Programmer Featurette: Savannah Bailey

Programmer Featurette: Savannah Bailey

By John Dillon, Chair of the CVCR Programming Committee

Each month, a member of our Programming Committee is interviewing one of our programmers. These “featurettes” will give you a glimpse into some of your favorite WGDR/WGDH voices and what they do when they aren’t on the air. Up first, Savannah Bailey, one of our newest programmers in 2024!

Programmer Featurette: Savannah Bailey

By John Dillon, Chair of the CVCR Programming Committee

Savannah Bailey is one of WGDR’s latest group of programmers, with a Wednesday morning, two-hour weekly slot starting at 6 am.

Savannah may be new to WGDR. But she is not new to the airwaves. Before moving to central Vermont in October, Savannah lived in Portland, Maine for three years where she had a show on Portland’s community radio station, WMPG.

Savannah grew up in central New Hampshire in a family-centered around music.

“I’ve always had music in my life,” she says. Savannah’s first radio experience came at age 12 when she visited the Plymouth State College radio station and got to play CDs on air. She remembers featuring the Beatles Norwegian Wood album which she had recently discovered by browsing through her dad’s album collection.

“It (the WMPG show) was called the Flip Side. It was a music show, mostly Indie Rock and I did a theme a week. Before that I also had a radio show in college…. One of my college friends was like, ‘Savannah, you love sharing your music with everyone and you always like to play your music in the car, why don’t you have a radio show?”

“So that (community radio) was the first thing I looked up in Portland. And when I moved here it was the first thing I looked up again. So, I’m so glad WGDR is here and I was able to get a show so quickly.”

Savannah is a staff scientist at Stone Environmental in Montpelier, with a background in geology, environmental science and landscape design. She works in the water quality department.

"So my two loves are music and the outdoors. Stewardship of the outdoors is also very important to me,” she remarked.

The following is a snippet of the conversation between John & Savannah, edited for brevity and clarity.

Your show is early morning?
“Yes, it’s going to be from 6-8 am. We’ll see how it goes. My show when I was in Portland 6:30-8 and when I first started there it was actually at 4 am. So, I’ve done early morning shows before. I work a normal office job and wanted to keep my weekends kind of free so it seemed like the morning was a good time.”

You mentioned that you like to share your music, is that what brought you to radio and what made you want to have a show?
“Yes, definitely. I’ve always loved music; my family is very musical and I kind of grew up with music. I’m like a deep listener to music, especially to lyrics. I love lyrics, and I love sharing my love of music and lyrics with other people. I try to listen to kind of less mainstream music and find more kind of unknown artist and promote them when I’m on the air.”

Where do you draw your material from, your playlists from?
“Well, in Portland at WMPG I did a theme for every week, so I got really into doing specific themes. (For example], one week it was all songs inspired by books, I would spend hours researching different songs that were inspired by books or whatever the theme was. And I would build a huge show that way. And I would spend hours putting a show together. But it took a lot of my free time doing that.

“Now with my new show I’m going to try kind of the opposite approach. I’m thinking of doing a very free form, just ‘listen to what I want to in the moment style.’ And I really love playing from the music the station already has. So, I’m kind of envisioning pulling a lot of CDs and vinyl at the station and going to the Dropbox (where WGDR has new releases) and doing some research there in the moment while I’m doing my show and deciding we’re going to listen to this CD now and seeing how it goes, see if I like it.”

How would describe your show’s intent, or how would you describe it just a few words?
“I guess my intent is kind of to be an alternative the algorithm (that is) coming up with suggested songs for you and instead just really trying to listen to broad swaths of music that aren’t listened to nowadays, or that people don’t take the time to search out new artists.
My music tends to be with women vocalists or queer artists so I try to focus on music that might not be heard otherwise.”

I love that: You could call it Alternative to the Algorithm!
How does you community geographically, socially, politically shape what you bring to the air?
“Oh, that’s an interesting question. I mean, I am part of the queer community so I always try to uplift those voices. And I’ve really found that community to be very welcoming in Vermont, which has been very exciting to me.

“In general, one of my values is local and community. And I feel like that is kind of what I’m getting at even though my show is not specifically local music, but just trying to play music of people who aren’t in a big marketing game to sell a lot of records, but they’re just playing music because they love it and they want to share it with the world. So that’s the music I want to be playing too.”

“At work today, I was listening to the new Dropbox music from January and so much of it is great music and I wouldn’t have heard it unless WGDR had put it in this Dropbox.”

Doing a live show is both a solo event and a performance. How do you imagine your audience listening? And what role are they playing in what you do?
“That’s a good question. When I first had my show in Portland, especially, because that’s a real
community station versus the college one which was very much just college listeners, I was very kind of nervous when I first started because I wanted to sound good on air and I was aware people in the community listening. But as I’ve been doing radio, I feel like that has not been a worry as much and it’s more that even though it’s broadcasting out and I know there’s an audience listening it’s also a time for me to connect with myself because I am alone in the station and I really just celebrate my love of music. And any time I get feedback, from someone listening it’s really, really validating and so exciting to know that other people share my joy of music too.”

Obviously, you haven’t had a show on GDR for long, but from your Portland experience, how has your show changed and developed over time?
“Like I said, I’m trying to put less pre-planning into my show now, and just having less kind of a rigid structure to the show but just kind of let it flow on how I feel in the morning. I love getting calls and requests from listeners, which would happen to me in Portland. And I really just love having the space to follow my interests in the moment so if I really like one artist, researching them in the moment and listening to other music of that genre. I really like that idea. I don’t think there is anything very radical that has changed about how I do my shows.”

Welcome to WGDR, Savannah! We’re so glad you’re part of our community.

“The most affordable way to get the word out.”

Did you know Central Vermont Community Radio has the most affordable way to get the word out? We know because we did the research and our underwriters and sponsors have told us this!

Do you need to reach Vermonters in our area? Consider underwriting or sponsoring the station. Our new 2024 rates and options aren’t only affordable, they can be customized to meet your needs for an upcoming event, seasonal businesses, or year-long run.

What’s the difference between underwriting and sponsoring?

Underwriting is a 20 second spot on the air that lets listeners know about your services, products, or mission. Unlike ads, they are not loud or flashy, they simply tell folks what you do, where you are, and where they can learn more. This has to follow FCC regulations. The rates start as low as $273 for a once a week mention for 6 months.

Sponsoring is also a 20 second spot, but on our livestream that tells listeners about your services, products, or mission, but with some flair! More like an ad, they tell folks why what you do matters, where you are, and where they can find you. Sponsorships are great for online retailers and the cannabis sector. These do not have FCC regulations. Slots are very limited for 2024, as each sponsor will get a full day sponsor of the stream starting as low as $1,000 for 6 months. With over 100 streamers a day, that shakes out to $1 per actual human listening (so much more reliable than social media ads and a far cheaper ROI compared to other local media options!).

See the full rates below.

If you are interested, please contact station manager Llu Mulvaney-Stanak at 802-276-0365 (you can text to) or email at Llu [at] WGDR.org.

These are a few of our underwriters and sponsors, thanks to all of them!

Bear Pond Books, Black Bear Biodiesel, Buch Spelier, CVEDC, East Hill Tree Farm, Galaxy Bookshop, Green Mountain Film Festival, Hardwick Community TV, Hunger Mtn Coop, Nelson’s Ace Hardware, Noyle Johnson Group, Onion River Animal Hospital, Onion River Campground, Queer Arts Fest, SolarFest, Talmo Hair Co., Vermont Arts Council, Woodbelly Pizza, Woodbury Mtn. Toys, and more!

More Local Shows in February

Here at CVCR, we’re excited to bring more and more of the community into the station. Starting in February, we’ll welcome 10 new programmers onto the air. Their shows will mostly be music shows, adding diversity to our playlists and making our weekends, middays, and early mornings even more “live and local.” 

These additions mean about 60 of your neighbors will bring you views, community connections, and musical selections across 50 eclectic shows every week.

This is a huge milestone for the station. Less than a year ago, only 30% of our main schedule was local. Now, 80% is locally made.

Continue reading for specific days and times for these new shows and the few additional changes to the schedule. 

As always, the Programming Committee is open to your feedback. Use our listener survey to tell us what you think and other thoughts on existing programming.

Thanks for continuing to listen and support your community radio stations of WGDR and WGDH and please help us welcome this new group of programmers in the coming weeks.

The 8 new local shows include:

Sundays

• 10am-noon: “Audio Ergo Sum,” a music show by Darien & Ruby McElwain, variety of music

• 4-5pm: “Swivel Radio,” a music by DJ Effery, variety of music

• 6-7pm: “The Tim Show w/ DJ For Now,” a music show with DJ For Now, indie rock, psych rock, and more

• 9-11pm: “Spiral Galaxy,” a music hosted by Tom McMurdo, psych rock, prog, jazz and more.

Tuesdays

• 6-8am: “Styrofoam Stereo,” a music show by Thomas Mattera, blues, rock, folk, roots and more (bi-weekly), alternating with Full Moon Hacksaw.

Wednesdays

• 6-8am: “Discoverances,” a music show by Savannah Bailey. Take your first listen to something new with DJ Savannah, who will be actively discovering new and old artists to love! Pulling from WGDR's extensive physical and digital music libraries, the name of the game is discovery, with a special focus on women musicians who did not get the airtime they deserved.

• 2-4pm: “Soul Joy,” a music show by returning programmer Jacquette Landrum, gospel and Christian music, and interviews

  Thursdays

  • 11am-noon: Talking Vermont,” a talk show about the prison industry in Vermont by Tim Burgess (bi-weekly show)

  To make room for these local shows, the following syndicated shows will move to these new slots: 

On Sundays:

12am-2am - Green Bubble Tea

2am - Café Chill

On Tuesdays:

6am - The five day airing of Background Briefing with Ian Masters at 6am will be reduced to just three days a week, Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays.

9am - Peace Talks Radio

9:30am - Sprouts

11am - Rising up Sonali

2pm – Straight Up Soul (new syndicated music show)

3pm – First Voice Radio

On Wednesdays:

11pm-1am - Most Fluids (new syndicated music show)

On Thursdays:

12pm – Afrosonic Taxi

1pm – Rocking the Rez

4pm – Law and Disorder

On Fridays:

2am – Modern Jet Set

On Saturdays:

6:30am – Food Sleuth Radio

8am – Bike Talk

 A few existing local shows also have moved or changed:

• Country Sounds in Modern Times, with Barry Matthews is now just one hour, earlier on Wednesdays at 4pm.

• Woodwarbler’s Jazzgrass Show with Brian Aust is now live at 7pm on Wednesdays.

• The Jive Turkey Show with Turkey Joe is expanding to two hours on Fridays, starting at 11am.

• The Hoi Polloi with Damian Taylor will be retiring from the schedule.

• Bon Mot, with Rick Agran, is returning to live broadcast Sundays at 5pm

These changes also mean we have reached the point where we have limits in the schedule.

First, there are limited local slots for new programmers. This means late nights, a handful of slots during middays on weekdays, and early mornings will be where new folks will have a chance to start shows with us. We will also offer options for new applicants to become subs or be involved in the station in other ways while being on a waitlist for when more local slots open up.

These changes also mean we will be retiring a few syndicated shows Short Wave Radio, For the Wild, Write the Book, All Things Cage, Woodsongs Radio, and the Final Straw. These shows all can be listened to directly on their websites.

Thank you, listeners.

Friends of CVCR -

As we end the year today, we wanted to send all of you our warmest wishes for the coming new year. To help ring in 2024 and celebrate what was good for 2023, please tune in tonight for a special New Year's Eve live special program: Countdown, hosted by the Revel Level, 7pm-midnight.

While we are in celebration mode, I wanted to also share this poem we recently got from a listener. It really captures all of what this station has been about since 1973 and where we aim to still go in the new year and beyond.

Also, today is the last day to give to CVCR for 2023 tax purposes. We are so grateful to the over 350 of you who supported the station this year. We put your money to good use, keeping the programming you love airing all year long.

As you can see below, 84% of our funding this year has come from listeners like you. We are really proud of that!

Thank you for tuning in and happy new year!

Llu Mulvaney-Stanak, WGDR/WGDH Station Manager

Llu@WGDR.org, 802-276-0365

p.s. We are always eager for your feedback. Take our listener survey and help us continue to curate programming in 2024.

WGDR/WGDH broadcasts at 91.1 FM in the greater Plainfield area, 91.7 FM in the hollows and hills of Hardwick and beyond, and at WGDR.org to the whole world. Our studio is located at the Eliot Pratt Center on the Goddard College campus at 123 Pitkin Road, Plainfield, VT 05667.

A rewind of 2023 at WGDR & WGDH.

Friends of CVCR -

What a year of building more community on the radio! We are profoundly grateful to every single one of you for helping these beloved stations continue to thrive. As you can see from this year's stats, hundreds of our neighbors are stepping up to provide the time, funding, and energy it takes to power your community radio stations.

As we look to the end of the year, here are a few highlights of 2023:

• In the spring, the schedule transformation was one of the biggest in the history of the station. We added a ton of new local and syndicated shows, bringing you new perspectives, stories, and musical genres. A number of our brand-new local shows are now some of the most streamed shows each week, a testament to the dedication they have brought to what they produce for you each week.

• By the summer, the entire station took on a new sense of togetherness, especially in the wake of the summer flooding. We asked programmers to rise to the moment and they did just that for you. Providing resources and relief from the unrelenting clean-up and recovery efforts.

• This sense of station teamwork rolled into the fall, where we truly made the fall drive a FUNdrive, with amazing special programming, cross-hosting, and more. You could hear just how much fun everyone was having, and it paid off, raising over $14K for the station, and blowing away all other CVCR drive records.

• The community has turned it up too, helping us raise money (Worst. Song. Ever.!), transform the station with a new paint job, buying and rocking our station swag around town, and underwriting the station.

• Listeners have not only tuned in more, but they've let us know what they think. We are getting close to 100 entries for our listener survey. If you have yet to take part, please do.

• We spent all year celebrating the huge milestone of 50 years of WGDR being on the air. Did you know we are the 2nd oldest community station in the country and the oldest and biggest in Vermont? While we had to postpone the party, we are in the works of a 51st party for this coming spring. Stay tuned!

• We also want to again extend our deepest gratitude to weather guru Bob Mitsenbeger who retired from his near-daily live forecast with us, to CVCR founding board member Joseph Gainza who completed his term, and to Eamon Dunn, our first paid summer intern.

Best Tunes of the Year from WGDR/WGDH Music Hosts

• Top tunes from "the Grassers," host of Friday night "Barn Dance Bluegrass."

• Friday afternoon's "the Long and Winding Road" best tunes by host Dave Tucker.

• Best songs from "Hittin the Note," hosted by Bill Hahn on Thursday afternoons.

• Host Barry Matthews, of "Country Sounds" on Wednesday nights has top non-country and top country tunes for you.

• "Gilded Splinters" host Kevin Titterton (3rd Monday nights) brings you a top ten of his favorites this year.

• A completely unpredictable top ten from Chris Buckridge, host of Saturday morning's "Predictably Unpredictable."

• And a top ten in new singles released in 2023 from DJ Llu, host of "Get Fresh" on Tuesday afternoons.

We mean it when we say it. The station not only sounds different, it feels different to be part of this place. We are creating a sense of connection, care, and fun at the station, all while talking directly to and with you, our community, about what is happening right here in our communities. Thank you to everyone who is making this happen.

Stay tuned for 2024! We have 10 new local shows preparing to come on the air, plans in the works for a redo on WGDR's 50th (err, now 51st) party, and lots more engagement in and with all our listening communities.

Countdown: A live New Year’s Eve radio dance party

Listen back to the 6 hours of music our programmers rang in 2024 with!

What a year it was. We want to dance it OUT with you live on the air, soundtracking New Year’s Eve celebrations across the hills and valleys of central Vermont and far beyond.

Join us for COUNTDOWN: A live on-air New Year’s Eve radio dance party, Sunday, December 31, 7pm-midnight.

Hosted by the Revel Level, with guest DJ sets by Chris Buckridge (Predictably Unpredictable), Sydonia (Theme Time), Turkey Joe (Jive Turkey Show), the Still Lifers, and more.

Call in your requests and New Year’s resolutions. Tune in for other drop-by surprises too. What a way to ring in a new year with your friends here at Central Vermont Community Radio.