Fall On Air Drive 10/1-10/15

On WGDR & WGDH you are hearing more than 50 locally made programs, focusing on what is happening right here in central and northern Vermont. With another 50 syndicated shows to help cover the news of the day and deepen dialogues, the stations sound better than ever. 

Our Fall On Air Drive is aiming to raise $10,000 from individuals like you between October 1-15, 2023. This funding allows us the freedom to curate the programming you have come to love and expect from the station and bring on even more locally-made programs in 2024. 

During the drive, we try to make the programming extra special with additional guests, live performances, themed shows, and lots of surprises pre-empting regular programming. Be sure to tune in to hear all the fun!

There are four easy ways to give:

1. Make a gift online today. We’ve upgraded the Drive platform to a site that lets donors pay our credit card fees and keeps it free for us (skip the GiveButter “tips” prompt).

2. Text “WGDRDONATE” to 53-5555 and you’ll get a donate link right to your smartphone.

3. Give by check and make it out to “CVCR” and mail it to WGDR/WGDH, 123 Pitkin Road Plainfield, VT 05667.

4. Give by Venmo: @WGDRWGDH - Central Vermont Community Radio

Drive donor perks:

• All donors who give during our two-week drive will be entered to win prizes donated by Vermont businesses and organizations. All donors will also receive a free WGDR & WGDH sticker in the mail along with a thank you note.

• If you give $50 or more, we'll add in a limited edition 50th anniversary full-color sticker and a copy of our program schedule.

• If you give $200 or more, we'll send you a 50th-anniversary full-color t-shirt from our swag shop!

Drive Prizes List

• 2 tickets to see the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and Kat Wright, on Friday, November 13 at HigherGroundMusic.com.

• A banner or poster from the Bread & Puppet print shop.

• 2 tickets to Swedish Folk'appella group Kongero on December 8 at the Highland Performing Arts Center.

• A bright green Dean electric guitar!

  Show incentives

  If you call in and pledge a gift during certain shows, you could get heirloom seeds during "Curse of the Golden Turnip," or custom “mixtapes” made by participating music programmers on a streaming platform. (Info coming soon). If you are giving for one of these incentives, please make a note in your donation message box! 

Crush These Drive Goals with us!

• Raise $10,000 (or more!) to pay the everyday bills that keep the station rolling.

• 5 new sustaining donors, to help sustain our work all year long by a monthly donation. Think of it like one of your many streaming services. What monthly value do we provide to your listening needs? $10? $15? $25? 

• 10 out-of-state donors. When our new schedule came online, we increased online listeners by over 1,000 streams a month. Wow! If you tune in online and from out of state, consider kicking in to fund what you tune in for. This goal also highlights WGDR's 50th year on the air! 

• 25 new donors. Maybe you've listened for years but never gave. Or you just found us and want to learn how you can help us keep up the great programming. First-time donors are a key way we expand our capacity.

• Find 10 new donors from the WGDH listening area. We're working hard to increase our listeners to 91.7 FM through increased community outreach this past summer and in the future. This year we invested in more upgrades to make this signal more reliable on the air. Help us keep it up by funding your local spot on the dial for Hardwick, Morrisville, Stowe, and beyond.

Take the Listener Survey:

Before you go, please also consider giving us feedback as a listener. Everyone who participates will also be entered to win prizes for giving us your thoughts on what you listen to, when, and why. Thanks!

Try A New Archive Feature

Help us test a new archiving feature through our Spinitron platform. Spinitron is the web platform that produces the schedule you see online, music playlists, and show pages.

The way this archive works is through an embedded player that sits on the top of the schedule page, playlist page, or show page. You can insert a date and time to go back and listen to any show or push play, if on a show page listen to that actual show. Note: Archives will still only go back for two weeks and we just began this Spintron archiving on 8/20, so shows prior to that are not available on Spinitron.

This integration of the recorded shows within the schedule and show pages we think will make it easier for online listeners to find what they are looking for, see playlists, and get more info on the shows. But, we want your feedback! Give it a go and send feedback to Llu@WGDR.org. We will leave our current archiving system up while we are considering this change.

Support Our Underwriters

We’ve been steadily building our family of underwriters over the last 2 years. These are generous businesses, organizations, and individuals who are helping us build our capacity so we can do more with and for our community. In short, money and resources move our mission to be a platform for sparking social change, creating human connections, and amplifying local voices and content.

Please support those who support the stations.

If you are interested in underwriting or sponsoring the station this year, check out our rates (we are the most affordable way to get the word out in our area—we checked!) or reach out to station manager, Llu Mulvaney-Stanak at Llu@WGDR.org. Thanks!

WGDR’s 50th Celebration Postponed Until 2024

August 9, 2023

You all know that we had been planning to hold an event this fall, celebrating the 50 years that WGDR has been broadcasting and providing an alternative source of media for our listeners.  There have been many changes over these 50 years at the station, and reaching this milestone has only been possible because of the efforts of everyone that has been involved with WGDR over these many years.

You also all know that the recent flooding in our community has had a devastating impact throughout our listening area.  Countless listeners and local businesses have suffered damages, with many having lost everything.  The ripple effects from this flood will certainly be felt throughout the community for some time. 

In light of these recent weather events, and wanting to stand in solidarity with those in our community that have suffered so much damage, the CVCR Board and Planning Committee have together made the difficult decision to postpone this event to a future time when all the needed resources and full attention of the station are available to organize the type of event that this milestone deserves.  We hope this event will be a true celebration and coming together of our community, as well as an uplifting experience for both the station and our listeners.  The timing is just not right for that to happen this year.

The Board certainly recognizes that planning efforts for this event have already been underway for some time.  We very much appreciate all those efforts and want to acknowledge all the folks that have been involved in that process.  We hope you all will continue to be involved in planning and conducting this event when it does occur.

We hope everyone understands how difficult this decision is, but we look forward to holding a wonderful event in 2024 when we can all fully celebrate together!

Mark Michaelis
CVCR Board Chair

p.s. In the meantime, it is still the 50th year and you can celebrate, and support the station, by buying one of the new 50th-designed t-shirts, sweatshirts, or tote bags from our swag shop. This is a special 50th anniversary designed by Vermont cartoonist and author, Rachel Lindsay.

Wear or Tote WGDR’s New 50th Design

Turning 50 is moo-mentous for anyone, but for a community radio station, it is utterly spectacular. We’ve been finding ways to mark this milestone all year with special programming, tributes, and now, a special 50th anniversary design by Vermont cartoonist and author, Rachel Lindsay. Check it out below! We’ll have these as free stickers in the community and available at the station soon.

Can’t wait? Check out our swag store for the design on t-shirts, sweatshirts, and tote bags.

Thanks for helping us get to 50 years young and for listening!

“Hang in there.”

Friends of WGDR/WGDH -

"Hang in there. Stay awesome." This was a note we got from an out-of-state listener last week. He was reaching out to offer hope that the recovery efforts in Vermont were going well and to thank us for the kind of coverage we were offering listeners in those first few days and the weeks that followed.

Photo credit CVCR: Some of the programmers you've heard on the air.

As a station, we were fortunate to not be physically impacted by the flooding at either of our locations. This enabled us to immediately get on the air with relief information, letting folks know about washed-out roads, shelter locations, and places to get help or offer help. As the days wore on, many programmers began just simply offering comfort, company, and even a little humor over the airwaves. Many of our music shows leaned into the moment playing themed shows with music to clean to, take a break with, or just dance out the stress with.

We were able to be here for the community because just this past April we more than doubled the number of locally made shows. As you know, now, over 50 programmers are bringing their voices on the air, their perspectives, and their talents. All of these folks rose to this moment, opening the phone lines to callers to share their experiences, interviewing FEMA and SBA experts to explain application processes for recovery funding, and even offering solace for these hard times. Like during the early days of the pandemic, we felt honored to be a resource folks turned to in a time of need.

I have to say, as the station manager, I've never been more proud to be part of the station. Thank you to all our programmers who have stepped up to this moment. We had one programmer hike out of their own washed-out road, hitch a ride, and go live with support for listeners. Another programmer came back to do their first live show in many years, taking calls, and sharing real-time information on road conditions, shelters, and more. Another show "put on their muck boots" and still held their bluegrass barn dance so listeners could dance it out after days of mucking out. This is what community radio is all about.

If you drive around our listening area, it is very apparent that this recovery will continue for weeks and months. Some may never recover from the impact. As a station, we remain committed to helping in any way we can. With that in mind, we are offering the following:

• We will continue to put updates on FEMA, SBA, and state and local relief services on our website. This includes how to apply for funding and more.

• We've had FEMA and SBA staff on the air during Carl Etnier's "Relocalizing Vermont" over the last few weeks to answer common questions about eligibility and more. You can listen back to the most recent show on our archives and the one a few weeks back here.

• If you or someone you know is planning a benefit fundraiser for relief efforts in your community, we'd like to add that to our community events calendar. We can't broadcast GoFundMe campaigns due to FCC rules, but we can announce fundraiser events for community resources like food shelves, etc. You can submit those here.

• Lastly, we know some businesses and organizations have managed to reopen already or have switched to online sales to get cash flow going again for payrolls and to stay afloat while recovery funding is sorted out. We'd like to offer special once-a-week, no fee upfront, underwriting spots for the next 3-6 months, for places impacted by flooding. We can help get the word out that you are open or online. If this is of interest, please reach out to me at Llu@WGDR.org.

Please consider WGDR & WGDH a strong resource ready to be at your disposal to get the word out about ways to help. We are here also as solace through music and connection for each other through the airwaves at 91.1 FM and 91.7 FM.

In community with you,

Llu Mulvaney-Stanak, Station Manager

Llu@WGDR.org, 802-276-0365 (office line, can be texted)