Station Update: After 48 years, our beloved station is community-owned!
Friends of WGDR/WGDH -
Welcome to our first station update since becoming community-owned last month. Wow! Our last 6 months as a station have been very busy ensuring a smooth ownership transition from Goddard College to Central Vermont Community Radio, the new non-profit managing the station. We are so grateful to our founding board members, a team of volunteer advisors, programmers, listeners, and supporters near and far for helping us get to this point. With your help, we are excited to build upon our 48 years of locally made, socially just, and eclectically programmed radio.
Now, let's catch you up on all the news from our studio in Plainfield, VT.
Community-Owned & Operated
The 
transfer of WGDR/WGDH from Goddard to the community marks a huge milestone nationally for the public and community media industry. In the last couple of decades, many university and college-owned stations sold off their college radio stations to meet budget shortfalls.
“It has been an honor to help this station continue and expand its role and legacy in the community. We hope that this gift to CVCR will sustain WGDR/WGDH well into the future,” Goddard President Bernard Bull said.
“We thank Goddard College for this most generous gift to central Vermont!” said CVCR Board members. “We look forward to working with the entire community to provide lively, dynamic, informative radio along with inspiring, diverse music programs, long into the future.”
Click here to read more about the transition of ownership.
WGDR.org Redesigned
As part of our launch as an independent station, we gave our website a much-needed makeover. In addition to retaining relied upon streaming features like our live stream, schedule, archives, and now playing features, the new website is secured, offers subscriptions for station updates, and overall is more digitally accessible for users.
Take a look around the new site.
100% Community-Owned & Funded
We've set an ambitious goal to raise $30,000 in our first 30 days as a community-owned station. We are about halfway there! These funds will directly pay for our operating costs like utilities, subscriptions, and rent between now and the end of the year.
Our programmers are in the middle of our On-Air Fundraising Drive to help us raise $8,000 from listeners, which will get us to our goal by June 30. Your donation, of any amount, to WGDR/WGDH has a bigger impact than ever now that we are community-funded. Please give today online or by check, made out to "Local Futures" (our fiscal sponsor), and mail it to WGDR, 123 Pitkin Road, Plainfield, VT 05667. Thank you!
Passing The Mic: WGDR/WGDH's History at Goddard
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Entering the Pratt Library on Goddard Colleges’s Plainfield campus, descending to the lower level, and winding around soundproof doors, you’ll begin to hear the sounds of broadcasting that have been transmitting for nearly 50 years.
WGDR/WGDH started as college radio, with a renegade spirit. Yet investment from the local Vermont community was inscribed into its mission since it began in 1972. When Goddard transitioned to a low-residency model in 2002, and students left campus, the station was passed entirely to the locals, with a mission to continue to bring the work of Goddard’s engaged faculty, staff, and students into the fold when possible."
Read more of Goddard College's retrospective on WGDR/WGDH.
Tune In This Summer
Our station has proudly broadcast uninterrupted during the pandemic, with 30 of our programmers seamlessly transitioning to remote broadcast to keep our community connected. As we all emerge this summer, we are slowly transitioning back to live programmers in the studio. Tune in to your favorite long-time show or catch a new one (click the schedule below to stream live or from the archives).
From wherever or however you listen, thank you!
Keep Us Up To Date Too!
There will be much more to share from the station in the coming months and we want to make sure you hear from us on the air, on social media, or from our updates. We inherited a great deal of data about supporters like you from Goddard, but it is not 100% accurate. If you received this email in error or need to update your contact info with us, please drop us a line at admin@wgdr.org and we will get it all sorted.
In great gratitude,
The founding board Central Vermont Community Radio, Suzanna Jones, Mark Michaelis, Jude Sargent, Joseph Gainza
WGDR/WGDH broadcasts at 91.1 FM in the greater Plainfield area, 91.7 FM in the hallows and hills of Hardwick and beyond, and at WGDR.org to the whole world. Our studio is located at the Eliot Pratt Center on Goddard College campus at 123 Pitkin Road, Plainfield, VT 05667.
Follow us on social media at @WGDRWGDHVT.
