Erin Yanke, 37, is the Youth Advocate at KBOO Community Radio in Portland, OR. She is one of the hosts of Life During Wartime, a late night punk show, and a part of the Circle A Radio Collective.
Erin did her first radio show at the age of 15 at a Community radio station similar to KBOO and was involved with her college radio station by 18. She was attracted to radio because it helped her discover how big the world could be, mostly through the punk rock shows on KDVS, and radio stations out of the San Francisco Bay Area.
She explains, “I was a DJ and engineer, and when I moved to Portland in 1994 I came immediately to KBOO and began volunteering. We were still editing with reel-to-reel tape and razor blades at that time. I think about that, and the way that computers and Digital Editing have revolutionized the ability for people to be citizen reporters, and do-it-yourself artists and archivists, and it blows my mind. I’m sure my past helps me do my job well, but the thing that I think is more important is that I am still a volunteer here.”
In the non-radio parts of her life, Erin plays drums in the punk rock band Social Graces, works as a house cleaner, lives collectively, reads voraciously, and hangs out.