Turn Your Radio On
WFDU-FM’s TRADITIONS Fund Drive Playlists for February 1 & 8, 2015
The Carter Family
The Carter Family recording of “Heaven’s Radio” and John Hartford‘s version of “Turn Your Radio On” are two of my “lucky charm” songs that I play on my WFDU-FM radio show every February. While my show is not a religious program, the imagery and importance of radio that is stirred up by these songs become tools that serve a purpose – helping me remind listeners of the place radio plays in their lives while I pitch for donations during the station’s annual fund drive. It is also a reminder of what I and many consider the first folk music series on the radio – the Carter Family and their broadcasts during the 1930s from a border radio station XERA out of Mexico that brought folk music into homes across the nation.
Perhaps less subtle, I also make sure to play the Dirdy Birdies Jug band recording of Patrick Sky‘s song “Give to the Cause.” (Birdie’s leader Jack Pignatello recently started hosting a weekly program of jug band music on WFDU called “Sounds So Sweet.”) Raising money is a necessity of life on most non-commercial radio stations, especially on stations that cling to the original idea that public radio was created to serve diverse communities that would not turn a profit on commercial radio. Folk music radio series have special challenges in the tightening niche of public radio.
Having hosted Traditions since 1980, I’ve done my fair share of on-air fund drives. This year, our fund drive is critical for several reasons.
First and foremost, WFDU-FM has been granted approval by the FCC to increase our power power output, which will more than double our coverage area in the New York City metro area. We are also going HD (Hybrid Digital). Once complete, WFDU will offer 3 digital channels at 89.1MHz. The HD1 channel will be the WFDU programming that has been familiar to our audience for over 40 years. The HD2 channel Monday through Friday will be an expansion of our eclectic music shows that include folk, blues, classic country, oldies, bluegrass etc. On the weekends, WFDU plans to offer jazz on HD 2 in the form of 40’s, 50’s, & 60’s niche programming that just is not being played on the radio locally. Our HD 3 will be a classical music channel offering an alternative listening experience.
The historic Armstrong Tower in Alpine,NJ
WFDU-FM transmits from the historic Armstrong Tower in Alpine, New Jersey. Built in 1938 by Edwin Howard Armstrong, it is the site of his transmission experiments that led to the development FM radio. The building that was Armstrong’s lab and housed his radio station W2XMN is still standing and is now a museum. The tower was also instrumental after 9/11 when several New York City television and radio stations temporarily broadcast from the Armstrong Tower following the collapse of the World Trade Center and its transmission facilities. It is an honor to be linked to this historic structure and we try to live up to that history with the work we do on WFDU-FM.
September will mark my 40th anniversary with WFDU and in April my radio series WFDU-FM’s TRADITIONS will celebrate 35 years of bringing folk music to the Northern NJ/NYC airwaves on Sunday afternoons – and we now can be heard on iHeart Radio, iTunes radio and a host of apps that deliver our programs to devices around the globe. I am quite proud of these changes, but it comes at a cost – and at a difficult time for folk radio.