DID YOU KNOW? ONLY 2% OF LISTENERS GIVE TO WGDR!

As of 2026, we now have over 45K listeners to the station between our broadcast and online listeners. That is a 250% increase, from the estimated 13K that listened when we were owned by Goddard. 

Our biggest growth area has been our online listeners! That’s why we invite streamers to become donors during fundrive.

As you know, we’re also about to add thousands more broadcast listeners with the new WGDR antenna in May. 

This is all great, but did you know, only 2% of all these new and long time listeners actually give to the station?! 

The public and community radio average is about 10% of listeners give. With our listener growth, we need to grow our donors next!

This is your sign to become a new donor! If everyone gives even a little, we can have a huge impact on our programming. And, every new donor or new sustainer gift at $10 or more made during fundrive gets matched by our generous Board of Directors.

Please make your gift today at WGDR.org and help us meet this Spring Fundrive goal.

Thank you, listeners!

Breaking News: FCC Approves WGDR New Antenna Permit

How about some good news? Just before the fundrive started we were notified that the FCC approved the WGDR antenna construction permit. This means we can finally raise the new antenna at the new tower location in May! 

The new WGDR antenna is a big deal for us!

• 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.

Your support, during the fundrive, ensures that we have the funding we need for our programming costs right now. That way, we are ready to rock when this new antenna goes up and we welcome as many as 20K new households into our broadcast listening area in the valleys of Barre and Montpelier.

More information about the antenna project and timeline can be found here.

Please make your gift today and help us meet this Spring Fundrive goal.

Thank you, listeners!

And the sticker winner is…

Voting on the sticker design is now closed as of 3/2/26. Thanks to the 40 folks who voted and all our designers.

Congrats to Athena Siegel for winning with the cassette tape design!

If you donate $53 or more during the upcoming fundrive, we’ll send you one in the mail.

Thanks to our three artists/designers who submitted sticker designs for this year’s station sticker contest. Voting is open for any listener, programmer, or larger member of our community radio family to vote on your favorite. Please vote by March 1. The winning design will be printed as stickers that our fundrive donors ($53 or more) get. The artist $100 stipend and bragging rights!

About the artists:

[Cassette Tape Design] My name is Athena Siegel, and I am a first-year student at UVM, studying art education in hopes of becoming an elementary school art teacher. I love everything creative, from drawing to sewing and knitting! My cat, Frankie, is my muse, and likes to help me by sitting on all my projects.

[Text Style Designs] Audrey Clare Homan is a long-time late-night Vermont DJ hiding away in the northern part of central Vermont. They've been a digital accessibility specialist, a tacoista, a grants accountant, and a veterinary school janitor, but only rarely all at the same time.

[Vermont and Tower Design] Diana Clarke is a local designer and had the winning design last year.

Vote by March 1!

New voices coming on the air.

To kick off the new year, we’re thrilled to welcome seven new voices to the station, launching six brand-new local shows starting in February. The lineup includes five talk-based shows, one music show, and one talk/music hybrid, covering a wide range of perspectives and creative concepts. From spotlighting nonbinary and queer music artists, to call-in conversations on community issues and politics, to news and interviews on politics and economics through a working-class and social justice lens, these shows bring fresh energy and insight to our airwaves. You’ll also hear explorations of underrepresented healthcare topics from medical professionals and a parody-driven take on classic radio tropes.

The new programmers are Aidan Gongloff-Piche, Ari Erlbaum, Fern Sutton-Smith, Nicole Valcour, Traven Leyshon (co-hosting a new show with Joseph Gainza), Walt Amses (co-hosting a new show with Steve Farnham), and Fia Prestigiacomo. We’ll update folks on show start dates and the updated schedule soon. Be sure to tune in and help us welcome these new folks when their shows debut!​

• Ethan - Co-hosting with Curse of the Golden Turnip, Sundays, 7-9am, already in rotation!

• Aidan - ALGO - Started February 18, airing Wednesday, 5-7pm on the 1st & 3rd of month.

• Walt & Steven - Maiden Voyage, Thursdays, 6am-8am, starting February 26.

• Nicole - Rebel Health, Sundays, 10am-Noon, 1st Sunday of month, starting March 1.

• Fia - Snail Music, Tuesdays 6-7pm, 1st & 3rd of the month, starting March 3.

• Ari & Iris - Talk Show, second Wednesdays, 3-4pm, starting March 11.

• Traven & Joseph - Bread & Roses Too - Every other 1st Saturday, 9am-10am, next airing in April.

This takes our schedule to more than 75% local and live programming. A huge milestone for the station, especially as we prepare to expand our broadcast reach this spring for WGDR and 91.1 FM. 

Design our 2026 station sticker!

Calling all artists, cartoonists, and doodlers!!!

We’re looking for design pitches for our annual station sticker.

We stick these stickers all over the place — well, our listeners do. We send them as thank yous to fundrive donors, give them out at community events, and use them to patch up audio cables (kidding! or are we?).

We will provide a modest stipend for the winning sticker design of $100. The design will become fair use for the station for any purpose, but the artist can retain use as well (portfolios, etc.). This work will be seen far and wide, and will credit the artist in all the places we use the art!

To submit a sticker pitch please use the following guidelines:

1. Concept: We’re looking for designs that capture the power of community radio and the uniqueness of WGDR and WGDH. This year we are buying a brand new antenna and raising it on a new tower for WGDR. So, incorporating a stronger signal vibe would be cool!

2. Local art rocks: We are looking to uplift visual Vermont artists with this project, so please no submissions from out of state. Cartoonists, block printers, drawers, doodlers, go for it!

3. Specs: we need a print-ready, digital design. This can be either hand-drawn and well-scanned to a digital copy or a digitally designed graphic. It can be black and white or color. The image should be within a 4” by 4” design area (nothing much smaller than that). It can be a die-cut design (cut out like our 50th edition cows were (see below) or a traditional square or rectangle design. These are meant to be true, fun sticker art and do not need to have our logo incorporated. The sticker does need to include the following text: Central Vermont Community Radio, WGDR at 91.1 FM, WGDH at 91.7 FM, and WGDR.org. Besides that, have fun with it!

4. How to submit: Send your design idea, along with a very brief blurb about you, your work, and any helpful links to Llu@WGDR.org by Friday, February 20. We’ll ask programmers and listeners to vote on the winning designs, via our website, and announce the winning pitches as we go into the spring fundrive starting March 6!

Feel free to reach out to Llu with any questions too and spread the word to your arty friends! Thanks to our two past sticker designers, Diana Clarke & Rachel Lindsay (see their designs below).

WGDR Antenna FCC Application Submitted!

We are very grateful to our FCC attorney, engineer, and technical consultant who teamed up with me over the holidays to get our WGDR antenna officially submitted. This is a huge milestone in our progress toward expanding and improving the WGDR, 91.1 FM signal. We should hear back from the FCC in a couple of months and of course, we'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, we want to extend a huge thank you to the many folks who have given to the WGDR Tower Fund so far. We are 60% of our way to the $175K goal and are on pace to have what we need to start preparing for the project this spring. This, combined with listener support to meet our our end of year fundraising goals, have us so excited for this new year. Your support is a literal investment in the future of WGDR — helping us expand our signal, strengthen our reach, and bring you even more of the music, voices, and stories that matter.

Learn more about the project and the timeline here.

A bigger, better WGDR signal is coming in 2026 — and it’s all because of you. Thank you!