/Courtesy of AJ Paschka
The Grand Rapids Community Media Center is pleased to announce that AJ Paschka has accepted a position as the new station manager for community radio station WYCE. Paschka currently works as the Exhibitions Curator at the UICA, and will be moving to his new position in October.
A 2001 graduate of Kendall College of Art and Design, Paschka has also worked as Manager of Digital Media for the Grand Rapids Art Museum and as a freelance web designer. His responsibilities at UICA and the GRAM have included event production and booking, project management and experience design. Paschka has been playing and recording music since his childhood. Personally, he produces music and collects an eclectic range of artists, and professionally he has set up live performances, created programming and recorded acts for a variety of musical groups and nonprofit organizations. Paschka was also a 5x5 Night grant winner in 2011 for Weather Collage, an app using real time meteorology data.
Tom Clinton, Executive Director of the CMC, explained that Paschka’s multidisciplinary background was a key factor in the decision to hire him.
“AJ has a deep passion for music history and production, but also brings with him extensive experience in audience engagement projects for arts organizations. He has demonstrated an understanding of the need for WYCE to reach out to new audiences through collaboration with other CMC platforms and local arts organizations,” says Clinton.
“The focus of my career consistently comes back to nurturing audiences through the technical transmission of the empowered creative voice,” says Paschka. “The power in creating and nurturing this relationship between audience and artist is vital to a community.”
In addition to WYCE, the CMC’s media platforms include public access television station GRTV, Wealthy Theatre, and The Rapidian, an online hyperlocal news source with news written primarily by citizen journalists. The CMC also provides web design and media production services to non-profits, and offers an extensive education program in media literacy and production.
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