Classical 24 out of Minnesota Public Radio, he chatted via satellite across 7 time zones on national radio about his life-long love of classical music. Now he happily spins CD's at KMFA in Central Texas. Originally from Dallas, he grew up back East in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia where he discovered the Canon of Western music right along with country ham in red-eye gravy, Appalachian & Bluegrass recordings, and Civil War history. When not talking on the radio or painting the halls of KMFA, he can be found walking his boxer Max, writing essays or creating a dish in his kitchen.
Leanna Holmquist
(Saturdays, 12:00 pm - 6:00 pm)
Leanna Holmquist has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Radio-Television-Film from the University of Texas. She worked at various commercial radio stations in Austin before joining KMFA in 2005. She is originally from upstate New York, but loves Austin and considers it home.
Katherine Tanney
(Sundays, 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm)
Katherine Tanney has worked in radio since 2002 as a producer, interviewer, and music host. She is also a published novelist and journalist whose column about Austin literary events, "Please Don't Feed The Writers," appears in the Austin American-Statesman the second Sunday of each month. Her love of classical music began a young teen studying piano and blossomed during her many visits to hear the Los Angeles Philharmonic with her grandmother, who, incidentally, purchased and lived in Rachmaninoff's Beverly Hills home in the decades following his death.
Laurie Turner
Evening Announcer, Night Air
Born and raised in Kentucky, Laurie was influenced early on by the indigenous folk music of the Appalachian foothills. As a preacher's kid and daughter of professional singers, she also developed a deep respect for choral and sacred music. Laurie has a degree in fine art and psychology eventually adding graduate work in Radio, Television & Film, with a focus on writing and drama. She moved to Texas in the late 80's and soon discovered Austin, a city containing opportunities to express virtually all of her creative pursuits. When not on the air at KMFA, she records and sings with the Steve Weichert Band, writes and performs her own songs, studies life drawing, and practices Bikram yoga.
David Crews
(Saturdays, Sundays 7:00 am - 10:00 am)
David Crews energized his life-long enthusiasm for classical music when he became Classical Music Director and announcer for his college radio station in Odessa, Texas, where he grew up. David also played percussion, including tympani, where he was once conducted by Frederick Fennell. Since that time, he has pursued a successful career in broadcast and cable television production. He is also a composer, recording artist, voice talent (including the Austin Symphony’s television and radio spots), author, and world traveler with a special interest in Amazonian shamanism. In his spare time, he owns his own video post-production and music company, CrewsCreative.
Phil Pollack
Part-Time Announcer
Phil Pollack has found many outlets for his love of music, whether it be in performing, studying, or simply enjoying all of the myriad forms that music takes. After complementing that love with technical training in computer engineering, he moved to Austin and almost immediately got involved with KMFA. He is an avid supporter of public radio, and considers it an honor to be involved. When not busying himself around KMFA, Phil enjoys reading, gaming, hiking, and camping.
Bob Christiansen
(Monday - Tuesdays 10:00 pm - 12:00 am)
(Friday 8:00 pm - 12:00 am)
(Saturday - Sunday 10:00 pm - 11:00 pm)
Bob Christiansen has been an announcer and program director for nearly 30 years. He teamed up with Bill Morelock while at Northwest Public Radio, and became part of the nationally distributed Bob & Bill, which won a CPB program award in 1989. In addition to his current work in classical programming, Christiansen hosts shifts on Minnesota Public Radio's classical music stations, including hosting The Opera, a weekly program devoted to one of his personal weaknesses.
Gillian Martin
(Saturdays, Sundays 5:00 am - 8:00 am)
Gillian is an enthusiastic if unskilled gardener and lives in a household where pets outnumber people 2:1. She got her start in classical radio while completing a music degree at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. She's also worked as an actor, a teacher, an arts administrator and one of the best nonprofit bookkeepers you're likely to meet. Gillian has a BA in music history and an MA in theater history. She has ten years of on-air broadcasting experience, eight of which were in classical music.
John Zech
(Weekdays, 5:00 am - 6:00 am)
Composers Datebook host John Zech has been a classical music announcer, producer, and program host for more than 20 years. He has also been a narrator and voice talent for a wide variety of industrial and educational tapes, an audio producer/engineer for an educational publishing company, video project director for a foreign language translation firm, and an on-site interpreter for the Minnesota Historical Society.
In addition to his work on Composers Datebook, John also hosted the radio series The Composer's Voice, a series profiling contemporary composers co-produced by Minnesota Public Radio and the American Composers Forum for Public Radio International.
John is currently heard weekends on the classical music stations of Minnesota Public Radio and on Classical 24, a live 24-hour classical music service produced by American Public Media and distributed by Public Radio International.
Scott Blankenship
(Tuesday 12:00 am - 5:00 am)
(Saturday - Sunday 11:00 pm - 5:00 am)
Scott Blankenship started his radio career in college when he began working as a volunteer at a local cable radio station, announcing alternative and new rock music. His love and appreciation of classical music began at public radio station KVNO in Omaha, where he spent 13 years in various on-air and management roles, five of those years as the morning drive-time host.
Indications that radio was in his blood go back to age five, when he used a corkboard and a battered phonograph as a make-shift radio studio, his father's Air Force issue flashlight served as his "on air" light. In his spare time, Blankenship is an avid cyclist and amateur playwright with several produced scripts to his credit.
Alison Young
(Wednesdays 8:00 pm - 12:00 am)
(Thursdays 10:00 pm - 12:00pm)
Prior to joining "Classical 24," Young served as an assistant producer for KUHF-FM in Houston for "The Front Row" and was host for KUHF's "Sunday Afternoon Concert." She enjoyed a successful career as a concert flutist, performing as a guest with the Boston Symphony and with the Atlanta Symphony. An intrepid traveler, she has given recitals in the United States, Europe, South America and Asia while managing to climb a mountain or two in the process. She also served as the principal flutist with the Houston Ballet Orchestra.
Young began her broadcast life at Houston Public Radio answering phones during fundraising campaigns. While an illness cut her performing career short, she made a vibrant artistic transition, making the natural move to broadcasting. She says, "the intellectual stimulation of speaking with dancers, writers, artists, actors and musicians is extremely rewarding." She received her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Southern California and a master's degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music.
Ward Jacobson
(Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 12:00 am - 5:00 am)
Ward Jacobson has enjoyed a radio career spanning over two decades as a morning show host and sportscaster, as well as producer/host of an interview program where he chatted up both local and national authors, musicians, politicians and newsmakers. He is also a past winner of the prestigious Marconi Award. Jacobson's love of classical music stems from a childhood influenced by his bass-baritone father and piano-teaching mother. While still a college student in Nebraska, he began singing with the Abendmusik Chorus and took part in concert tours to venues as varied as England's Lincoln Cathedral, the Vatican, Salzburg Cathedral, Auschwitz and Moscow. When not singing, he works to develop his guitar-strumming repertoire
