Tag: WTJU 91.1

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Culture

Pick: WTJU’s Radio Talks

Former C-VILLE Weekly reporter Erin O'Hare joins other talented music writers for a chat about the state of live performance. Photo courtesy of WTJU.

Hear and there: It’s a question fans around the world are asking: Where does music go from here? As we navigate a reopening while keeping our distance, how do we commune around our favorite musical acts and enjoy concerts again? How do bands practice, record, and tour safely? What is the impact of our complex times on the creative mindset? WTJU’s Radio Talks brings together a lineup of locally connected experts, including Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield and former C-VILLE Weekly reporter Erin O’Hare to discuss where we are today and what we might hear in the future. Zoom required.

Friday, June 12. 4pm. facebook.com/wtjuradio.

Categories
Culture

Pick: Davina Jackson and Atreyu

Sunday night, expect a dynamic mix of soul, funk, and reggae from Davina Jackson, a former backup singer for The Wailers, who will be joined for a live streamed concert by her son, rap artist Atreyu.

Up on up: It’s a family affair when Davina Jackson and Atreyu go live in The Front Porch’s Save the Music series. Expect a dynamic mix of soul, funk, and reggae from Jackson, a former backup singer for The Wailers, who will be joined by her son, rap artist Atreyu. The pair is frequently seen performing with their central Virginia band Wild Common. The concert will also be broadcast live on WTJU (91.1 FM), and donation proceeds will benefit Piedmont Housing Alliance.

Sunday, May 10. 8pm. facebook.com/frontporchcville

Categories
Culture

Across the board: Local radio stations adjust to keep listeners informed and uplifted 

Local radio stations are still on the air, but station managers and on-air hosts have had to make some changes in how (and where) they broadcast. Illustration by Mike Gorman

Radio is easily taken for granted, in part because it’s invisible and, in most cases, ubiquitous. Program hosts and DJs keep us company in rush-hour traffic or during the workday. They keep us informed when the power’s out or the internet’s down, but the transmitter’s still going. Radio is as essential as it is entertaining, and as the COVID-19 pandemic goes on, so must the shows.

Local stations are taking safety precautions like limiting studio access and suggesting hosts wear masks and gloves and wipe down mics, headphones, and other surfaces with disinfectant before and after their shifts. But each station is unique, and other tweaks vary depending on a station’s size, reach, and what sort of programming it offers.

Since March 12, WNRN 91.9 FM jocks have worked almost exclusively from home, says station General Manager and Program Director Mark Keefe. The locally owned nonprofit station broadcasts from multiple transmitters—in Charlottesville, Richmond, and Lynchburg—and already had a system in place, as well as enough spare mics, consoles, and cords to get DJs on the air from anywhere with an internet connection. (Volunteer DJs did not get a rig, so on-staff folks are now covering those slots.)

In the absence of the live in-studio sessions with Virginia bands, WNRN upped its play count of local acts like Lowland Hum and David Wax Museum. It’s not the same, says Keefe, but it’s something.

Things haven’t changed much at WCNR 106.1 FM The Corner, another adult alternative station, owned by national media company Saga Communications, which is headquartered in Michigan. Morning show host and Program Director Kendall Stewart, as well as her counterparts, could work from home, but are still going in. Stewart’s “Community Corner” segment now highlights creative ways folks are helping each other out during the pandemic, while news breaks are solely about COVID-19, and pandemic-related PSAs by major label artists like HAIM and Leon Bridges are aired. 

She’s had to re-think the station’s “Corner Lounge,” which previously brought touring artists into the station for a live set before a show at an area venue. Now in the “Long Distance Lounge,” she hosts bands like Best Coast and Illiterate Light over the phone or via Instagram Live. “I’m not about to let that go away,” says Stewart. 

Nathan Moore, general manager of WTJU 91.1 FM, a non-commercial station owned and operated by the University of Virginia, agrees that continuing to provide a sense of normalcy to listeners is paramount, though it’s taking a bit of radio magic.

WTJU is a freeform station, which means individual DJs in the jazz, classical, folk, and rock departments have complete control over what they play on their shows. It broadcasts live 21 hours a day, with the help of six paid staff members and dozens of volunteer DJs (including this reporter). Some DJs go into the station, while others create their shows in advance and stream that file into the on-air studio. Some broadcast live remotely, using personal computers and headphones, in addition to pretty intricate tech workarounds developed by station staff.

WPVC 94.7 FM, a progressive nonprofit community station that airs a variety of news, talk, arts, and music programming, including Spanish-language material, may be one of the hardest hit of our local stations—it’s had to adjust both its show schedule and its personnel. “A lot of our volunteers are either in the high-risk category due to age or pre-existing conditions, or they care for someone who’s high risk,” and have to avoid the station, says co-founder and manager Jeff Lenert. Instead, WPVC now carries a mostly automated, non-commercial stream from Free Speech Television, which includes some of the shows already familiar to WPVC listeners, such as “Democracy Now!” and the nationally syndicated “The Stephanie Miller Show.” 

But the station—which has seen its already lean rainy day fund depleted by legal fees incurred in an ongoing FCC lawsuit brought against it and four other locally owned, low-power stations last fall by Saga Communications—is “struggling,” says Lenert. “We might not be on the air next month.” 

Lenert’s in a difficult position. He doesn’t feel right asking for money from underwriters who are in dire financial straits themselves, or asking for donations that could go to a food bank instead. If WPVC goes off the air, there will be fewer black and brown voices on local airwaves, and the community will be without its only Spanish-language radio news outlet. “I lose sleep knowing that,” says Lenert. 

The other stations we spoke with are bigger than WPVC and don’t yet share Lenert’s financial worries. And both WTJU and WNRN, who rely on listener donations for much of their operating budgets, held rather successful fundraising drives in April. 

“People want something reliable” right now, says Keefe. When “the reliable disappears, it becomes even more bleak.”

 

 

Categories
Arts

Uprooting radio: At WTJU’s new home, DJs spin records to break a record

WTJU began in 1957 as a classical music and education station and now includes jazz, folk, and rock, as well as community stories. The station launched from its new home in Ivy by breaking the Guinness World Record for most simultaneous DJs in a single show. Photo by Eze Amos

The broadcast to WTJU listeners on the afternoon of Saturday, March 23, began with one DJ announcing to a sea of others, “Here’s Ol’ Blue Eyes, spreading the news that we’re leaving today—Lambeth, that is,” followed by a snippet of Sinatra’s iconic “New York, New York.”

It was the first day of operations in its new Ivy Road home, and local station WTJU packed 82 announcers into the space. The crowd was diverse, composed of both student DJs and locals, but everyone had a common cause—to christen the new location with a momentous, Guinness World Record-breaking feat. Within two hours, each of the participants would sit in the announcer’s seat for less than a minute to introduce themself and play a sample of a chosen song, in a madcap game of music-lovers musical chairs.

Nathan Moore, WTJU’s general manager, admits that the record-breaking stunt was his idea, but the move to Ivy Road wasn’t. About two years ago, Moore was informed by UVA student affairs and housing that the station’s longtime location within Lambeth Commons, a home it had held for 19 years, must be vacated. “We hunted around for a lot of different spaces,” he says, but soon realized that not many spots in the city could accommodate WTJU’s needs. “Where can we find at least 2,500 square feet that we have round-the-clock access to, that students can get to readily, that can be slightly noisy…that has parking, that has visibility?”

Moore was pleased, and a little relieved, to find the Ivy Road real estate, which once housed beloved indie video store Sneak Reviews. Instead of DVDs, the building’s walls are now lined with WTJU’s massive record collection, most of which is housed on the second floor. While Moore is excited about this area, his passion is focused on the first floor, which he expects to be conducive to community building—an essential component, in his opinion, of the station’s future. “We have to be more than just a great place to spin records,” Moore says. “We also have to be a place where people experience music and arts and connection.”

Saturday’s event certainly fit this vision. The DJs took turns jostling their way to the microphone, contributing tunes and cracking jokes. The humor was unfailingly corny, but the music proved a bit more diverse. Aside from Sinatra, everything from k.d. lang to Still Woozy got airtime. The genres spanned classical to K-Pop, and local artists got some love too, whether a classic Landlords track or a song from Alice Clair’s new album—played by Clair’s mother and dedicated to the musician herself, present in the crowd.

The stunt was successful, beating previous record holders by 22 DJs, but it doesn’t erase the fact that some members of the radio community have concerns about the move. Audrey Parks (or DJ Al), a second-year at UVA and a co-rock director for WTJU, says she understands both the student perspective and the administrative side. As a local with a few years of radio under her belt, she also grew to love the Lambeth location. “I feel like the old station had such a personal value for me,” Parks says.

One of the students’ main worries—the distance from Grounds to the new location—is on her mind too. “For the late-night shows…that would be a pretty scary hike.” But even at Lambeth, she points out, “it was also kinda scary going back through frats at that time.” And she’s a fan of the move in that it sets WTJU apart as a community landmark. “It’s an interesting process‚ you know, still making it a UVA space, but being part of the Charlottesville community too.”

The station has become just as essential to the city as it is to students. Professor Bebop, aka Dave Rogers, hosts of one of WTJU’s longest-running shows—he initially got involved in 1973—and has witnessed several moves. “We were in Humphreys, the basement…then we moved to Peabody Hall,” says Rogers. Next was Lambeth, and now Professor Bebop finds himself spinning his signature mix of rhythm and blues on Ivy Road.

He says that the previous location changes “didn’t change the flavor of what we were doing.” Strong leadership is essential to keeping the same spirit, he adds, praising both former manager Chuck Taylor and Moore. “He continues to come up with great ideas that are really amazing ways of reaching out to community,” Rogers says, referring to Saturday’s event. “You’ve got people who haven’t been back in 15 years who came in to do this.”

The station will host its annual rock marathon from April 8-14. This year’s fundraiser T-shirt is a design by award-winning syndicated (and C-VILLE Weekly) cartoonist Jen Sorensen, and fans of Bowie, the Beatles, and Frank Zappa will be happy to hear that entire shows are planned around those artists’ music.

Change is inevitable, it seems, especially for a media outlet that wants to remain relevant and available to the community. And if their record-breaking event is any indication, the DJs of WTJU aren’t going to let a detour down Ivy stop their weird, eclectic mix of music from reaching Charlottesville. As Moore said near the end of the 82-person broadcast, “There are scant few institutions that still bring people together in genuine ways, in genuine community connections—and we’re that. We’re one of them.”

Categories
Arts

Local radio stations amp up the holiday content

Jeff Sweatman at 106.1 The Corner tries to program slightly outside of the traditional holiday songs. Photo by Amy Jackson

On December 24, 1906, Reginald Fessenden transmitted the first wireless public radio broadcast. It included Christmas songs, stories and, in Fessenden’s words, his own “not very good singing.” Today’s listeners have many—usually very good—derivatives of Fessenden’s holiday work, and here in Charlottesville the programming at local FM radio stations is no exception.

“Our perspective is that there are some really cool, different and newer takes on Christmas classics,” says Jeff Sweatman, the 106.1 The Corner program director and brand manager. His current favorite is a holiday album released last year by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. After Jones’ recent passing from pancreatic cancer, he says the album has stayed front-of-mind.

He also references tunes like Fleming and John’s “Winter Wonderland,” which mixes in “Misty Mountain Hop” by Led Zeppelin, and Spiraling’s “Do You Hear What I Hear?,” featuring bites from The Who’s “Baba O’Riley.”

Sweatman says The Corner tries to be the antidote to sister station Z95.1, which plays Christmas classics 24 hours a day starting on Black Friday. He tells a story of airing Kasey Musgraves’ “Present Without a Bow” featuring Leon Bridges right after Halloween, which sparked a number of angry social media posts—some in all caps—from Corner listeners.

“I think of people stuck in their office listening to [holiday] music all day,” Sweatman says. “Even when we go all Christmas, we mix it up. There’s a couple of good Hanukkah ones in there, too.”

The Corner will “go all Christmas” on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day until noon, playing a mix of listener favorites such as Barenaked Ladies, Ingrid Michaelson, Sara Bareilles and The Ramones.

Mark Keefe, program director and general manager of WNRN 91.9, has a similar perspective and tries to “not overwhelm people with [holiday music].” What the station is really good at “is not making people who really don’t want to hear that all the time mad,” says Keefe. “You’re not going to get dogs barking ‘Jingle Bells’ here.”

From Christmas Eve through Christmas Day, each of WNRN’s specialty shows will present its own holiday program. One seasonal special that airs this month features tunes recorded in-house by Rob Cheetham, Lowland Hum and The Hill and Wood. “That concert was really cool,” Keefe says. “Having some good local takes on holiday tunes [makes it] pretty special.”

Keefe says the station will cap off 2016 with the year’s top 100 songs, as chosen by listeners. Voting via the WNRN website closes Friday, December 23, at 11:59pm and listeners can catch 2014 through 2016’s top tunes from December 28 to December 30.

“You get the cornucopia of holiday programming in Charlottesville,” says Josh Jackson, program director for public radio networks WVTF 89.7 and WVTW 88.5. Jackson says his listeners enjoy programs such as King’s College’s live broadcast from “A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols,” which airs on WVTF from 10am to noon on Christmas Eve, and the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Day broadcast from 11am to 1pm, featuring live performances of waltzes, polkas and other classical tunes.

On Christmas Day for the first time, WVTW will present “Tinsel Tales,” stories on the meaning of Christmas and other holiday stories, as told by famous public radio voices such as Audie Cornish, Nina Totenberg and David Sedaris.

Peter Jones, WTJU 91.1’s folk director and volunteer coordinator for the past 20 years, looks forward to similar storytelling programs. Jones oversees live music at WTJU, and says the station’s 200-plus volunteers and hosts bring something new to their programs for the season.

Jones also hosts WTJU’s “Folk and Beyond” on Thursdays from 4 to 6pm, and “Tell Us a Tale” on Sundays from noon to 2pm, which he says is the only children’s radio program in central Virginia. This Sunday, at noon, Jones says his listeners will hear Hanukkah stories.

“We just hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season,” WVTF’s Jackson says. “We love our listeners and we are a community.”

Tuned in to the holidays

WVTW Radio IQ 88.5

“Tinsel Tales,” holiday stories
from Audie Cornish, David Sedaris and more

Sunday, December 25, noon to 3pm

WVTF 89.7

“A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols,” live from King’s College

Saturday, December 24, 10am to noon

“New Year’s Day live from Vienna,” presented by the Vienna Philharmonic

Sunday, January 1, 11am to 1pm

WTJU 91.1

“Tell Us a Tale,” stories of Hanukkah

Sunday, December 25, noon to 2pm

WNRN 91.9

“Top 100 songs of 2014 to 2016”

Wednesday, December 28, to Friday, December 30

Seasonal music now through December 25

The Corner 106.1

Seasonal music now through December 25