Thank you, listeners!

We had an amazing birthday weekend thanks to you tuning in and coming down to the station to party. Over 150 people turned out to celebrate and we had over 36 hours of special, live and local programming broadcasting all weekend long.

As of Monday, June 9, we have raised almost our entire goal for the weekend ($4K).

• With another $108 in gifts from listeners, we will hit that $4K.

• Our community sponsors also put another $500 in matching gifts for any last minute gifts coming in the mail by check or after the weekend. So, that could mean we could raise $5K.

• If you have yet to give to the station this year and want to make a birthday gift, you still can.

Thanks again to our community sponsors Physician’s Computer Company, Northfield Savings Bank, Lawson’s Liquids, Washington Electric Coop, and Concept2!

For those of you who missed the party - we felt you in spirit! Here are the brief remarks from our Station Manager, Llu Mulvaney-Stanak about a past year recap since our past party.

Welcome to our now annual birthday party! This marks 52 years of WGDR, 15 of WGDH, and 4 years of CVCR. These are big milestones for this station and everyone here in the room has been part of our success. Truly, we hope you all treat yourself with some great food, music, and company and celebrate with us here today! 

There are many folks to thank! 

To all volunteered to help set up the party and host and clean up. To our party committee – Charles, Maura, Barry, and Steve. I especially want to thank, DJ EhMmAh, Benge, and Kind who are DJing live today. To Charles for the great food spread. 

This year’s party has many great community sponsors who are matching every single dollar we raise, up to $2,500 this weekend. Thanks to Physician’s Computer Company, Northfield Savings Bank, Lawson’s Liquids and Concept2! Also, thanks to ORCA for PA.

Thanks to our board of directors, many of whom are new! Charles, Tom, Barry (here today) and David M., Elizabeth, Audrey who couldn’t be here. 

Thanks to our Programming Committee – Anna, John, Erica, Maura, Peter, and Ari. 

To our now 70 local programmers who are making great radio every single day for you, including this weekend with special birthday programming. 

And of course, to our listeners and supporters. We now estimate we have at least 15K folks who listen loyally to the station – about 10K of those on their radios and another 5K online and on demand. The station is growing in leaps and bounds and we are appreciate all the support the community has given us over the last FOUR years under community ownership!

It's been another big year at the station since our last birthday. I want to give folks some quick updates on what we’ve done together:

• We’ve added another 20 local shows on the air, taking the schedule up to 70 local shows. Alongside our curated syndicated shows, the schedule is getting really full, such a good problem to have!

• We’ve transitioned our board and programming committees from our founders to new groups of folks. These folks are tackling strategic planning as part of the next phase of community ownership.

• And we’ve added a few very part time staff positions – Corey & Levi are helping us with underwriting & sponsorship, as well as operations and programmer support. 

• We’ve also lost some friends along the way. Dave Tucker, long time host of the Long & Winding Road, member of our Programming Committee, co-Music Director, all around volunteer of nearly everything, and our most recent board chair passed in March. His impact on the station is immeasurable and we miss him dearly.

• We outlasted the “who’s buying Goddard campus” adventure of last year and now have a 2 year lease with Ledgeworks. This will see us through our strategy planning for what comes next with the station.

• We also secured state funding from the legislature – a first for community radio in the state and no small feat in our current times! This funding will help us finally move the WGDR tower to a better location for broadcast across our area. 

Lastly, I would be remiss to not take this opportunity to invite you to consider giving the station a birthday gift while you are here. Quite simply, this mission doesn’t move without money or in our case, broadcast without the bucks. In these times, protecting the public access to the airwaves is more important than ever. Community investment in our future success is what will keep this station in the hands of the community!

• First, we’re hoping for your time and talents. The station is always looking for volunteers to join committees, the board, help with special projects, and to help us improve the station. You don’t have to do a radio show to be part of this place! If you are interested in this, please seek out me, a board member, or a staff person to learn more.

• We are also asking for folks who have not yet given to the station, to consider giving a donation as a gift today. We’re currently at _______ raised, and that includes our match from sponsors. We’re hoping to raise at least $4K this weekend encourage folks to consider a gift of $15 or $52 – for the ages of our two stations – if you are able to make a gift. We can take cash or check today or you can give at WGDR.org. There are a few places here today you can make that gift online today or via OR code with your smartphone. Just find a staff or board member to help you. And, thank you!

Alright, that’s it folks, thanks again for coming to the party today. Enjoy yourself and we’ll give this back to DJ Emma!

Here’s to many more years of community radio broadcasting all over our area and online for generations to come! Woo hoo!

Win Tickets to Higher Ground Shows

Thanks to a new partnership with Higher Ground, listeners can tune in to win tickets to shows each month. Catch some of great live music all summer long and into this fall.

This June, keep an ear out for the giveaways on our music shows for the shows Junior Brown, the Bones of JR Jones, Waxahatachee, Fantastic Negrito, and Gary Clark in June.

Hear Roger Hill’s Daily Forecast

We are excited to announce the return of daily weather, thanks to forecaster Roger Hill! You'll hear the very local weather read live at either 7am or 9am and 7pm every day. Thank you to Roger for this generous partnership with the station. Bob will still do live weather with Alan & Steven Sunday mornings at 7am, too.

Big, good community radio news.

Friday, May 9, 2025

Friends of WGDR/WGDH -

You did it! The Vermont Legislature just approved $150,000 in one-time funding for the ten community radio stations in Vermont. This is a direct result of your advocacy on behalf of the difference WGDR & WGDH makes in your everyday lives. Especially given federal funding trends and the impact on state funding, this is a really, really big deal. Thank you!

This funding will help each station upfit with new, critical broadcast gear like new transmitters or antennas, to ensure we stay on the air, especially during emergent situations in our communities. For many of these stations, they operate on budgets of less than $25K, with no staff. This is a game changer for them. For WGDR & WGDH, this means we can move ahead with our plan to move the WGDR antenna to a better tower location in Plainfield, to dramatically improve our broadcast reach and quality. This too, will be a game changer for us.

At a time when it feels like good news is hard to come by, we hope you will take a minute and revel in this with us. Go team community radio!

And, if you could, please help us thank the legislators who made this possible. We made lots of new friends during this process, and some of our long-time champions were the difference maker in the final moments.

Please thank them in any of the following ways:

• Send a hand written note to any of the folks listed below, before the end of the session, to their statehouse address: 115 State Street, Drawer 33, Montpelier, VT 05602.

• Leave a message of thanks for them at the State House, call the Sergeant-at-Arms’ office: 1-800-322-5616 or 828-2228.

• Or email them, at the addresses listed below.

Folks to email from the Joint Conference Committee (the folks who ultimately approved the funding!)
Rep. Robin Scheu - RScheu@leg.state.vt.us (Addison) (Co-Chair)
Rep. Jim Harrison - jharrison@leg.state.vt.us (Rutland)
Rep. TIff Bluemle - tbluemle@leg.state.vt.us (Chittenden 13)
Sen. Ginny Lyons - vlyons@leg.state.vt.us (Chittenden District)
Sen. Richard Westman - rawestman@gmail.com (Lamoille District) - WGDH's Senator!
Sen. Andrew Perchlik - aperchlik@leg.state.vt.us (Washington District) (Co-Chair) He was our biggest champion for this funding, and is a WGDR Senator, send him big WGDR/WGDH thanks!

Other community radio legislative support came from:

Rep. Bob Hooper (Chittenden-18) - rhooper@leg.state.vt.us - Introduced the original bill.

Rep. Rep. Lisa Hango - LHango@leg.state.vt.us (Franklin-5), Vice Chair of House Government Operations & Military Affairs - Made sure the bill passed out of their committee first!

Rep. Matt Birong - mbirong@leg.state.vt.us (Addison-3) Chair of House Government Operations & Military Affairs - Made sure the bill passed out of their committee first!

Rep. Teddy Waszazak - ewaszazak@leg.state.vt.us - (Washington-3), included our stand alone bill into the larger H.397 bill about emergency flood response, a key step.

Rep. Tom Stevens - tstevens@leg.state.vt.us - (Washington-Chittenden), ensured House Appropriations Committee understood the importance of the funding on rural communities.

Rep. David Yacovone - DYacovone@leg.state.vt.us- (Lamoille-Washington), also ensured House Appropriations Committee understood the importance of the funding on rural communities.

Senator Brian Collamore - bcollamore@leg.state.vt.us (Rutland District), Chair of the Senate Government Operations, allowed us to reintroduce the funding and bill when it didn't pass the House.

We also had many of WGDR & WGDH's area state representatives and senators express their support of community radio and this funding by voting yes on this budget (out of the House & Senate). So, thank your local folks too!

###

It feels great to be able to share good news, especially on a Friday night.

Thank you listeners!

Llu Mulvaney-Stanak

Station Manager WGDR/WGDH

p.s. Don't miss other exciting things happening at the station. Coming up in the next few weeks: more new locally produced shows starting in June and our big birthday weekend, June 6-8. More info via the links and coming soon to your inboxes.

New local shows in June!

To help us kick off the summer and our 5th year of community ownership, we’re excited to welcome on a few more local shows in June. These folks have been hard at work getting trained up in May. Please welcome to the air when you hear their first shows! We now have over 70 locally made shows airing each week — wow! that is up from just 23 shows as we started 2023. The transformation of how we sound on the air in these last two years is worth tuning in for. Find your new favorite show, check out the schedule here.

NEW LOCAL PROGRAMMING IN JUNE!

• The return of Show of Life with Walkin Will, Sundays 9-11pm (bi-weekly). This is a locally made music show, focusing on jam bands and more. Start date June 1, for the 1st & 3rd Sundays of the month. All Mixed Up will air on the 2nd & 4th Sundays.

• Eggs on Toast w/ host Kelly McCarthy - a locally produced music show with a variety of music, from early rock and roll, indie music, metal, some jazz, music from all over the world, including music by artists who probably have not been played on the radio before. Start date June 2.

• Unshelved with host J Kramer’s, a new book themed show, Thursdays, 12-2pm. A locally made talk show about books and more. Start date June 5.

• Sex Fly with DJ Benge, starting Sat. June 7, 10am-noon (1st Saturday of the month). A soul, R&B, and funk vinyl show. (update 6/5, Benge’s debut is delayed until July!)

• Friday, June 6-8 - Birthday Weekend Special Programming! Extra local, live, and surprise programming, to extend the celebration all weekend long.

• ¿Where Do We Go From Here? hosted by Caleb, a music and talk show, Fridays, 11am-1pm, airing just for the summer. Start June 13, this show will run for the summer.

• The return of Stranger and Deinger, with Natasha Deinger, Thursdays 11am-noon. A locally made music and interview show and winner of “Niftiest Newbie Show 2024.” Start date May 15.

• The Broken Bois Collective Presents… Hosted by Khonsu X & Titan, (1st Thursdays of the month). Each monthly episode would be a different story told in our Brechtian // Horspiel manner and include free audio archives, songs, and what we like to call "talk-back radio".  We do experimental radio plays. There’s a little bit of stand-up, a lot of social commentary, and voices creating a loose plot, that changes every time we engage with the piece. Starting Thursday, July, 6pm.

• Under the Covers with DJ Rhizosphere, a new all covers music show made by a new local programmer (3rd Saturdays). Starting Sat. July 20, 10am-noon.

Other schedule changes of shows moving…

• Dancehall/Reggae is back now on Tuesdays, 12am-2am.

• That Driving Beat is now on Tuesdyas 12-2pm

• Indigenous Music is moving to Tuesdays 11pm-1am.

• Train to Skaville will be moving from Thursday middays to Monday nights, 11pm-midnight.

• Modern Jet Set will move to Fridays, 12-1pm, from its midday Thursday air time. This will begin in mid June.

• Techtonic is moving to Fridays at 1pm.

• And You Don’t Stop is moving back to Friday nights at 11pm.

Shows retiring from the schedule…

• Poa for the People with Poa has retired after a two month run. In it’s place, the third Tuesday of the month, Project Censored will air 11am-12pm. This will start on Tuesday, May 20.

• The Wild Kindness with Trevor is on a pause (Tuesdays, 12-2pm). We hope to have them back later this summer.

• Soul Joy with Minister Landrum is on a radiobattical. Dan Towner’s Rubber Room is now airing for two hours, 1-3pm, with Adagio, an excellent classical and ambient music show airing 3-4pm. This is currently airing.

• Get Fresh with DJ Llu has ended airing on WGDR/WGDH (for now, don’t worry Llu is still station managing, they are just opening up air time for more local folks, interest is high!). Starting Friday May 23, 12-2pm - That Driving Beat a syndicated rock music show will air.

• Metal Bedtime Stories with DJ Lomacs, Sundays 12-2am has retired. Moist Fluids will air every Sunday night, 12am-2am.

• All the Crooked Saints with DJ Sacramento, on Tuesdays 12-2am is stepping back.

• Making Contact aka Economic Update has ended their long running show. We’ll be retiring airing their reruns in June.

• The short run of Night Train Cocktail will retire. This will begin in mid June.

New show applications are currently on pause. Our Programming Committee is working on new goals and strategies for the rest of the year for continued careful curation of our schedule, any additional local programming, and ways to continue to diversify who we have on the air. More soon!

CVCR’s WGDR & WGDH Birthday Weekend 6/6-6/8

Lots happens in the spring and early summer for community radio in central Vermont!

• June 1973, WGDR, Plainfield went on the air at 91.1 FM for the first time at goddard College. 

• April, 2010, WGDH, Hardwick went on the air at 91.7 FM adding much of northern Vermont to the listening experience.

• And in May, 2021, the FCC approved ownership transition from Goddard College to Central Vermont Community Radio. 

That's 52 years of WGDR, 15 of WGDH, and the start of our 5th year in community ownership!

Tune in, Friday, June 6 through Sunday, June 8 for special programming all weekend long.

We will be celebrating 52 years of WGDR, 15 of WGDH, and the start of our 5th year in community ownership! You’ll hear special shows, guests, and surprises. In addition to our regular shows, tune in to hear these extra live and local ones:

Friday:

• The Morning Mixtape with DJ Llu, 7am-8am. Start your day off with a special birthday themed mix.

• Tonio & the Magical Mystery Tour, extended show, 9am-11am,

• DJ Eben Flow with a special birthday weekend show from 11am-1pm,

• New programmer Caleb’s first summer show, 1-3pm.

• Hittin the Note with Bill Hahn, will feature great tunes and birthday love for the station, 3-5pm.

• Geezer Rock, with Jeff, will keep the rock and roll, rolling into your Friday night, 5-7pm.

• On the Spiral Galaxy with Tom McMurdo, 7-9pm, “Everybody Loves Stereolab" featuring songs by artists clearly influenced by Stereolab plus some Stereolab tracks, including some from the new album that just came out.

• King Tone on the Meltdown will keep your Friday night lit with his usual party pleasing tunes, 9-11pm.

  Saturday:

• The Morning Mixtape with DJ Llu, 8am-9am. Start your day off with a mixtape to get you ready for the party 12-3pm down at the station!

• Gathering Peace with Joseph Gainza will have his usual great guests for this monthly show, 9-10am.

• A special Modern Sounds in Country (or other genres!) with Barry will be sitting in live, 10am-noon!

• Willis and the Metal Edge will keep you company as you head down to the station for the party. He’s on 12-2pm.

• John Foster, the Doctor of Blues, is live with his Boxful of Blues, 2-4pm.

• Acoustic Harmony, with Mark, helps us wrap up the party at the station with three hours of great folks music, 4-7pm.

• Jagler Kats takes us down the Worm Hole, 7-9pm, with his music and more.

• DJ Z-Point comes in early to start the night right, 9pm-12am.

  Sunday:

• Curse of the Golden Turnip with Alan and Steven goes three hours, 7am-10am with special guests.

• Audio Ergo Sum, with Darien & Ruby, are in to help us wrap the birthday weekend, 10am-noon.

• Maura brings the big Thought Pasture energy to your day 12-2pm.

• The Not-Morning Mixtape with DJ Llu, 2-3pm. Llu is back one more time for the birthday weekend to give some afternoon mixtape vibes and thanks to all the listeners for supporting the birthday weekend with gifts and more!

• Savannah’s Discoverances comes in for an extra and longer show, 3-5pm.

• Rick is in for Bon Mot from 5-6pm, with poetry and more birthday prose.

• Good Ways Reggae Show with Kind helps us wrap up the birthday weekend, 6-7pm.

• The Revel Level with DJ EhMmAhh, 7-9pm has the official on air wrap party. Tune in to hear the results of the birthday weekend of gifts!

Come on down to the station party on Saturday, June 7, 12-3pm.

We’ll have DJs from the station spinning music (12pm - DJ EhMmAh of the Revel Level (pop/dance), 1pm - DJ Benge of Sexy Fly (R&B/hip-hop), 2pm - Kind of Good Times Reggae Show (reggae), great food, great company, station tours and more. Thanks to ORCA Media for being a party partner with lending us a PA system too.

Thank you to our weekend sponsors: Physician’s Computer Company, Northfield Savings Bank, Lawson’s Liquids, Washington Electric Coop, and Concept2!

As part of this weekend, we’re looking to raise $2,000 as a birthday "gift" for WGDR & WGDH. Our sponsors are matching every gift up to $2,500. Give a gift of $15 or $52 today at WGDR.org and help us celebrate decades of community made, community focused, and now, community owned radio in central and northern Vermont. Thanks and see you there!

Want to help plan the fun?

We’re looking for planning volunteers and volunteers for the day of the party. Email Corey@WGDR.org.

Want to help feed folks and pay for the party? Consider sponsoring!

For just $520, you can be part of the growing list of community sponsors. Your organization or business name will be heard hundreds of times as we promote the party for the coming weeks to our 15K loyal monthly listeners. Email Llu@WGDR.org.

Give a birthday gift to your favorite station!

We're looking for 52 listeners to give $15 or $52 a birthday “gift” to the station (or any amount to celebrate the importance of community ownership of community radio!). Our community sponsors will match up to $2,000!

Together, this birthday weekend will raise community connections and funds, and have fun for the station. We’re ready to party with you, tune in and come on down!

What to expect at the party:

• Outside in our back yard of the station, there will be live DJs spinning music for the crowd.

• We’ll have a short programming to toward the start of the party, to thank folks!

• We will also pass the hat for donations for the station - we’re aiming to raise a total of $2,000 from supporters, that will be dollar for dollar matched, by our weekend sponsors.

• The music and speakers will be amplified by a small PA system. As of now, we do not plan to have an ASL interpreter attend. If you need this accommodation, please reach out to the station (info at bottom of this page).

• Throughout the party, we’ll have good food (all dietary options available, robust snacks style) and good company (listeners, programmers, volunteers, and fans of the station mingling about). This is a great way to meet fellow listeners and the many of us who do shows and volunteer to keep the station running. We’re expecting a great turn out, so come early, come late, we’ll be there!

• Tours of the station (we’ve made upgrades! see real live radio being made!)

• Together with our three days of special live and local programming this birthday weekend we’ll raise community connections, funds, and “the fun level” for the station. 

We’re ready to party with you, tune in and come on down!

Important Event Details, Accessibility & Other Info:

• Directions: Your GPS will lie to you! :) Our address of the station will take you to the main campus of Goddard (123 Pitkin Rd). That is not where you will find us. The station is located on the far side of campus in the basement of the Pratt library building. To find us, follow the signs we will have up for directions and parking. To get to WGDR off Route 2 pass the main Goddard campus entrance on route 214, continue about half a mile down the road and turn into the second entrance to campus on your left (signs for Pratt and WGDR are on a small sign). It is your immediate next left, down a paved and bumpy road. Follow the signs for parking and walking to the station’s building. We highly encourage carpooling with your WGDR loving pals. 

• Parking will be by the old art building in a mid sized lot just down the road from Pratt (there will be signs). Accessible parking will be up at the Pratt building. Those spaces are limited (about 8 spots total), so please save those who need it. Overflow parking will be at the main entrance to old Goddard campus (again there will be signs!).

• Rain location is inside the station (we have a large room we will use to gather and still enjoy music, food, and spaciousness). 

• Families and kids! We are a kid friendly station. Bring the whole family to enjoy the music, food, and see a real life radio station in action. We can even explain what CDs and records are to the next generation!

• Food & Comfort: We’ll have snacks, treats, and drinks for folks to enjoy. We encourage you to bring your own water bottle (to limit waste). There is a kitchen sink that can be used to refill water. It’s June in Vermont, so we might have a glorious day or a brisk day, please bring appropriate layers to wear. We also encourage you to bring your lawn chair. We have lots of seating, but if we get a huge turn out, we may need folks who are able to bring their own chairs!

• Collective Care: As a station, we are still being covid cautious with our in-person gathering. While we hope to gather largely outside, if we do move inside due to rain, we will have masks available for folks to use. We also will have good air ventilation going, with windows open and air filters running. We ask that all party attendees make a community-minded decision and not come if they are feeling ill in any way. We are committed to providing as safe a space for all of our community to gather as possible. We are also mindful of those with chemical sensitivities. Please do not wear perfumes, colognes, or other highly scented body products. The Pratt building has a large atrium area, on the way to the bathrooms, with round tables and chairs, that will be a natural light, low sound area during the event. This is a great place to take a break, should you need it. The rest of the building will be roped off to limit access to the rest of the building. Please be respectful of their space. We will have balloons - outdoors and indoors. Lastly, the station is a substance free space, please do not bring alcohol or other substances. There is also no smoking of any kind.

• Accessibility: Our station and the outdoor part of the party are all on the same, ground level/basement of the building. Folks in wheelchairs will have easy access to the station, bathrooms (accessible), and the back yard, by way of a firm, grassy back path behind the building from the accessible parking. If we move inside for rain, the large room where the live music will be moved to is only accessible by short staircase. 

• Leave your furry friends at home: Due to our expected attendance, please do not bring a pet to the event, unless they are a service animal and are trained. We want everyone as comfortable as possible.

• Requesting additional accommodations: Please don’t hesitate to contact Llu Mulvaney-Stanak, station manager, to request any additional support that would make attending the event safe and comfortable for you. We can provide extra specific details, maps, layout info, and anything else to make your experience at the party truly fun and comfortable.