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!

Legislative Community Media Funding Moving Forward

This legislative session we've partnered between community radio (9 stations around the state) and the public access TV stations (24 of them) via the Vermont Access Network to pursue state funding for our work. After a lot of work in the first half of the session, we are pleased to share that the House has passed our funding request! It's 1.89M, supported through the Secretary of State's general fund budget. $90K of that will support the 9 community radio stations annual operating budget, distributed proportional to their budgets. This is a very tough budget year and many worthy projects did not get funded.

We are so grateful for this support from the House. We aren't done yet, next we work with the state Senate to finish the budget process.

Now is a great time to call or email your state representative in the House and thank them for passing the budget with community media funding!

WGDH Upgrades This Spring

Remember our one-time state support from last year? Now that winter is thawing, we're able to work on the upgrades for both WGDH and WGDR, with the new antenna in May. WGDH's upgrades include a new heat pump that went in last week, to protect our broadcast equipment from the extreme temperatures now get, especially in summer. We'll also be fixing the antenna line and installing a new transmitter (replacing the one that is 15 years old and showing its age!). You won't hear much of a difference, but these are investments in the durability and future for the station.

WGDR is up in May for the very exciting new antenna and move to the new tower.

New Spring Schedule

Do you hear that?

It's the sound of a new schedule just in time for spring.

Welcome to all the new local programmers and don't miss out on the few new syndicated programs too.

The new local 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. 

Find these new folks with their local shows on:

• Ethan - Co-hosting with Curse of the Golden Turnip, Sundays, 7-9am.

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

• Walt & Steven - Prodcast, Thursdays, 6am-8am

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

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

• Ari & Iris - The Moment Given, 2nd Wednesdays, 3-4pm,

• Traven & Joseph - Bread & Roses Too - Every other 1st Saturday, 9am-10am

• DJ Citrus with Open All Hours at 2am on Wednesday mornings.

*New syndicated shows include:

• Softpower and Fulstories - talk shows at 5am on Sundays

• Spirit in Action - talk show 3rd Mondays at 11am and the 2nd & 4th Saturdays at 9am

• Donne Del Mondo - overnight music show at 1am on Wednesdays.

• The Kinetic Playground and THe Sonic Cafe - overnight music shows at 1am and 2am on Fridays.

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. 

The station is also has a far more diverse representation of our community - perhaps than ever before?

In 2021, we inherited a schedule of 23 local folks doing shows after the ownership change.

• Age: None were under 30, 29% were under 65, and 55% were over 65.

• Gender: 22% were women, none were trans, and 77% were men.

• Sexuality: 3% were queer, 96% were not queer.

With this latest schedule, just over four years later, we hav 65 local folks doing shows.

• Age: ith 6% are under 30, 70% are under 64, and 21% are over 65.

• Gender: 27% are women, 7% are trans, and 64% are men.

• Sexuality: 27% are queer and 72% are not queer.

We share these stats because representation matters on the air and inviting folks to be out about who they are matters, as we tell the story of our changing and diverse community on the air.

*Part of the need to add new syndicated shows is to adjust for the retirement of the long running show, Letters & Politics last fall, which aired Monday-Thursday, as well as a retirement of a few other syndicated local shows in the last few months.