Amy Jolley Odenwalder joined the Classical 89 line-up in February 2006.  Before that she enjoyed the privilege of being the assistant to Classical 89’s General Manager, Walter Rudolph.  Amy grew up in Mentor, Ohio where her mother began her a great love for classical music by playing WCLV in the house constantly.  As a kid her favorite game to play was “In the Hall of the Mountain King” where she would run in circles to Grieg’s music and then pretend to die at the end.  She started taking piano lessons when she was eight years old and then two years later decided that the flute was a much better instrument.  With her flute she participated in many honor orchestras and band even winning a couple of flute competitions.  In college she studied flute with George Pope at the University of Akron for a couple of years before transferring to Brigham Young University to finish her degree.  Upon graduating, she moved to Los Angeles to find a job somewhere in the classical music field.  She interviewed with KUSC in Los Angeles and unfortunately didn’t get that position, but was fascinated with the idea of working for a classical radio station.   So she started volunteering with KUSC and looking for a position in radio and one opened up at Classical 89 she got it and now loves it!   

Roselle Anderson Hamblin had a stint at Classical 89 during her undergraduate work at BYU. She describes being a one-woman show: taking a phone request, dashing into the library to find the big LP, cueing it up on the turntable while devouring the liner notes, introducing it live, then taking the next call and starting all over again…

After returning to Classical 89 thirty years later, Rosie loves classical music even more. She credits her mother, Carma, for taking her out of school for every concert imaginable, her father Richard’s example of serious listening, lessons from her grandfather Gerrit deJong, studies in early music at BYU and Stanford, her ancient instrument ensemble Ars Pro Gaudio, and attending hundreds of harp lessons for her four daughters. She’s been on a personal quest to experience the breadth of musical styles in concert everywhere she has lived, including New York, Salzburg, and Spring City. Does this sound like a T-shirt?

Some of her favorite musical memories are attending Easter Service at the Basilica of the Virgin Mary’s in Krakow, getting the last tickets in the house to The Magic Flute at the Estates Theater in Prague, singing with Julianne Baird at the top of Giotto’s Tower, and playing her recorder to the wind in the hills of Delphi. Today she enjoys performing under Martha Sargent, Ewan Mitton, and Jeff Parkin, and sharing great music over the air with you.

Mark Wait joined Classical 89 and the world of public radio in 1993 after several years in the field of advertising and broadcast production in Los Angeles. He's a chronic music listener ("anything but rap or country") and as a musician, considers himself a virtuoso at playing the stereo. He's also an avid film buff. Observing a life of sitting in front of microphones, stereos and televisions, Mark really feels he should start exercising more. In addition to being a notable on-air host, Mark is also an audio engineer who records much of our locally originated concert material for broadcast on both radio and television.

Of all the lessons Reg Pontius learned while living as a boy in Morocco, the most vivid was that you can't charm a camel! Reg came to Classical 89 in 1980, with a lifetime of listening, studying, and reading about classical music, especially opera. A lover of the voice and art of soprano Maria Callas, with complete impartiality, he considers the history of opera to be divided - Before Callas and After Callas - with the years of her career - the Golden Age. Fascinated with performers and performance quality, Reg, a student of recordings from the beginning to the present, is unapologetic about his extreme distaste for digital sound and is as likely to climb Mount Everest as become reconciled to "this shrill, thin, colorless, presence-less 'wanna-be' reproduction of music." His love of the arts includes the cinema from the very beginning to the present and he considers silent films on DVD to be the greatest thing since - well - silent films. Reg is fascinated by everything in nature from the stars to virtually every animal, but wonders what God could have been thinking when He invented spiders. Though a lover of ancient history, especially Egyptian, Reg is grateful to be living in the present and working with a wonderful group of talented people who, like him, enjoy sharing their love of music with all those who tune into Classical 89. Reg is host of Classical 89's Evening Classics that features the "Classic du Jour," or classical piece of the day.

Peter Van De Graaff began his radio career at Classical 89 where he was an announcer and a senior producer for three years following his graduation from Brigham Young University with a degree in vocal performance. He continues to serve Classical 89 through the Beethoven Satellite Network, which he joined in 1989 after spending a year as one of the staff announcers on WFMT Radio in Chicago. As a professional singer, Peter has performed with opera companies and orchestras throughout the world, including the Czech State Orchestra and the symphonies of New Orleans, Utah, Colorado Springs and San Antonio, and opera companies in Rochester, New York, Milwaukee, Chicago and Boise. Peter also has a great interest in languages and speaks Dutch, German and French. In addition he has studied Italian, Spanish and Russian. His hobbies include birdwatching, tennis and cross-country skiing. He also enjoys resurrecting and performing early 18th-century chamber operas called "intermezzi", which he and his soprano wife Kathleen have performed with a number of orchestras and on live radio broadcasts.

From the time he was a kid, Eric Glissmeyer has loved to listen to the radio. He grew up with popular music and rock-and-roll, and he began his record collection at age 14. His introduction to classical music came through the accordion, of all things. He studied the instrument at Larry Pino Conservatory in Holladay. Each year the conservatory took an accordion ensemble to competition with each member taking a part of the orchestral score of a symphony movement. Eric played the horn part (on the accordion) in the Brahms 4th Symphony, the piccolo part in Beethoven's 5th, and the clarinet part in Beethoven's Eroica. Later, he became immersed in classical music as a vocal performance student at BYU, where he received a Master of Music degree. While he was still a student he began working at Classica 89. In 1991 he joined the full-time staff. In addition to hosting music on Sunday morning, he is Classical 89's Program Services Manager with the responsibility of selecting and scheduling all of the station's programming. Eric continues to sing with various local organizations including Utah Opera, Utah Lyric Opera Society, Utah Baroque Ensemble, and Utah Valley Symphony. He also enjoys reading, playing tennis, watching movies, and spending time with his family.

As a wide-eyed freshman at the college of St. Catherine's in St. Paul, Minnesota,Nkoyo Iyamba joined the school newspaper as a Features Editor.  She was fascinated with the different things and people she was exposed to as a writer. This was only the beginning. She talked to the head of the journalism department who told her “Kid, this is serious business!  Come back and see me when you’re serious.”  What he meant to say was come back and see me when you have enough credits to apply to be in the major. 

She credits that same professor, Dave Nimmer, as her mentor whose field experience helped her graduate with a Broadcast Journalism degree from St. Catherine's.  Shortly thereafter, she served an LDS mission in Sacramento, California.  Several years later, she spent time earning a Master's degree in communication from BYU.  She credits her professor and mentor, Dr. Tom Griffiths, for helping her graduate.

During her graduate school days, she worked at KSL-TV before and during the 2002 Winter Olympics and she spent some time working for a fledgling news station at KJZZ-TV. Recently, she lived in Washington, DC where she worked on Capitol Hill with the Senate Radio-TV Gallery where she supplied the international and national news media with information on senate activities.  She also worked as a freelance news reporter for WTOP Radio.  Most recently, she managed a bed and breakfast in northwest Washington, DC. 

A few things that make life fun and interesting for her are talking to people about different topics, audio/video editing – especially with sounds “FX” and all the bells and whistles, writing – especially non-fiction, most arts and crafts, playing or watching most sports, going to the cinema/theatre, singing, dancing – all types, sewing anything, and spending time with and cooking for my family and friends. Nkoyo's parents and four siblings all live in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Nkoyo produces and anchors the morning newscast on Classical 89 and helps produce the daily talk show Thinking Aloud.

News Director Wes Sims produces and anchors the 4:30pm and 5:30pm news briefs on Classical 89, while sharing that responsibility with broadcast journalism students from the Department of Communications. Wes is also the executive producer and occasional host of Thinking Aloud, a live-format interview program which airs weekdays, except Tuesdays, at 11am. Wes and his wife, Jackie moved to Utah from Santa Cruz, California in January, 2006, so that he could assume his current position at BYU. A graduate of Northwestern University with a major in radio-television-film, Wes worked for more than thirty years in television news, where he was involved in everything from anchoring and reporting, to news management. He particularly enjoys mentoring the students who work at Classical 89, while keeping his hand in the on-air aspects of broadcast journalism.