WGDR’s New Antenna!

After over two years of planning and months of project managing, we are in the final days of the new WGDR antenna install project!

We have been hard at work with many local partners to ensure we take care of key project needs: upgrade the radio shed to protect our gear, avoiding interference with our new tower co-users, ensuring proper broadcast gear set up, including redundancy, and more. We are on pace to have the install done in June, still on our project timeline and within our projected budget.

On “crossover day” we will be having planned broadcast outages at 91.1 FM. We will announce this on the air, that day. We need to do a range of safety and regulation testing, so full transition to the new antenna has some variation we need to work with. We have back up broadcast ready to go if this is the case and we will keep you updated.

Once the new antenna is on, we’ll put the call out far and wide to get real listener feedback on how the broadcast signal sounds. This includes quality, new reach, and any other feedback you got for us. This is the best way for us to assess our new broadcast impact, everything else up to now has been engineering estimates. In Vermont, you gotta plug it in to see how it really sounds and how far it really reaches due to our topography. We’re excited to have you help us map this!

Special thanks to our partners on this project:

• The state of Vermont for funding $25K of the project, especially Senator Perchlik for being such a champion for community radio!

• Two anonymous major donors who funded $35K of it.

• The city of Montpelier for a $2,500 grant to help us finally reach all of the city.

• And many donors just like you who have given what you can to be part of this historic moment.

• Thanks to our contractors, suppliers, and community partners, ROI, LLC engineering, Joules Electric Vermont, Prescott Towers, Sweetwaters, BSW, Murray’s Heating and Cooling, Vermont Association of Broadcasters, and Broadcast Tools & Die.

• A big thanks to our new tower partner, Cloud Alliance, for being our new antenna forever home!

• To our hard working staff, Levi Kerchner and Llu Mulvaney-Stanak for all the big and little things to make this project come together.

• And, to our programmers and listeners. Together, it is your unwavering belief in this mighty station that keeps us not only going, but helps us do historic moves like this for our future success.

A reminder! Why are we doing this?

• A need to replace the current antenna: What you listen to at 91.1FM is coming from a 30 year old antenna that is at end of its life and showing performance issues. This new antenna, thanks to the new tower location, will get us further and be cheaper to run long term.

• Better coverage! The new location and stronger, new antenna will get us to the cities of Barre and Montpelier, and much further all around to places we’ve been spotty for 53 years! This truly takes us from our college station roots, to being a community broadcasting station.

• Future possibilities! Moving the WGDR antenna off the old Goddard College campus makes us more nimble for the station’s future.

• Protecting your investment! A higher, better, safer, location for the antenna protects us from impacts from future floods and the dangers of our current tower location—the forest and falling trees and the failing tower structure on campus.

WGDR! Live from Barre! June 5 - SOLD OUT

WGDR! Live from Barre!

Friday, June 5 from 7-9pm.

Barre Social Club on Main Street in Barre

SOLD OUT FOR SHOW TICKETS

This show is now sold out, thanks! You can still tune in as we broadcast live, starting at 7pm on your radios or stream it at WGDR.org on Friday.

This is a variety show featuring talent from the Central Vermont Community Radio airwaves as well as the local community. You'll be our live audience, while we live broadcast this out on the airwaves to even more Vermonters thanks to the new WGDR antenna that will be up in time for this show.

The show will feature:

• 6pm - Social hour to mingle with programmers, fellow listeners, and the CVCR board and staff, with DJ Xav spinning tunes

• 7-9pm - Our variety show will include:

  • A live forecast from Bob Misenberger

  • “Curse of the Golden Turnip” hosts Alan LePage, Steven Farnham, and Ethan O’Hara taking questions from the audience on your June gardening conundrums

  • Live music from local musician Jess O'Brien - a singer-songwriter from Plainfield, VT who released her debut album in 2025, recorded alongside celebrated Vermont musicians Colin McCaffrey and Paul Miller. For more, visitjessobrien.com— or support local music and grab a digital download at jessobrien.bandcamp.com.

  • Live music from Leah Rocketship

  • DJ Emma of the Revel Level will be our host for the night.

  • Executive Director, Llu Mulvaney-Stanak will give a "state of the station" update for all

  • And, have DJ Xav spinning tunes throughout the show

It is first come first get a good seat for the show. So buying your ticket for just $9.11, in advance gets you in, but you will want to arrive early during our 6-7pm social hour, to claim a good seat and hang out.

If you can't make it, but would like to donate in honor of the new WGDR antenna going up and/or 53 years of WGDR being on the air and 5 years of CVCR leading the community ownership of the station, please do, with our great thanks!

Please note, we are only able to take digital payment in advance for tickets. We will hold a few cash or check tickets for sale at the door, but we want to ensure we fill the room, so the majority of tickets are for online purchase only.

Additional information on accommodations and what to expect in the event space are further down this page, scroll past the ticket ordering box!

Thank you to our sponsors: Barre Social Club and Physicians’ Computer Company

If you’d like to sponsor this event, please review the sponsor rates and contact Llu@WGDR.org.

Further information, accomodations, and what to expect at the event space.

We are excited to have you join us for "WGDR, Live from Barre!" at the Barre Social Club (105 N Main St) in Barre on Friday, June 5 from 7-9pm.

What to Expect

6pm - Doors open | Community mingle time, bar drinks available for purchase, free water and seltzer for all

7pm - WGDR, Live from Barre Show featuring: Curse of the Golden Turnip, live weather forecast, DJ Xav spinning music, and additional guests.

9pm - Event ends

Parking is available all along Main Street (it is free this time of night) and behind the buildings in public lots on both sides of Main Street, with easy access via side streets and alleys.

Tickets & Seating 

Printing your ticket is not necessary, your name will be on the list at check in! It is first come first get a good seat for the show. So buying your ticket in advance gets you in, but you will want to arrive early during our 6-7pm social hour, to claim a good seat and hang out.

Please note, we are only able to take digital payment in advance for tickets. We will hold a few cash or check tickets for sale at the door, but we want to ensure we fill the room, so the majority of tickets are for online purchase only.

Barre Social Club Space

The space has a main entrance right off Main Street. You will enter and be greeted at a welcome table to check in. The main space is the next area, where seating will be out for the audience and a small “stage” area for the WGDR show, with a sound system sized for the space. The back of the room has a separate bar space, where there will be standing room to mingle while the event is underway. There are single use, accessible bathrooms off the main audience space.

Collective Care

As a station, we are still as covid cautious with our in-person gathering as we can be. 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. The space has a heat pump to providing cooling and air flow, but we will also have the front door open for most of the start of the event helping with air flow. That said, there will be no additional increased air filtering at the site. We are fully supportive of masking for personal protection, but will not require it of the audience or performers.

We are also mindful of those with chemical sensitivities. Please do not wear perfumes, colognes, or other highly scented body products. We will do our best to have the space be as low-scent as possible, but as it is a public event, some folks may be wearing products that give off scents.

If any of this limits your ability to attend in person, the event will be live broadcast at 91.1 FM and 91.7 FM and livestreamed at WGDR.org for free, so you can listen live or after the event.

Families and Kids

We are a kid friendly station. Bring the whole family to enjoy the show and see a real life radio show in action.

Food & Drink

We’ll have free seltzer and water at the event. You can bring your own water bottle to limit waste and any snacks you may need, though we ask that you not bring any larger meal to eat, as it could distract from the event.

Leave your furry friends at home, please.

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, Executive Director at Llu@WGDR.org or call (802) 276-0365 to request any additional support that would make attending the event safe and comfortable for you.

Music Bingo at the Jeudevine Memorial Library on May 30th!

Central Vermont Community Radio is bringing you more Music Bingo!

Join us at the Jeudevine Memorial Library in Hardwick for a night of bingo, music, and fun on Saturday, May 30 from 6 to 8pm.

We’ll have 6 rounds of regular bingo, with a championship round of music (like name that tune). A suggested donation of $10 to the station lets you play all rounds! There are fabulous prizes up for grabs for each round too!

The night is hosted by Vermont’s own drag queen legend Emoji Nightmare, and Corey from Found Sound will be playing tunes.

This event will be held in the Parker Ladd Community Room of the Jeudevine Memorial Library, located at 93 N. Main Street in Hardwick. This is not a library sponsored event.

We’ll see you there! 🎉

Five High Fives at Five

Dearest Listeners!

Erica Heilman and Peter Goreau, former members of the CVCR Programming Committee and programmers and Llu Mulvaney-Stanak, CVCR Executive Director in the studio during the 2026 Spring Fundrive.

CVCR’s listenership growth compared to Goddard ownership.

CVCR’s growth in programmers, donors, and underwriters compared to Goddard ownership.

April, 2026 marks my 5th year of working for Central Vermont Community Radio -- wow! Which means our 5th anniversary of community ownership is also right around the corner in mid May. When I look back on the last five years, I'm amazed, but not surprised, at what the community has "done with the place." In my view, these stations of WGDR and WGDH and this organization, CVCR, are the definition of "we are the ones we've been waiting for."

As I reflect back on the last five years, I want to give "Five High Fives at Five" for some of what we achieved together.

1. Centering the Community — When we were a college owned station, the mission centered around the college, from what was on the air, who made decisions, and how it was funded. As a community owned station, the community needed to be centered. This wasn’t just about empowering and engaging more local people to help lead the station, volunteer, and do shows. This was about paying attention to why this station matters and how we wanted it to feel to be part of the station—on both sides of the microphone. What voices were missing? What did programmers need to make great radio? How could we make the station feel like a place of connection, when by design you often don’t see many or in some cases any other programmers from week to week? This is about cultivating the culture of an organization and for us, we centered not just the community, but caring. Caring about accessibility and everyone’s health and well being through the years of the pandemic and beyond. Caring about the collective sound of the station, across all programming. Caring about how we do this work together, by rising to challenges, celebrating, and steadily finding sustainable, diverse funding so the station is here for generations to come.

2. Local First — When we took over ownership in May, 2021, the station’s programming was heavily relying on reruns and syndicated programming. Only 23 local programmers, out of over 100 show slots, were still on the air after the effects of the pandemic. The one charge of an FCC radio license is to “serve the needs and interests of our community.” To do this, we knew programming decisions needed to shift from being made by just a few in management to the many from the community—listeners, programmers, and supporters. We created our first Programming Committee in 2022 and put a call out for new shows. We were overwhelmed with the response and it hasn’t let up! We now have 65 local programmers on the air, making weekly programming that fills 75% of our main schedule. The difference in how the station sounds is night and day. We have a far more diverse representation from our community—many more women, transfolks, queer folks, younger folks, and more. This is what it sounds like when we say representation matters. You don’t only get difference perspectives, you get more talent. As we’ve added more and more local content—forecasts, events, live music, and special programming—the community has responded in so many positive ways. Listening more, giving more, and engaging more. This is how the station is finally finding a way to sustain itself. We make mighty good radio, more people listen, more support comes in.

3. Can You Hear Us Now? Yup! — When CVCR took over, we had an estimated 13K listeners, most via the radio. Now, we have over 45K listeners! That as many as AAA commercial station the Point. We’ve embraced the digital age, while staying committed to the accessibility that broadcast radio provides rural communities like the ones we reach. It is a myth that people under 50 don’t listen to the radio. They listen, they just listen online and on demand. We’ve proven this by investing in our digital listening experience and watching the stats skyrocket! That said, we are steadfast in our belief that broadcast radio still has a role to play in Vermonters lives. From bluebird days to our worst days as a community, we are here to provide fact checked news, diverse views, accurate and timely information, and entertainment. We often get feedback from listeners who are unable to afford subscription media or internet service, that having the radio—a free media source—reach them at home or in their car has been a lifeline. Perhaps the biggest show of our commitment to keeping the station accessible to all, is our investment in the new WGDR, Plainfield, 91.1 FM antenna. At a time when many stations are shifting to digital only and closing down their broadcasts, we are adding radio listeners. Montpelier, Barre, and many further afield areas where we’ve been staticy or silent, here we come!

4. Helping the Helpers — In the summer of 2023 and again in 2024, we had no idea how critical our role would become in the flood response and recovery efforts for our many communities. That first summer, we just did what was right. Completely converting our programming to coverage of where to get help and where to give help. In the many days and weeks that followed, we kept going with coverage. We shared recovery resources, how to access FEMA, and kept folks company through music, stories, and more as they mucked out basements and rebuilt their lives. The following summer, we did it all over again, but this time, with an understanding that we were now part of the helpers. We are proud to be here, when the power goes out, when internet drops, well cell phones disconnect — for any reason — to help the community to the other side of a crisis.

5. If You Build It, They Will Come — Yes, this is a “Field of Dreams” reference! Five years ago, these beloved stations were on the brink of being sold or given back to the FCC. Instead, the outgoing President of Goddard Bull worked with a small team of volunteers to gift the station to the community. This is almost unheard of nationally, with most college of university stations being sold off or allowed to go dark. Since then, we’ve steadily built a base of support from which the station would not just survive, but thrive. We went from 23 to 65 programmers, from an average of 250 donors a year to over 500, and from just 10 underwriters to over 30. We have built partnerships across the state with the 9 other community radio stations and 24 public access centers to amplify the essential work community media does for the state everyday. This resulted in state funding not just for us, but for all community radio; funding that is soon to become annual support. We’ve created a template of how to add some public funding to how community media is funded, at a critical time in our country. We are not just here to move our mission, we are here to be strong partners with all who uphold a free and fair press, access to the airwaves, and a way to keep us connected to our communities here in Vermont.

We say it a lot, because we mean it. We couldn't have done any of this without you - our listeners, our programmers, our many volunteers, our many donors, our underwriters and sponsors. Thank you for helping us reach this big milestone!

As always, we want to celebrate all of this with you! Please save the date for our big WGDR! Live from Barre! event on Friday, June 5. It’s another milestone moment to celebrate our birthday, the new WGDR antenna going up in a better broadcast spot, and so much more.

Thanks for staying tuned in.

Llu Mulvaney-Stanak, CVCR Executive Director

Live from 2026 NOLA Jazz Fest!

We are very excited to provide special programming in partnership with our friends at WWOZ, New Orleans as part of the 56th Jazz Fest. 

We will live simulcast the Jazz Fest on two afternoons during the Jazz Fest:

Thursdays, April 23, 12-6pm and April 30, 2-7pm.

This year's Jazz Fest lineup includes dozens of New Orleans and Louisiana favorites, interviews with artists, and archival recordings of Jazz Fests from the past. The full schedule of live music will be posted at WWOZ.org, where you can stream the full festival. Along with the live performances, the simulcast will feature conversations with WWOZ’s award-winning show hosts, exclusive interviews with artists, and archival recordings of highlights from Jazz Fest history.

We hope you enjoy tuning into this iconic Jazz Festival by way of your very own radios here in Vermont.

Nominate us for VT non-profit of the year and help us win $10K!

It’s time to celebrate the best of Vermont! Nominations are now open for the Seven Daysies Awards—your chance to spotlight your favorite people, places, and organizations across the state. Now through May 3, you can nominate local favorites in dozens of categories. Finalists move on to voting in early June!

You could recognize Central Vermont Community Radio’s impact by voting for us for Best Nonprofit of the Year.

This award is supported by the Vermont Community Foundation with a $10,000 prize.

Nominate by May 3 at SevenDaysVT.com.

Thanks for listening—and for voting!