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.
