Best Songs of 2023

It's the most wonderful time of the year - best of-list season!

Many of our music programmers are taking part in sharing their favorite songs of the year. We're adding playlists all month long to our CVCR Spotify account here. Click on over and take a listen. We bet you find some new tunes to dig.

We’re Looking For New CVCR Board Members

Central Vermont Community Radio (CVCR), the nonprofit organization that is the FCC licensee for the radio stations of WGDR Plainfield & WGDH Hardwick, is seeking volunteer leaders to join its board of directors. 

Board members are actively involved in helping to connect and generate resources and provide leadership for the success of the station. The board is made up of up to seven members of our local community and terms are three years, with monthly two-hour meetings and additional work in between as needed.

The work of 2024 will include helping the board transition from being a founding board to an operational board, with a focus on fundraising, strategy, and planning for the next year and beyond for the station.

The board needs various new skill sets to help us further the station’s mission. This includes looking for candidates with experience in fundraising, non-profit boards, human resource, legal, and media expertise, as well as those connected to the local arts community, cultural organizations, and foundations.

We are eager to encourage members of a wide range of identities to apply to help ensure that CVCR’s leadership is reflective of our increasingly diverse community.

The current board is accepting applications until January 31. Those interested in applying for the board can complete an application here. It includes a handful of questions and will take about 15 minutes to complete.

All applications will be reviewed by the current board and prospective candidates will be contacted to schedule an interview with the full board via zoom.

For more information, contact the CVCR Board Chair Mark Michaelis via email at: Board@WGDR.org.

Season of Gratitude

As we kick off this season of gratitude and giving, we are coming up with some special programming for December as a way to thank listeners and mark this really big year for CVCR. Stay tuned for more on that soon.

In the meantime, we are eager to update you on the recent generosity of our listeners:

• 19 donors (5 of these folks were new donors) gave for Giving Tuesday and with the CVCR board match, we almost doubled our goal and raised $1,770. What a great way to start the giving season.

• We want to give a huge thank you to Lovejoy, and the rest of the folks who produced the community event Worst. Song. Ever. in November. Not only was it a massive community-raising success with 350 people in attendance, it raised $1,000 for the station. 

Congratulations go out to:

1st Place: Nick Gilder's Hot Child in the City by Overdue Is Fine. (This group included Chris Buckridge, WGDR/WGDH host of Predicably Unpredictable!).

2nd Place: Paul Anka's (You're) Having My Baby by Chyx.

3rd Place: Sisqo's Thong Song by Sheila Liming feat. Dave.

Two other honorable mentions:

The Melted Cakes for MacArthur Park and Cockshorts & the Lotiennes for Rub It In.

Thanks to all who turned out. We’re looking forward to next year’s event already.

Seven Days stories about Turkey Joe & our 50th

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Friends of WGDR/WGDH -

We are filled with gratitude this week for so many reasons.

• For the thousands of you who listen each month.
• For the growing family of programmers who are on the air with us week in and out. (Stay tuned for 5 new programmers joining us very soon!)
• For the hundreds of you who support us with donations each year.

Together, you are building the future of Central Vermont Community Radio, making us more community-centered and helping us capture what it sounds like to live in our local towns and cities here in our beloved state. Thank you for being part of this with us.

In this week's Seven Days, there are two stories I want to draw your attention to.

One is about our 50th year! What it has taken to get us to this milestone and how we've approached the great responsibility of being the new caretakers to keep the station going, under community ownership. Programming Committee member Erica Heilman captured what we're trying to do on the air so well: "These are independently volunteer-produced programs, which means they are inherently idiosyncratic, flawed and utterly unique," Heilman told Seven Days. "As a listener, I am always surprised, and every now and then I catch something that is positively transcendent."

The other, is about how WGDR/WGDH has helped one of our programmers, Turkey Joe, new Vermonter, find a creative outlet as he also found the safety to be his true and amazing self. The article is about so much more than WGDR/WGDH, but we took delight in how folks celebrating him in the community for his great show too. "The punkish, effervescent teen hosts an offbeat radio show with loyal listeners ("You're DJ Turkey Joe?" an acquaintance once asked, incredulously)." You can hear Turkey Joe Fridays at 12pm on the air. Photo of Turkey Joe at the station, by Seven Days.

I won't give it away much more than that. I encourage you to read both pieces. Many thanks to Seven Days for the coverage.

On behalf of all of us a the station, we wish you a warm and happy holiday.

Llu Mulvaney-Stanak, Station Manager

Llu@WGDR.org, 802-276-0365

Give the gift of WGDR/WGDH Swag for the holidays.

Shopping this holiday season? Consider the gift of WGDR/WGDH swag for your loved ones. We’ve got shirts, sweatshirts, bags, and even onesies for the littlest of listeners. Designs range from our very popular 50th WGDR cows, to standard CVCR designs, to throwbacks from past swag eras like “Bob are you there?” (35th year of WGDR), the chicken radio design, and more. There are lots of styles, colors, and sizes to choose from!

We print in batches, so don't delay in ordering if you want it in time for a specific holiday (it takes about 2 weeks to print & ship). Order by December 4 to ensure delivery by Christmas.

One of WGDR’s first programmers back in 1975, Reuben Jackson, still one of our biggest fans!

Ramona, our littlest programmer, signing in for her shift at the program log at the station.

Giving Tuesday Board Challenge

We're participating in this year's Giving Tuesday - a national day of raising funds for non-profits before the end of the year - on Tuesday, November 28. We've got a matching gift of up to $500 from our CVCR board to help challenge donors who have yet to give this year to give on Giving Tuesday. Every dollar you give on this day will be doubled thanks to this match. We’re hoping to raise $1,00 or more!

As always, we keep the station budget nimble. Everything we raise goes directly into the programming and costs to run the station. Give to WGDR & WGDH before the end of the year or give in honor of someone for their holiday gift. We provide our community with locally made, community-centered, unique, and inspiring content every single day. Gifts of any size go a really long way in helping us keep this up into 2024. Thank you!