NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — It became her destiny, but it wasn't her first dream. Rochelle Boyce spent years in search of her passion.
"When it came time for me doing business, I would start something and I would stop it," Boyce said. "It was a time in my life where I couldn't figure out which way I wanted to go... I went from owning a smoothie business- my mom buying me blenders- to me owning a hat business, to she buying me a lot of hats. And she was like, 'Rochelle, like, what are you doing?'"
It wasn't until Boyce thought she'd rent a space to start a cleaning business that she saw the vision of what that space would actually become.
"I called one of my friends, and I was like, 'I don't know what I'm about to do, but I need you to come up here'", said Boyce. "I picked up [a] speaker. I put it together. I picked up the computer. I set it on the table. I picked up the mic. I sat it on the table. And I was like, 'You know what? I wanna do radio.'"
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Today, that once-empty rental space is an internet radio station called 94.7 The Link. The station streams worldwide, but Boyce is committed to opening doors for people in the station's headquarter city of Newport News.
"When the local artists, when they do things out here in the community, it's like, we see them on the street passing out CD's and half the time people walk by them like, you know, 'I'm not taking your CD'", said Boyce. "I'd rather see them out passing a CD versus seeing them doing something else. So, it's like, we try to bring them in here to give them an opportunity to kinda showcase and spotlight themselves... The opportunities that we've created here, it has brought so much light, you know, to the community."
Boyce said she just wanted a way to connect with and help others. As it turns out, the radio station was that missing link. "I care about actually giving the community a spotlight," said Boyce "Like, if we have to go out there ourselves and stand on the street with a microphone and, you know, talk to different people in the community, that's what we're gonna do... We need to give opportunities in the streets that a lot of people don't have."
Here's how you can keep up and get in contact with 94.7 The Link:
- ADDRESS: 11015 Warwick Blvd., Ste. 100, Newport News, VA 23601
- NUMBER: 757-595-0947
- EMAIL: info@947thelink.com
- WEBSITE: https://947thelink.com/
- FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/947thelink/
- INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/947thelink/
- YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYAatP6sHebUkzYr77Y7uXA