PRESS RELEASE: WGDR/WGDH Hires New Station Manager

Llu Mulvaney-Stanak brings 20-year career of nonprofit leadership and community radio experience to Central Vermont Community Radio.

Contact: Joseph Gainza, Vice Chair of the Board, Central Vermont Community Radio

jgainza@vtlink.net, 802-454-8550.

Tuesday, November 16, 2021 – Plainfield, VT: Six months into its independence as a community-owned radio station, WGDR/WGDH has hired a new Station Manager, Llu Mulvaney-Stanak. This role will oversee all aspects of the station, as well as provide key leadership for CVCR as a nonprofit. 

"The Board of Central Vermont Community Radio is thrilled to start working with Llu in their newly added capacity as station manager at WGDR,” said Mark Michaelis, Chair of the CVCR Board. “Llu's extensive experience in both the nonprofit and radio world is a unique combination that's rare to find, and one that will serve our listeners well as we start another new chapter in WGDR's long history.  We couldn't be more excited about WGDR's future with Llu at the helm!”

Mulvaney-Stanak (who uses they/them pronouns) got their start in community radio on WGDR/WGDH as a Barre City teenager in the 1990s. For the last 20 years, they have led non-profits, worked in higher education, and managed political campaigns across the state. Their work has spanned a range of community issues including community media, youth advocacy, LGBTQ+ rights, and fostering of arts and culture.

Mulvaney-Stanak has also been on the air on Vermont radio for almost 30 years on community, college, and commercial radio. Known as “DJ Llu,” they hosted 99.9 the Buzz’s long-standing new music show for a decade, helped co-found WBTV-LP, the newest low-power community radio station in Burlington, and have produced the popular weekly show, “Get Fresh with DJ Llu” for 17 years on UVM’s WRUV. Mulvaney-Stanak comes to WGDR/WGDH after consulting for a number of non-profits on strategy and high-level roles in political campaigns in the last year.

In their return to the station Mulvaney-Stanak remarked, “I am deeply grateful to WGDR/WGDH for sparking a love of radio in me at such a young age and I’m honored to help the station establish itself as community-owned. I’m excited by the possibilities for future programming and community engagement through the station.” 

More information about Central Vermont Community Radio

Central Vermont Community Radio (CVCR) is the new non-profit managing the community-owned radio station of WGDR, Plainfield/WGDH, Hardwick. The station provides a forum for the cultivation of social justice, stewardship of the natural world, and support of the local and independent arts. Programming is intentionally diverse, with over 30 locally made shows focusing on music, stories, news, and public affairs. Through the universal language of music WGDR/WGDH seeks to bring people together in celebration of our common humanity.

The station was built and operated by Goddard College for nearly 50 years as a college/community station. In May of 2021, the station completed ownership transition from Goddard to CVCR. WGDR/WGDH is now the biggest full-power, community-owned and operated non-commercial station in Vermont. More information on the history of the station transfer can be found at WGDR.org.

Station Update: We're proud to be your daily soundtrack in any season.

Friends of WGDR/WGDH -

Summertime is short, but sweet here in Vermont. There is just nothing like listening to the radio while you drive down Route 2 to a swimming hole or as you watch the sunset from your backyard. We're proud to soundtrack all your seasons with our local and national programming and look forward to diversifying what and who you hear from in the months to come. Stay tuned!

Listen Locally, Think Globally

Listeners have asked for a schedule redesign that indicates all our 29 locally made shows. Thanks to the donated design work of Dana Dwinell-Yardley, we have a new printable version for your bulletin boards and fridges to reference throughout your day.

We made a needed upgrade to our archive system a couple of weeks ago that has resulted in some shows not syncing correctly. We are working with our Pacifica partners to sort this out and appreciate your patience while we try to restore the missing shows.

As always, thank you all of you wherever or however you listen!

Underwrite the Station

"WGDR/WGDH is generously underwritten by...[your business or organization name]." Imagine hearing that as you drive home from work while listening to "Democracy Now!" or while you are washing the dishes grooving along to your favorite music show. We've updated our underwriting rates to be cost-effective for any sized budget. Underwriters help us keep our programming diverse, which uplifts, connects, and informs the community during these continuing challenging times. For as little as $10/week, you could potentially reach nearly 70,000 households in our listening area and more than 5,000 directly via our digital reach.

Learn more about underwriting WGDR/WGDH today.

Add WGDR/WGDH to your monthly media subscriptions.

Have you taken a look at your monthly media subscription costs? $15 for a music streaming service, $9.99 to stream TV shows...have you considered adding $10 for the great content you value and depend on from WGDR/WGDH?

We are just $7,000 away from hitting our $30,000 fundraising goal this summer and between new underwriters and new sustaining (monthly subscription) donors, we will be on pace to pay for all our operational expenses through the end of the year.

Set up your monthly subscription to WGDR/WGDH online now or by check, made out to "Local Futures" (our fiscal sponsor while our own IRS 501c3 status is pending), and mail it to WGDR, 123 Pitkin Road, Plainfield, VT 05667. Thank you!

Curious what it costs for the programs you love to be on the air?

• $25 - Funds the cost of one day of WGDH’s power and tower to broadcast across Hardwick and well into the Northeast Kingdom.

• $75 - Supports a week of music programming licensing costs.

• $200 - Pays for a month of Pacifica programs like “Democracy Now!," "Counterspin," and "Economic Update."

• $500 - Backs our operational expenses for a month, including equipment maintenance, archives, and online stream.

• $1,000 - Covers the cost of our studio and office rent and utilities in Plainfield.

No matter how much you can give, it goes further than ever for our newly community-owned station.

Donate to WGDR/WGDH Today!

Thanks for reading this far! 😎

You are receiving this email as a past supporter of the station, as a donor, past or current programmer, or as a direct subscriber. 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 Central Vermont Community Radio working group: Suzanna Jones, Mark Michaelis, Jude Sargent, Joseph Gainza, David Ferland, Carl Etnier, and Llu Mulvaney-Stanak

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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 Goddard College campus at 123 Pitkin Road, Plainfield, VT 05667.

Follow us on social media at @WGDRWGDHVT.

Donate to WGDR/WGDH

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

"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

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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.

Donate to WGDR/WGDH

Passing the Mic

Alice Daly and Reuben Jackson in the WGDR Studios, 1975.

Goddard College History with WGDR/WGDH.

An excerpt from their blog full blog post.

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. The station’s staff at the time advocated for Goddard, as the programmers joined the discussion of the College’s transition to the low-residency model that it invented and continues to innovate upon.

After 2002, the DJ chair was filled with 30-50 community volunteer programmers, many of whom graduated from Goddard and continued the continuity of the Goddard mission within the community. Joseph Gainza, serving as the Vermont Field Director of the AFSC, launched his public affairs call-in show Gathering Peace as part of his outreach effort,, now serves on the Board of Directors of CVCR.

“Goddard’s mission has always been to nurture and nudge students to find and use their authentic voice, to follow their passion and use it to build a more just world.” said Gainza, “In gifting the WGDR/WGDH licenses to Central Vermont Community Radio, Goddard is honoring that mission on a community scale.”  

PRESS RELEASE: After 48 Years, WGDR/WGDH Now Officially Community-Owned

Vermont Listeners and National Community Radio Community Rejoice!

Wednesday, May 19, 2021 – Plainfield, VT: WGDR/WGDH listeners near and far, station programmers, and fans of community radio world-wide celebrated the ownership transition of the station from Goddard College to Central Vermont Community Radio (CVCR) this week.

The station was built and operated by Goddard College for nearly 50 years as a college/community station. In late 2020, Goddard initiated the gift of the station to the local community via this new non-profit, CVCR. After six months of planning and now FCC approval, WGDR/WGDH is now the only full-power, community-owned and operated non-commercial station in Vermont.

“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.”

A Rare Ownership Transition in Community Radio

This transfer 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. 

“Higher education continues to face a range of challenges nationwide. Goddard College joins Antioch and a select group of institutions in saying their commitment to residents, students and the local culture is far greater than money. When institutions like Goddard say they want to pass the torch of media access in this way, it’s worthy of thanks and celebration,” remarked Ernesto Aguilar, Executive Director of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters.

The impact of this gift will be felt for generations to come, as WGDR/WGDH will be able to continue to broadcast a diversity of ideas, stories, culture, and more to Vermonters across the rural hills and valleys of the northern part of the state. 

Programming That Inspires and Informs

Radio has a unique and powerful impact in our communities and on individuals. As a free media source, it draws in listeners to expand their thinking, connect with their community, and awaken activism on issues of the day. It evokes the imagination and an intimate human connection that cannot be done in any other medium.

Radio is more relevant and relatable today, especially on a local level. When you tune in to community radio, you hear the voices of your neighbors, which, during the pandemic, has proven to be a powerful tool in remaining connected.

Renowned poet and former Vermont Public Radio “Friday Night Jazz” host Reuben Jackson shared, “When Marconi invented radio, he had stations like WGDR/WGDH in mind. Soulful, informative, varied, and unpretentious programming. Voyages for the heart and mind. Thank goodness- some things never change.” Jackson, a sustaining donor of the station, was a WGDR Programmer from 1975-1978 and got his start in radio when the station was first on the air.

The station’s rich 48-year history of producing eclectic and vibrant music and local talk radio for Vermonters will continue under CVCR’s ownership. As one of the rare Pacifica Network affiliates in the state, WGDR/WGDH is able to provide free access to award-winning national programming like “Democracy Now.”

“When my wife and I came to Vermont in 1989, we became daily and dedicated listeners to WGDR. It was then--and remains today--a vital and essential example of community-based radio with both a local and world-wide vision promoting human rights, free speech, world peace, climate justice, and citizenship action,” said David Connor, a listener and station donor.

Each week, 50 local programmers produce talk or music shows that broadcast to nearly 60 cities and towns across 3 counties in Central Vermont and the Northeast Kingdom. Many of these shows have been on-air for decades, building loyal fan bases worldwide thanks to streaming. During COVID, 30 of these programmers stayed on the air, broadcasting from home, keeping the community connected and informed during the severe isolation. 

“I’m an avid fan of the call-in community info shows, such as ‘Gathering Peace’ with Joseph Gainza, ‘Relocalizing Vermont’ with Carl Etnier, and well thought out and presented musical programs, such as ‘Acoustic Harmony’ with Mark Michaelis and so many others. Thanks to CVCR we can continue to enjoy, and be educated by, the programming we have come to love and appreciate from our beloved WGDR/WGDH. This is independent community-supported media at its finest,” said Mary Gagnon, a listener and station donor.

Sustaining the Mission of WGDR/WGDH

Central Vermont Community Radio (CVCR) will continue the mission of the station, providing a forum that cultivates social justice, stewardship of the natural world, and the arts and music in Vermont. As an independent station, WGDR/WGDH will be able to pursue a variety of ways to diversify not just what is broadcast, but who is given a voice on the air, uplifting the stories of those who are underrepresented in the current Vermont media landscape.

As a non-profit, CVCR is charged with building a sustainable strategy to fund the station’s current and future needs. To kick it off, they have launched a “WGDR/WGDH 30x30” fundraising challenge, aiming to raise $30,000 in the first 30 days of the independence on the air. This will help with station operating costs, while CVCR  focuses on new programming, future staffing, and a successful emergence from COVID restrictions. Individual donors and underwriting support from businesses and organizations will help CVCR reach their goal.

CVCR takes this deep responsibility of community radio to heart as it takes on ownership of WGDR/WGDH. CVCR invites all to tune in to help program what comes next.

More information on how to give or underwrite, listen to, and support the station is at WGDR.org. 

More information about Central Vermont Community Radio

Central Vermont Community Radio (CVCR) is the new non-profit managing the community-owned radio station of WGDR, Plainfield/WGDH, Hardwick. The station provides a forum for the cultivation of social justice, stewardship of the natural world, and the independent arts. Programming is intentionally diverse, with shows focusing on music, stories, news, and public affairs. Through the universal language of music WGDR/WGDH seeks to bring people together in celebration of our common humanity. More information on the history of the station transfer can be found at WGDR.org.

More information about Goddard College

Since 1938, Goddard College has worked to advance cultures of rigorous inquiry, collaboration, and lifelong learning, in which individuals take imaginative and responsible action in the world. More information at Goddard.edu.

We did it! WGDR/WGDH is now owned and operated by the community.

The FCC has approved the station ownership transfer from Goddard College to Central Vermont Community Radio (CVCR), the non-profit that will manage WGDR/WGDR!

This is historic for our station, for Vermont, and nationally. We are forever thankful to Goddard College for this gift to the community.

Now, is the time to help us meet our "30×30 fundraising challenge." We will raise $30,000 in our first 30 days of station independence from listeners and supporters like you. This will fund the basic operating costs of the station for the rest of the year (6 months) and keep local and national programming uninterrupted and on the air.

Please give online today or if you prefer, by check. Checks should be made out to our fiscal sponsor, "Local Futures" with "WGDR" in the memo line and mailed to 123 Pitkin Rd. Plainfield, VT 05667.

Note: For anyone who was a past monthly donor to WGDR via Goddard College, you will need to stop your gifts to Goddard by emailing advancement@goddard.edu and then set up your sustaining giving via CVCR's online secure giving platform. 

Sign up for station updates to be sent to your inbox about programming, events, and CVCR's work.

If you have questions about giving or underwriting, please contact us.