Fall FunDrive Donor Contest!

We appreciate every single dollar and put it all toward keeping the station sounding great. With your help, we will meet every goal of the 2025 Fall FunDrive, especially that $25,000 big goal.

There are lots of ways to give:

• Go to the drive website and donate by credit card, venmo, PayPal or more.

• Or on the drive site pledge a check and then send it made out to “CVCR” and mail it to the station at WGDR, 123 Pitkin Rd. Plainfield, VT 05667.

  Every donor who gives by October 12 will be entered to win a prize or receive a perk!

• A gift of $250 or more, will snag you anything of your choice from our swag shop!

• A gift of $52 or more gets you a brand new, limited edition “CVCR Tower” sticker. Show it off! Sticker design by local artist Diana Clark.

• All donors who give during our two-week drive will be entered to win prizes donated by Vermont businesses and organizations. Plus, we have tickets to shows like:

  • Neko Case at the Flynn January 11, 2026

  • Shakey Graves at Higher Ground, December 18

  • a Bread & Puppet Banner

  • Vermont Philharmonic at Highland Arts Center, October 18

  • Blind Boys of Alabama at Spruce Peak Arts, December 19

• Show incentives: Tune in to hear more!

We will also have individual show incentives for giving levels. Tune in to hear more!

CVCR Contest Rules
Anyone who donated online or by check dated during our Fall Fundrive, September 26-October 12, will be entered to win one of the incentive prizes donated from local businesses and organizations. You must donate during the dates of the fundrive to be eligible to win. Per station policy, no paid staff, programmers, volunteers, board, or contractors are eligible to win.

Any questions can be sent to Llu Mulvaney-Stanak at Llu@WGDR.org or at (802) 276-0365.

Thank you for supporting WGDR/WGDH!

Very Vermonty Auction a Vast Success

We are delighted to tell you that our first Very Vermonty Auction was a vast success!

Every dollar raised helps pay for the programming all of us love and rely on here on WGDR and WGDH. A big thank you to the 67 businesses, individuals, and organizations who donated goods, services, and experiences.

The bidding frenzy over the items was exciting to watch! We had 88 folks in on the fun of bidding and estimate we will raise about $4K once folks settle up on their winning items. Not everyone was able to walk away a winner with an item, but we hope you had fun and you are all winners in our hearts. 

This is a big deal for our first time doing an auction like this. Thank you all!

These results are a great example of the team spirit between our programmers, board, local business community, and our listeners. It’s also a hat tip to our continued creative approach to raising the funds to support this great community radio station. Thank you very much!

Win Concert Tickets in September

Our Higher Ground partnership continues into the fall with chances to win tickets for the following concerts during the following shows:

• Grand Points North (9/12-9/13, yes both nights) getting given away on Future Reflections with DJ Syd on September 2;

• Matt Heckler (9/21) on Woodwarbler's Jazzgrass with Brian on September 17;

• Lucero (9/24) on the Monday Drive at 2pm with Corey on September 22;

• A Band of Brothers (9/27) on Woodwarbler's Jazzgrass with Brian on September 24;

• and Neighbor + Tom Hamilton (9/27) on Discoverances with DJ Savannah September 14.

  Tune in on these WGDR shows the week before the concert date listed to catch a chance to win the tickets.

Upcoming Programming To Tune For & Show Changes

Be sure to tune in for these upcoming shows:

• Thursday, August 21 at 6pm catch the monthly Radio RoundUp featuring an interview with Kris Gruen, the acting Director of the Creative Campus and hear about the changes coming to the old Goddard campus. Levi interviews programmer and Program Committee member, Maura Quinn, as well as Merry Gangemi, a long time programmer, about the role community radio has in our current times.

• The second Thursday of the month at 6pm is the new local show, Hyper Local Dispatch hosted by Syd and Natasha. The show will get Plainfielders up to speed about what is happening in the village, while also highlighting how local governance functions. Syd & Natasha hope that bringing people easy to digest local news, they can strengthen community ties and engagement, especially in the face of an increasingly authoritarian and fascist state. You can catch their show from last week in our archives still.​​

• Saturday, September 13 at 10am, the Civic Standard's Civic Radio Project will be its's last in its 6 month run as our collaboration with them. ​

We hope you have been enjoying the new local programs that started this summer: Eggs on Toast on Mondays at 9am with Kelly, Thursdays at 12pm, Unshelved with J Kramer and on the 1st Thursday of the month at 6pm the Broken Bois Collective, Sex Fly with DJ Benge, on the 1st Saturdays at 10am, and DJ Rhizosphere's Under the Covers on the 3rd Saturdays at 10am.

We've had a few shows depart and take a break this summer as well. Long-time programmer Peter Goreau has stepped back from his show Spanning the Chasm on Sundays at 2pm. We hope to welcome Peter back in the coming months. Other shows taking a break include, Audio Ergo Sum, with Darien and Ruby every other Sunday at 10am, All the Crooked Saints with DJ Sacramento Tuesdays at midnight, Mermaid Avenue on Tuesdays at 12pm with Trevor, and Structurally Unsound, with Yardain, every other Tuesdays at 9am. Where Do We Go From Here?, Fridays at 11am with DJ Mittens was a summer show only and Mittens has gone back to college for the fall. Each of these show slots now have music syndicated shows airing instead. Check our schedule for the latest line up​.

Our fall fundrive will be running Friday, September 26-October 12 and will have all the surprises, extra local programming, and special guests you've come to love. We'll be tell you more about it on the air soon!

A Very Vermonty Auction is Live

Updated 8-2-25

The Very Vermonty Auction​ is now open as of August 2nd.

Our very first Very Vermonty Auction is live and ready for you to bid, bid, bid. We have over 60 items, experiences, and one-of-a-kind WGDR moments to win. Head over to the website now to register, start bidding, and then keep tabs on your items. The highest bids by August, 17, will be the winners!

Dozens of unique, fun, and exciting items are posted for you to bid on now. Some of these include:​

• Hand printed art from Bread & Puppet​, Mary Azarian, and Hard Press Print Shop (pictured right).​

• Dinner out at Nacho Mama, Outer Spice, Positive Pie, Sambel's Food Truck, and Burlington great eats at Poppy Cafe, Mister Fancy’s, Frankie’s, and more​.

• Truly unique WGDR experiences including a voice greeting recorded by Rumble Strip's Eric Heilman​, co-host a music show, live, with DJ Llu​, a private garden coaching session with Alan LePage​, and more! 

• Family adventures to ECHO in Burlington, the Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury, VINS in Woodstock,​ Kingdom Trail Association passes​, Mad River Glen passes​, and more.

• Self-care sessions in personal training, herbal consultations, yoga, mani-pedis, and somatic experiences​. ​

• Live music and comedy​ - Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, Ani DiFranco, Spruce Peak Arts, Hill Farmstead Brewery Harvest Festival of Ales and Lager, the Vermont Comedy Club, and more.

• Home and garden items, sourdough baking class, pet consultations, and more!​

When you sign up to bid you will be asked:

• For a PayPal account or credit card to have on file. This ensures winning bids, at the end of the auction, are processed securely and quickly. You will be prompted to confirm your win before a charge is made. You will not be charged if you do not win. We do not use credit card information for any other purposes.

• You will be asked to cover processing fees. This saves WGDR money! We appreciate if you cover them, but it is not required.

• You can be public or an anonymous bidder. Either way is still fun!

And, if you don’t see an item you want to bid on, please consider leaning into our “season of new sustainers!” We’re looking to get 25 supporters to become a new monthly donor by Labor Day. For just $5 a month, you could fund the WGDR/WGDH programming you love and rely on. It’s like bidding on the station AND winning it all at once!

Or, buy some station swag! We have hats, tshirts (with the new tower design and in kid sizes), bags, and more for sale on our website.

Take good care folks and thanks for listening, and soon, bidding!

What the end of CPB funding means for VT.

WGDR & WGDH Supporters -

Early this morning Congress finished approving Trump's $9 billion recession package. Among the many horrible cuts to public services in this country and internationally, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) funding was fully eliminated. That is $2 billion over the next two years. CPB is a large amount of funding for NPR and PBS and affiliate stations in the states, including much smaller and rural stations. It is those stations, ones in Alaska, on reservations, where CPB funds more than 50% of their budgets, where the impact will be felt most. Many of these stations will likely close and their listeners will be left with no access to news, local coverage, and emergency alerts that warn of flooding, tornadoes, fires, and other life threatening events. This doesn't just impact public media, this impacts public safety.

Here in Vermont, we won't face the dire circumstance of any public or community station closing, but we are impacted.

Vermont Public will lose $4 million in funding over the next two years. They will pivot, but it will hurt how they do what they do for the entire state. We encourage you to tune in and follow their digital communications to find out how they are responding. And, we encourage you to give to them to help them fund this gap. It is a very community radio thing to do to rally around our radio friends when they need us!

WGDR/WGDH no longer gets CPB funding. However, we do have a deal through CPB still that keeps the music rights service we pay for affordable. This deal with Sound Exchange, one of the entities that controls rights, is now in question. Read Bob Boilen, the former Tiny Desk of NPR Director, explaining this a bit more. The five other community radio stations don't receive CPB funding either, so their future is not in jeopardy. But, they too may experience increased costs due to the music rights issue.

Central Vermont Community Radio's story is a cautionary tale of what happens when CPB money is pulled. In 2020, CPB funding was pulled from the station, due to an audit, while it was still owned by Goddard College. At the time, the station had an operating budget of $300,000, two full time staff, and Goddard's overhead support for administration, fundraising, and facilities. The CPB funding was half the budget. Only 16% of the budget came from community support. The loss of the CPB money was what made the College give the station to the community. They were unable to afford to keep it running.

Since then, we have worked extremely hard to not just keep the station on the air, but to build a sustainable operating budget. Four years in, we are now at around $135K a year, with one full time and one very part time staff. We are proud that nearly 80% of our budget is funded directly from listeners like you. And, yet, still are not at the capacity we had or need to produce the high level programming you want, need, and love. We'll keep at it and we know, alongside making sure public radio makes it through, you will keep up your support of your pals in community radio too.

This is not a time to turn it down, it is a time to turn it up. If you can, give a little. If you have more means, give more to the stations you adore and to the stations so many rely on every day here in Vermont.

Take good care folks and thanks for listening to all our great public and community stations in our green mountains.

Llu Mulvaney-Stanak, Station Manager WGDR/WGDH, Llu@WGDR.org or (802) 276-0365.

p.s. If you want to share a video summary of this message, check our Instagram page. With a special guest appearance by our WGDR antenna!