Three proud Palmyra residents, Diamond Thomas, Deborah DeLaine and Valerie Stancil have found a place where they can make a difference and lend their voices to the airwaves as contributors to WCMD Radio, a station run out of a studio in Camden.
WCMD, established in January, is just one branch of a larger collective known as the Dare Academy, a group of organizations housed at the former site of MetEast High School.
Along with the radio station, Dare Academy runs programs like Dare 2 Dance, Dare 2 Flip (a gymnastics program) and CYLAB (Community Youth Leadership Advisory Board) to name just a few.
“Dare Academy was formed to be a resource to restore the city of Camden. It is a campus atmosphere with a plethora of programs where we plan to heal, excite, prepare and educate our youth and community,” reads a banner on the academy’s website.
Although they have a few remote contributors, most of WCMD’s show hosts and staff are based in Camden and its surrounding areas.
“It came from a love of New Jersey,” said Thomas.
A longtime radio host before coming to WCMD, Thomas acts as the general manager of the station, bringing years of experience hosting The Diamond Blackout Show on various platforms like Boom 103.9 Philly to the table.
According to Thomas, he was originally approached by Anthony Ways, who established C.A.N.D.O (Camden African Neighborhood Development Organization), another organization under the Dare Academy umbrella, and Nyemah Gillespie, founder of Dare 2 Dance.
“They were seeking to partner up with someone who knew radio, who knew how to reach out to people and help design a narrative. Something alternative to what we were hearing all the time,” said Thomas.
When they started putting the studio together in January, Thomas says the space was a bare shell. No paint on the walls, no heat, insufficient lighting and no equipment.
“We were patching in calls from our cell phones and going live from an iPad,” said Thomas. “We’ve come a long way since January.”
Since those “wild west” days, as he calls them, WCMD has established itself as a fully-functioning, fully-staffed broadcasting studio.
Many of their hosts are relatively new to the medium, and Thomas has been more than happy to shepherd them along and help them find a voice. He describes the atmosphere like a college learning experience.
“Some people use it as therapy, some as a creative outlet, there are many different reasons why people want to host their own show so I try to keep in mind that it’s important to not have such a heavy hand, but to guide. My job is to guide those who are interested in this,” said Thomas.
Each host brings a unique voice and program to the station. Shows deliver everything from music and entertainment to talk and advice.
Stancil was inspired to start hosting her health and wellness show, Who Ordered These Shoes?, on WCMD after her husband passed as a result of pulmonary arterial hypertension, a rare lung disease.
“I wanted a platform to be able to disseminate information about my husband’s passing,” said Stancil. “I wanted to be able to bring more awareness to pulmonary arterial hypertension, especially in the ethnic community, because some of the diseases found in ethnic populations can lead to pulmonary arterial hypertension.”
She uses her health and science degrees as well as her certifications in holistic health to guide people into taking better care of themselves. She also speaks with other women who have similarly experienced the loss of a loved one.
“That’s my biggest thing, to let women know that there is life after loss, there is life after death. When you’re going through it, you can’t see that. I was in that same situation so I want to let them know that you can live again,” said Stancil.
The name of her show comes from the idea that while we don’t ask for a lot of the things that happen in our lives, it’s how we deal with these things and grow from the experience that makes all the difference.
“I didn’t plan on being a widow at this age, I didn’t order that. None of the things that happen in life are ordered,” said Stancil.
DeLaine occupies a more administrative role in the studio, keeping things organized and helping to keep the female hosts motivated. Her work at the studio marries some of her biggest passions in life: music, event planning and entertainment.
“Basically I’m helping keep the files together and I motivate a lot of the female hosts that are unsure about broadcasting. I give them motivation and that push to get out there,” said DeLaine.
For more information about WCMD, check out wcmdradio.com. You can listen to shows like Thomas’ The Diamond Blackout Show or Stancil’s Who Ordered These Shoes? on the website or by downloading the Live365 Radio app.
