Why I Volunteer for VPR Pledge Drives

It's nearly membership drive time again, and we need volunteers to help answer the phones. To encourage you to sign up, we asked long-time volunteer Eileen Kristiansen to share her thoughts on why she volunteers at VPR. See what she has to say, then visit this link to sign up. The drive begins next Thursday, July 9.

Did we mention that we feed you really well?

And that we're charming and lovely to be around?

And there's a box of free books and CDs, just for volunteers?

And there's an endless supply of chocolate?

Okay, enough out of me. Listen to what Eileen has to say about volunteering at VPR:

I have been volunteering for VPR membership drives for nearly 9 years. My first time was answering phones and writing the pledges down on paper. I went with colleagues from work because I was nervous and there was safety in numbers. I was hooked after the first phone call. People that pledge are so warm and supportive and grateful for the volunteers. The staff at VPR feels the same way. I felt so good about what I was doing and about how it was helping others in so many different ways that I've only missed one drive since that time. I can't say enough good
about VPR and how they treat their volunteers. The friendships that I've made there are for life, too. Becoming a VPR volunteer has been one of the smartest things I've ever done."

Here's the link again. Please sign up, and thanks!

Finding VPR in the Most Unlikely Places

As I drive hither and yon, I tend to listen to VPR 75% of the time, an audio book 20%, and a music CD about 5% of the time. Usually I can keep straight what I'm listening to. But the other night as I was listening to what I thought was an audio book, I heard a woman say that she usually listens to Vermont Public Radio. So I just assumed that I must have the radio on.

Au contraire!

I was listening to Death du Jour by Kathy Reichs. Like the author herself, the book's lead character - Temperance "Tempe" Brennan - is a forensic anthropologist who splits time between Charlotte, North Carolina and Montreal. So I'll assume that when Kathy spends time in Montreal she tunes in to VPR. And thus, that's how we warranted a mention in the book. I'm half way through the book and enjoying it quite a bit.

I'm also loving the series written by Louise Penny set in Three Pines, Quebec (I enjoy learning about our neighbors to the north). I was tipped off to this series during Vermont Edition's winter book show. It's amazing the things I learn listening to VPR. And to audio books.

4th of July Programming Highlights

(View from stern of the Spirit of Ethan Allen III - how fortunate to be there just as the breeze was kicking up, the sun was setting, and the flag was flying. I took this on June 10th near the end of a dinner cruise.)

Fireworks, outdoor music, BBQs and good time spent with family and friends...whatever your plans this holiday weekend, VPR looks forward to being there with you!

Here are some of our programming highlights through the weekend:

VPR Classical - Friday, 7/3 (8-10am): Morning Classics - Cheryl Willoughby sets the stage for the occasion with music for the Independence Day weekend, and from the Samuel de Champlain year of 1609.

VPR - Friday, 7/3 at Noon: In the early days of our nation, July Fourth wasn’t an official holiday at all. In fact, it wasn’t until 1938 that it became a paid day-off. So how did the Fourth become the holiest day on our secular calendar? Listen Friday at noon for a special presentation of Backstory with the American History Guys. Find out how radically the meaning of the Declaration has changed since 1776, and learn the story of how Independence Day came to be what it is today. Vermont Edition returns Monday at Noon.

VPR - Friday, 7/3 at 6pm: Politics Takes a Holiday with the Capitol Steps. Tune in to hear Mark Sanford, Joe Biden, Arlen Spector, and several Somali pirates as The Capitol Steps perform their Independence Day special.

VPR - Friday, 7/3 from 9pm-Midnight: Jazz with George Thomas sings with the sweet home-grown sounds of Louis Armstrong, Coltrane (that's John AND his son Ravi), and many other representatives of the style described as "America's Classical Music".

VPR Classical - Saturday, 7/4 (Noon-5pm): Saturday Afternoon at the Opera with Peter Fox Smith, and an all-American lineup including Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F, Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite, and soprano Renée Fleming, from her collection of American opera arias, I Want Magic!

VPR - Saturday, 7/4 at 9pm: American Routes host Nick Spitzer stomps, shouts and heads up the conga line this holiday with two hours of unforgettable live music from New Orleans' French Quarter. We'll go onstage at the House of Blues in New Orleans, and from there we'll move on to a jam session with the legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and bluegrass great Del McCoury and his band.

VPR - Sunday, 7/5 from 1-4pm: Join Robert Resnik and All The Traditions for a Champlain 400 Music Showcase, celebrating the wealth of music from our region. Songcatcher Deb Flanders, Québecois musicians Lisa Ornstein and André Marchand, and farmer songwriter Alan Greenleaf make it a very special afternoon of ballads and stories from the Lake and its people.

From all of us at VPR, best wishes for a great holiday weekend!

Cheryl

Baseball moves me

A couple of weeks ago, I headed to Boston for my first Red Sox game of the season. Just thought I'd scout it out before the VPR bus trip next month to make sure the Fens is up to snuff for our listeners. I hopped the T at Alewife and rather than head straight to Fenway or pop off at Harvard Square for some Pinocchio's Pizza, I decided to ride the T to Northeastern University to see some legendary Boston sport spots.

While riding the T, I was able to re-direct a lovely couple from Tel Aviv, Israel onto the proper branch of the Green Line. A recent Boston Globe article tipped me off to the Cy Young statue standing on the site of the pitcher's mound of the long-gone Huntington Avenue Grounds, where the first World Series was played. Not far away is the former site of the South End Grounds (the Red Stockings' first home) and the old Boston Arena (now Matthews Arena). You can learn more about Boston's sports heritage in a great book by Allan Foulds called "Boston's Ballparks & Arenas."

Then it was on to Fenway to see the Sox trounce the Florida Marlins, 8-2. How could they lose? I was sitting in the luckiest seat in Fenway - Section 7, Aisle 7, Seat 7. I was wedged between two pairs of septuagenarians who had great Red Sox tales to tell. Murphy, on my left, played high school baseball against the Conigliaro brothers: Billy, Tony and Ricky. Learning the name of a third Conigliaro brother was like learning the name of the fifth Marx Brother (Gummo). When the topic of the all-time worst Red Sox reliever came up there were three votes for Eric Gagne and one for John "Way Back " Wasdin (allowed 54 home runs in 170 Red Sox appearances and compiled an 18.90 ERA in 3 1/3 innings in two playoff series for the Sox).

Later that week, NPR's Juan Williams visited the VPR studios. We got to talk baseball for a few minutes and it was great fun. Like two kids comparing our baseball card collections, we swapped tales of our boyhood baseball memories. Juan grew up in Brooklyn, post-Dodgers, so he was a Mets fan. Loved Tom Seaver. He also was a big Frank Robinson (Orioles) fan. Don't ask me how I remember this, but I mentioned to Juan that Frank Robby won the Triple Crown in 1966 (leading the league in batting average, home runs and RBIs in the same season). I started following baseball in '66 and the American League had back-to-back Triple Crown winners, with Carl Yastrzemski of the Red Sox winning in 1967. I thought it happened all the time. But no one has won a Triple Crown since Yaz.

Last night, I got over to Centennial Field in Burlington for my first Lake Monsters game of the season. I sat near a certified super-fan - Vic Bora of Burlington. Vic has attended all but one Vermont Expos/Lake Monsters game. One game missed since 1994. He's the Cal Ripken of Vermont fandom. He missed the game because of a wedding. It wasn't the one he attended in Poughkeepsie, NY. Vic went to that wedding and got back in time to see the game. No, it was a wedding in Waterbury the impinged on his perfect record. And to this day, he's not happy about it.

Expanding VPR Classical

One thing I’ve learned about Vermont Public Radio listeners is that they'll tell me exactly what they think. Last night I heard loud and clear that listeners in Addison County want their classical music back. Bonnie and John McCardell hosted a gathering of listeners at their home in Cornwall to help VPR spread the word about plans to bring VPR Classical to Addison County. We've secured a license to build a new full-power station based in Middlebury and serving an area that reaches from Vergennes to Brandon and from Port Henry, NY east to Ripton. The cost to build the station is $346,000, including first year operating costs. As soon as these capital dollars are raised, the station will be built and begin broadcasting.

Several people mentioned their disappointment that classical music was moved off of VPR back in fall 2007. That was when VPR began broadcasting news and information shows such as On Point, Vermont Edition, and the Story during the middle of the day. Why did VPR make this change?

For years listeners had been asking for more news or more classical, and it was obvious we weren’t serving either audience well. Nationally, “mixed format” stations such as VPR were losing listeners, while news stations were growing and full time classical stations were doing well. VPR was seeing a decline in listeners, and we knew that in order to keep VPR strong it was important to change to a news station, but we were also deeply committed to keeping classical music alive on the radio in Vermont.

In 2004, we launched VPR Classical on WNCH in the Upper Valley region and added several other classical stations over the next three years. After a great deal of thought, research and planning, we made the change on October 1, 2007. Some listeners complained, others celebrated, and the end result is that Vermont Public Radio now serves more listeners than ever before: 182,000 people tune into VPR or VPR Classical each week.

Our top priority is to expand our VPR Classical network to serve more Vermonters. VPR Classical is currently broadcasting to about 60% of the state, and can also be heard on HD radio and VPR.net. The areas that are not covered include Rutland, Montpelier, Randolph, Saint Johnsbury, Middlebury, and Brattleboro.

We are very pleased to have been awarded this Addison County frequency during a rare non-commercial application window. These opportunities don’t come along very often. The only way we can expand VPR Classical is through these FCC windows that granted us this station, or through buying a station from a commercial or religious broadcaster.

If you’re interested in helping to fund the expansion of VPR Classical, please let me know. We recognize that it’s challenging to raise money for any project these days, but this is an opportunity we don’t want to miss. At a time when commercial classical stations are disappearing, we have an opportunity to show the country that Vermonters care about classical music and want it to be there for this generation and generations to come.

Vermont Edition's Summer Reading Show: The List

When I was a kid, my school library would stay open throughout the summer. During those long, lazy days of vacation, we'd bike to school a few mornings a week and while away hours browsing the stacks and picking out new books to read. Aside from keeping us amused and out of trouble, we also received McDonald's coupons for every book we read. This seems like a strange practice today, but it certainly explains why I tend to associate summer reading with cheeseburgers.

Truth is I would have grown to love reading even without the bribery, and although I rarely get to read all of the books that pique my interest, reading lists are one of my very favorite things about summer. Visit our website for the complete list of books recommended during yesterday's Vermont Edition Summer Reading Show.

And if that's not enough, NPR has a whole section of their website devoted to summer reading.

As for what I'm reading this summer, I'm almost finished with Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl, which I first heard about a few years ago on Studio 360. Next up? Tough to say, my list just got longer!

Sing a Song of the Lake

This past Thursday evening, the last piece neatly settled in place for VPR's musical celebration of Lake Champlain. Like the Lake itself, the legacy of songs about it are a rich blend of history, culture, and - most important of all - the diversity of people connected to this special region.

Singer, songwriter and historian Deb Flanders joined Robert Resnik in the VPR Performance Studio for conversation and an enchanting set of songs including classics like The Butcher Boy and 10,000 Miles, along with a few newly written tunes.

VPR's music showcase is part of the Champlain 400 project.

On July 5th, All The Traditions will feature the voices and music of the French Canadian fiddling/guitar duo Lisa Ornstein and Andre Marchand; singer/songwriter Alan Greenleaf; and this intimate recording session with Deb Flanders.

Later in the summer (August 2nd at 4pm) we'll share highlights from all of these performances, with a lively set of traditional and original songs about the Lake from Robert Resnik and Marty Morrissey.

A Quadricentennial celebration calls for music of equal scope and magnitude, and these talented musicians deliver!