Chico Speaks - Local arts, culture, and community stories produced through KZFR 90.1 FM.
"Chico Speaks" is a City of Chico Arts grant-funded radio and podcast initiative that helped local nonprofit organizations develop, record, and distribute original audio programming. KZFR partnered with the Museum of Northern California Art (MONCA) and GAME AMP P.L.A.Y. to produce two distinct five-episode series during the 2025/26 grant period.
MONCA Unframed premiered March 2026 Produced with the Museum of Northern California Art, this five-episode series highlights local visual artists, exhibitions, museum programs, and Northern California’s arts community. Click HERE to listen.
“Many thanks to KZFR for enabling monca to create a MONCA Unframed podcast making Chico and the surrounding communities more aware of our goals, our journey and our vision. For most of us, this was a first time challenge creating a story without pictures! As a museum, we are so used to letting the art inform the viewer while for a podcast we needed to tell the stories and open up minds. New challenges are always good and working together as a team to communicate our story was good practice.
It was fairly easy knowing what we wanted to tell in our monca story but cutting it down to workable sections and staying in a time frame when passion for the museum is often overwhelming was the most worrisome part. We are so grateful for you and the staff making us feel welcome and comfortable learning a new “job” and helping us fine-tune it for the listeners.
We did hear some very positive remarks and we know this has sent our message out to a broader audience that might not have known us before. Do I think it was worthwhile? Most definitely . . . both from the production side and the audience side. Getting out of one’s comfort zone is always good!” - Patricia Macias, Executive Director of the Museum of Northern California Art (monca)
