Across Northern Nevada, a One-Woman Station Amplifies Elko’s Voice

KNCC’s Lori Gilbert blends deep local roots with public radio’s collaborative spirit, connecting even the most remote corners of Nevada through partnership with KUNR.

Inside the KNCC studio at Great Basin College in Elko, Nevada, Lori Gilbert settles in before dawn each weekday to host Morning Edition. She reviews her notes for the day’s newscasts and prepares to go on-air. “I am a pretty fierce advocate for storytelling,” says the Morning Edition host and reporter at KNCC. “I guess it’s about the quality and being able to elevate these stories through this national public radio. As I mature, I get to mature with public media, and I get to tell these stories and bring people together over something they already care a great deal about.”

Gilbert is often the only person in the KNCC studio, and when asked if she really is the station’s sole reporter, host, and local voice, she says simply with a laugh. “Yeah, I am.”

In a rural town of about 20,000, having a single journalist act as the news department isn’t unusual, but Gilbert embraces the opportunity. “I’ve had a 30-year conversation going on in the community,” she says. “It’s really not a grind—it’s just a continuation of the work from the day before.”

Gilbert’s path to radio isn’t the typical “bounce all over the map” story so common in broadcasting. She arrived in Elko in the mid-1980s, planning to stay only briefly. Then everything shifted: “I started working at a grocery store, even though my background was in print from Ogden, and I was doing the in-store announcements,” Gilbert recalls. “A radio engineer who worked at the station heard me. He came in a few times and finally approached me and said, ‘Hey, have you ever thought about radio?’ […] I said, ‘Well, I have a background in journalism.’”

She soon landed at a local commercial news organization — Elko Broadcasting Company — where she still works as a midday anchor. In 2023, she joined KNCC, the public station that rebroadcasts much of KUNR’s programming from Reno to residents of northern Nevada. Thanks to Gilbert’s presence, the station now creates and broadcasts its own local segments. “We have had [KNCC] there for 30 years,” says Brian Duggan, general manager of KUNR, the classical station KNCJ, and KNCC. “It was the early nineties when it started, and the idea at the time was to have local origination in Elko. That didn’t happen for decades.”

Duggan spearheads the administrative side of KNCC’s collaborative efforts. By securing grants and funding from organizations like the Hearst Foundation, the John Ben Snow Memorial Trust, and the Hawkins Foundation, KUNR built KNCC’s new studio at Great Basin College, which also had some legacy funding. “[Gilbert]’s been able to do live broadcasting from there for the last year and a half,” Duggan says. “We also didn’t want to be this kind of zero-sum situation where the only broadcasting journalist in Elko just moves to a different station. So we wanted to ensure that she could still broadcast on Elko Broadcasting Company as well. So that as many people as possible can have journalism in that community.”

The result is an unusual — but highly productive — hybrid arrangement. Gilbert hosts Morning Edition on KNCC from the college studio, then dashes off to continue her midday shift on a commercial signal. She files stories for both outlets, juggling local government meetings, interviews with city officials, and features on everything from wildlife commissions to the 40th National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. “Time management comes [in] when I wish I had more reporters,” Gilbert says. “When you can send someone to a trial, you can cover a city council meeting at the same time […] That really emphasizes the need for more bodies. But the infrastructure’s here, the technology is here, and I really appreciate that.”

Covering all those bases — city clerks, county commissions, legislative sessions — becomes especially urgent in rural Nevada, where breaking down news deserts is a priority for public media. “I see it as public radio or public media’s role in society is to fill the gaps,” says Duggan. “Especially in a state where big, vast swaths of our state are underserved in terms of information or access to quality local information.” Through cooperation across KUNR’s network, stations share reporting on state government and pressing rural concerns. “If we cede ground to just national opinion pieces or cable news, I think we’re going to lose something extraordinarily important to our collective well-being,” Duggan adds. “It means our ability to actually understand ourselves.”

For Gilbert, that understanding comes from tapping Elko’s distinct perspective. “Reporting from rural Nevada is different than reporting on rural communities,” she says. “I do want our stories that we originate from Elko to be told from the Elko concern […] so that instead of having 30,000-foot conversations about how wild horses are managed, or how gold mining is achieved, we can have that Elko component in there. And it may not be the popular opinion, but it’s the reality.”

When asked what keeps her motivated, despite the long hours and the sometimes shoestring conditions, Gilbert doesn’t hesitate. “I want to be part of that, and I want to inspire other journalists and other broadcasters,” she says. “Because that’s the only way that we’re going to continue this mission—bringing younger listeners and younger producers into it.” 

Duggan, who came to public radio from print journalism, shares that sense of purpose. “I really do fundamentally believe that our democracy depends on local media,” he says. “We need local journalism in order to have a country. We want to be a bastion for high-quality, well-sourced information. People literally depend on us day to day.”

Both KNCC’s one-person morning show and the station’s broad collaboration with commercial outlets reveal a crucial truth: public media in small towns means more than curated playlists and talk segments. It’s a lifeline. Gilbert keeps the fire burning in Elko’s studio each day, guided by her deeply-rooted belief in the power of community-based journalism. “We are ceding this communication, reporters who are embedded, who are trusted,” she says. “We’re committed to reporting on what matters and with a voice that reflects that from our community. It’s a great way to serve your community.”