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The History of Rainbow Radio
In 2005 Trey Greene at radio station WOIC 1230 first contacted producers, Jim Blanton, Bert Easter, Hembree Hancock, and Ed Madden, about starting a gay and lesbian talk show on Columbia's Air America Affiliate. Along with co-hosts Bruce Converse and Candace Chellew-Hodge, Rainbow radio was created. The show started with an Ad on WOIC 1230 AM in Columbia, SC. The Ad consisted of an individual who spoke about the LGBTQ+ communities frustration of being spoken for, they then went on to announce that October 9th would be the first airing of Rainbow Radio: The Real Gay Agenda. The date October 9th coincided with the annual celebration of National Coming Out Day on October 11th. The show Started as an experiment for South Carolina’s first gay and lesbian radio show. However, the project was so well received, with funding form the Freeman Foundation, Ketner Fund, Media Justice grant, etc., Rainbow Radio turned into a 4 year project.

About Rainbow Radio
Rainbow Radio stated that their purpose was to give a voice to a community that is all too often ignored, demonized, and demoralized by the messages they hear from their politicians, their preachers, and sometimes their own families. The talk show broadcasted stories about being "out" from all over South Carolina, including: Greenville, Rockhill, Myrtle Beach, and Aiken. A lot of stories had nothing to do with sexuality but still included socially taboo experience like: Mental health (depression), family abuse/trauma, Women’s rights, Racism, Intersectionality (ex. Stacy Smallwood's experience as a black gay woman). Stories that did involve sexuality included topics like: Growing up a lesbian in rural Texas (Sheila Morris),The states first lesbian congressional member, Lesbian activist (Melissa Moore), Being a gay and Christian (David Gillespie’s and Candace Chellew-Hodge). Although the talk show had an abundance of stories from the LGBTQ+ communities in South Carolina, it also included talks from celebrity guest like Comedian Lily Tomlin and Actor Leslie Jordan. Regardless of social status, gender, sexuality, or race the goal of of Rainbow Radio broadcasting these stories was to offer diverse, accurate, and unparalleled representation of South Carolina’s gay and lesbian communities.