WNKI 578 – 1610 AM was formed in 1987 by the “Emergency Radio Committee” of the “Coordinated Resources Management and Planning Group” aka; CRMP. The Committee recognized the need to have an AM Emergency Broadcast Station, thus serving the areas of Idyllwild, Pine-Cove and portions of Mountain Center.
Around the same time that WNKI was formed, so was the Mile High Radio Club (MHRC) along with the Mountain Radio Network (MRN). Many of same core local volunteers worked and supported all three of these vital operations. While WNKI was purely broadcast radio, both the MHRC and MRN focused on two- way Amateur Radio Communications, supporting Local, County, State and Federal Agencies along with various “Non-Governmental First Responders” with auxiliary volunteer based emergency communications.
Today the Mile High Radio Club (MHRC) maintains all of these volunteer based emergency communication operations. More specifically the MHRC and the Idyllwild Fire Protection District (WNKI 578 Licensee) signed a formal Agreement in December 2014 for the operations and oversight of WNKI through the joint coordination and cooperation of the organizations.