It’s early afternoon at Kuba Kuba, and the place is buzzing. Coffee cups clatter, plates hit the counter, and over it all, Melissa Vaughn is already in motion. Before we’ve even ordered our food, she’s out of her chair, greeting someone at the table next to us like a long-lost friend, leaning in to compliment another patron on their work.
Melissa doesn’t just walk into a room, she expands it.
That presence has carried Richmond’s independent radio station, WRIR 97.3FM, through some of its most precarious years. But as we sat down that day, Melissa, myself, and Bridé Baker, who will be stepping into the role of interim president, there was an edge of gravity beneath her boundless energy. Melissa is facing down metastatic breast cancer, a fight that has spread into her liver, bones, and spine.
You’d never know it. She is quick with a joke, eager to lift up others, and relentless in her vision. “I live, eat, sleep, breathe WRIR,” she told me. “It’s been my life’s work.”
—> Before we go any further, consider donating to the WRIR 97.3FM Capital Drive HERE
Re-Building a Station in a Pandemic
Melissa officially became WRIR’s president and executive director on January 23, 2020. Less than two months later, the city, and the world, shut down.
“Basically, I inherited a 40-hour-a-week job for free,” she said with a grin that only halfway masked the weight of that statement. “I was running a nonprofit and a radio station. Every day I was loading prerecorded shows, managing volunteers, paying the bills, networking, fundraising, and answering texts from DJs at 3 a.m. who couldn’t get their shows to upload. It was constant.”
The pandemic made everything harder. Shared microphones, crowded studios, and live fund drives suddenly carried risk. Melissa had to reinvent how WRIR functioned, teaching DJs to record from home, setting up remote workflows, and enforcing cleaning protocols. “We never had a COVID outbreak,” she said with pride. “Not once. That’s because our volunteers took care of each other.”
Survival, though, wasn’t enough. From the beginning, Melissa wanted the station to reflect the city it served. “When I came in, I said volunteer satisfaction was the number one priority. I was told it didn’t matter, that we’d always have volunteers. But that’s not true anymore. People know what their time is worth. If you don’t respect it, you lose them.”
She fought to reshape the board and programming to look more like Richmond itself queer, femme, and people of color at every level of leadership. “Our board is full of working artists, small business owners, DJs, photographers, writers. Nobody’s just there for a résumé line. It’s a working board, and that’s exactly how it should be.”
The Dream: A New Station
Now, that vision is becoming concrete at 1806 East Main Street in Shockoe Bottom, where WRIR is building a new million-dollar station.
“My dream is that if someone in the community wants to share something, they can ring our bell, walk in, push a button, and record a message for the city,” Melissa said. “I want that space to be Richmond’s voice.”
The new building will feature accessible studios (a sharp contrast to what staff jokingly call the current “stairs of doom”), a live performance room overlooking Main Street, and open spaces for the community to gather. There’s even talk of Sunday “jazz yoga” sessions, a nod to WRIR’s beloved weekend programming.
It’s ambitious, and expensive. “We launched our capital campaign last November,” Melissa explained. “The construction crew had to start before we had all the money in place, so now we’re racing to catch up. It’s nearly a million dollars for construction and equipment, plus another million to build an endowment that will let us hire staff and sustain the station long-term.”
That endowment, Melissa believes, is key. “We need at least three employees an executive director, a volunteer coordinator, and a station manager. Volunteers are incredible, but you need staff who will stay and give the station continuity. That’s how a good nonprofit should run.”
Passing the Mic
That responsibility now shifts to Bridé Baker, who has been part of WRIR’s world since 2016. She started as a volunteer, served on the board, and helped steer the organization through its latest chapter.
“Regardless of the title, your first job at WRIR is people leader,” she told me. “You set the tone, the culture. For me, that means gratitude. Any effort, any time you give, matters. Thank you for being part of WRIR, that’s the most important thing.”
Baker’s vision is both idealistic and pragmatic. She wants WRIR to remain fiercely independent, but she’s blunt about the realities of funding. “Ideologically, WRIR can’t be bought,” she said. “But at the end of the day, the most important thing is that WRIR exists. If that means we’re in a beautiful new building, that’s great. If it means we’re back in a basement, so be it. Priority one is getting WRIR into that new home.”
She also dreams of a day when WRIR’s programming is entirely Richmond-made, with the sole exception of Democracy Now! “That’s irreplaceable,” she said. “But beyond that, I want every show to come from Richmond voices. That’s how the community knows it’s theirs.”
A Fight on Two Fronts
Melissa, meanwhile, is confronting a much more personal challenge.
“I have very aggressive metastatic breast cancer,” she said, matter-of-factly. “It’s in my liver, my spine, my ribs, my pelvic bone. I’m about to go into heavy chemo. It could be six months, it could be a year, I don’t know. But my doctors told me I had to retire because I work too much.”
Even in this, she refuses to slow down completely. “I’ll still be a DJ. I’ll still be at events when I can. I just want to be Melissa Vaughn, community member. I want to go to shows and not be networking, not be president of WRIR, just be there for the music, for my comrades.”
Her activism won’t disappear, either. She speaks openly about genetic testing, about cancer rates rising in younger people, about the inequities of Medicaid requirements. “I can’t not be an activist,” she said. “I’m a natural educator. Even while I’m going through chemo, I’ll be raising awareness.”
A Legacy Continues
When I asked what she was most proud of, Melissa didn’t hesitate. “I’m proud that WRIR looks like Richmond now. I’m proud of the volunteers who’ve come together to change the culture. And I’m proud that we’re getting a permanent home. It’s truly independent. Nobody will ever have to worry again that we don’t have a home.”
And in true Melissa fashion, she’s left her mark in a way that mixes humor with heart. The downstairs bathroom of the new station will be known as the Melissa M Vaughn memorial Unicorn Powder Room, complete with a mural by local artist Frankie and a portrait of Melissa handing you a roll of toilet paper. “That way they don’t have to change the plaque when I die,” she joked.
It’s a reminder of what Melissa has always brought to WRIR: honesty, irreverence, and a relentless belief in community.
As Bridé Baker takes the reins, WRIR stands at a crossroads. But it’s a crossroads built on the foundation Melissa laid, one that insists Richmond deserves media that is by and for its people.
“I don’t regret a thing,” Melissa said, her fire sign energy radiating even through the weight of her diagnosis. “I’ve given everything I can. Now it’s their WRIR.”
Main photo of Melissa Vaughn and Bridé Baker at Kuba Kuba by R. Anthony Harris
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WRIR 97.3FM: A Timeline for The Story
- 2005 – WRIR 97.3FM launches on the airwaves in Richmond, Virginia. Founded as a true community station, run entirely by volunteers and funded by listeners.
- 2005–2015 – Station grows its reputation for eclectic programming: world music, jazz, hip hop, punk, experimental, and Richmond-centric talk shows.
- 2016 – Melissa Vaugh joins WRIR as volunteer coordinator, quickly taking on increasing responsibilities.
- 2018 – Bridé Baker, originally from Denmark, volunteers at WRIR before moving abroad; she stays connected by producing shows remotely and returns to Richmond around the pandemic.
- 2020 (January 23) – Melissa elected President and Executive Director. Within weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic forces WRIR to reinvent its operations: prerecorded shows, remote production, and new cleaning protocols. Not a single COVID outbreak occurs in the station.
- 2020–2023 – Melissa and the board expand WRIR’s inclusivity, making leadership majority femme, queer, and people of color. Volunteer satisfaction becomes a central mission.
- 2021–2023 – Despite a personal breast cancer diagnosis, Melissa continues to run WRIR full-time as a volunteer, managing programming, fundraising, and outreach. She also begins producing her own music show, Unicorn Power.
- 2023 (November) – WRIR launches its first major capital campaign: nearly $1 million to build a new community station and another $1 million for equipment and endowment.
- 2024 – Construction begins at 1806 East Main Street in Shockoe Bottom. The new building will feature performance spaces, modern studios, and accessible design, a sharp contrast to the “stairs of doom” at the current space.
- 2025 (Fall) – Bridé Baker prepares to take over as Executive Director, while Melissa steps back to focus on her health but remains a DJ and community advocate.
- 2026 (Projected) – Grand opening of the new WRIR station, envisioned as a 24-hour staffed community hub where anyone can record and share messages, host events, and make Richmond’s voices heard.
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