DJ has pumped up airplay for women’s music for 20 years

GOSHEN, Ind. – “Women’s music.”\nWilma Harder uses finger quotes when she describes the first time she’d ever considered the idea.\nIt was at Goshen College in the 1980s. A women’s association was taking over the school’s radio station for the night, putting female artists on the airwaves.\nHarder was intrigued.\nA graduate of Goshen College with a degree in art, Harder grew up in a Mennonite family, on a farm in Minnesota. As a girl, she listened to classical, hymns, gospel, folk – and as much radio as she could.\nShe’d also taken a broadcasting class for fun.\nIt turned out to be handy. Soon, she was the one on the late-night shift at WGCS-FM (91.9) – and she was playing that broad, neglected category: women’s music.\nShe later took the gig to WVPE, and her show – “A Women’s Circle” – was born. It thrived for a few years there (earning more money per hour than any other show during pledge drives) but was canceled along with most other local programming in 1990, to make way for NPR.\n“I just thought it was done,” Harder said. “I was devastated. It meant so much to me, and it meant so much to lots of people.”\nThen, a year later, WGCS came calling, with an offer to put “A Women’s Circle” back on the air.\nThis time, it stuck. The program is now celebrating its 20th anniversary.\nIn all her time on the radio (an estimated 1,000 shows), Harder said her vision of “A Women’s Circle” hasn’t changed. Her initial inspiration still stands.\n“I was tired of the type of music that was being played,” she said. “I knew there were a lot of songs addressing social issues, and I wanted to give those musicians a wider voice than they were getting.”\nThe lack of women’s voices was, of course, an issue, too.\n“I’d gone to lots of women’s festivals and heard a lot of music that you’d never heard on the radio,” she said.\nBack then, she said, she’d turn on the radio and hear “maybe two women all day.”\nThat didn’t seem right.\nHarder set out to do something about it. She played women, but she also played songs about serious issues. She might have an entire show that addressed racism or sexism or homophobia.\nTwo decades later, she’s still doing it. Her easygoing voice can be heard at 6 p.m. each Sunday introducing songs by such artists as Kate Wolf, Prudence Johnson and the Indigo Girls.\nTwo decades later, it’s still possible to turn on a radio station and hear what Harder initially complained of: “maybe two women all day.”\nChili Walker, the program director for WZOW-FM (97.7), is on the air from 6 to 10 a.m. weekday mornings.\nSo what’s the average number of female artists he plays in that four-hour time slot?\n“Zero,” Walker said.\nAnd according to Billy Elvis, program director for WRBR-FM (98.9), The Bear, and WFWI-FM (92.3), The Fort, radio has “an old rule of thumb” when it comes to female artists.\nPlaying them back to back is considered “almost poison.”\nWalker said with his program, it has to do with format. The show is targeted at men. Plus, it falls under the “new classic rock” tag – ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. Under that definition, Janis Joplin is oldies. Somehow, Heart and Fleetwood Mac get lost in the mix.\nBut does Walker himself listen to female artists?\n“Very much so,” he said, “and other radio stations I’ve worked for, I’ve tried to champion women.”