Clearing Our Plate, Er....Dish

Many of us across the region were digging out of yesterday's snow storm, and VPR was no exception! In this picture, VPR's Sean LaRock clears snow off the satellite dish outside our Colchester studios. Even a small amount of snow or ice on our dish can disrupt our feed of NPR and other programming, so when the weather gets bad, our announcers keep a close eye on the dish to keep VPR programming coming to you! Stay warm!

(Photo courtesy of VPR's Aaron Kimball)

Montpelier Baker On Weekend Edition

Gesine Bullock-Prado, owner of Gesine's Confectionary in Montpelier, has written a memoir called Confections of a Closet Master Baker. Liane Hansen interviewed Bullock-Prado on NPR's Weekend Edition this morning about her escape from Hollywood and how she learned her craft. It's a fascinating and fun story. Click here to listen. For Bullock-Prado's blog and her irresistible recipes, click here.

Note: Listen to Gesine's interview on Vermont Edition from November, 2009 and try her recipe for Golden Eggs featured in VPR Cooks.

The Sounds and Stories of 2009

In the news business, we often take a little time at the end of a year to look back at what made news over the previous 12 months. It's always surprising how much material there was in a typical year.

At VPR News, we've tried over the years to package some of the highlights in a year-end package for our listeners.

This year, we decided to devote a full hour to the subject. We discovered there was an awful lot of interesting, quirky, meaningful, funny, sad and memorable material to choose from.

It wasn't easy deciding what to include -- and what to leave out. But we've made the choices and, this Thursday at noon and Friday at 7, host Neal Charnoff takes on a review of The Sounds and Stories of 2009.

From all of us here at VPR, thank you for a remarkable 2009, and we look forward to serving you in 2010.

Say It With Pizza

Did you know, pizza is the #1 Christmas Eve lunchtime choice at radio stations around the country? True story! A little pepperoni, a few green peppers and onions and a bunch of black olives can work wonders to replenish the spirit and keep the staff running in top form right through the end of the year.

What else could we do today at VPR but keep up our end of this time-honored tradition? As Willem Lange was telling stories of a New England Christmas on VPR, and VPR Classical was serenading the lunch hour with Handel's Messiah - the few staffers and volunteers in the building took a break. We swapped favorite Christmas carols, shared holiday plans with each other, and enjoyed two large, fully loaded pies.

Holidays are all about traditions. From favorite recipes and tree ornaments, to the colors we wear and the songs we sing. As a public radio station we're glad you're part of our tradition. Thank you for all you do to support Vermont Public Radio. Cheers to you, the New Year, and...many more pizza dates!

See VPR's holiday page for recipes and vintage staff photos, and please send us yours!

Where Is "Classics For Kids"?

No worries, your VPR Classical hosts may be taking a little time off for the holidays but you don't have to miss Classics for Kids!

On Christmas day and New Year's day you'll be able to hear Classics for Kids at a special time: 1:54pm, just before Performance Today.

Kids will then return to its normal time starting on Friday, January 8th.

Best wishes for a lovely new year, and thank you from all of us here for making great programming possible every day!

VPR's Annual Holiday Concert

This year we were very pleased to invite Constance Price, the Essex Children's Choir, and members of the VPR Broadcasters Club & Producers Circle to our annual holiday concert at the Elley-Long Music Center. Cheers, from all of us at VPR!

VPR Classical Campaign for Addison County a SUCCESS!

VPR’s headquarters are usually a fairly reserved place, but this afternoon there was quite a bit of whooping and hollering in the main hallway when VPR’s Manager of Major Giving, Retta Huttlinger, told me that the VPR Classical Campaign for Addison County had met the goal of $346,000!

We were under $5,000 to go at the beginning of the week, and we weren’t sure we would make the goal by the end of the month. Thankfully, several gifts came in over the last several days that put us where we needed to be for the $10,000 Vermont Community Foundation challenge to end the campaign successfully. Many thanks to the VCF, and to every donor who contributed to the campaign! It’s wonderful to have such a generous outpouring of support for classical music on the radio dial.

Now that winter is upon us, it’s not possible for our engineering team to do their work safely to get the station on the air in the next several months. But, the equipment is ordered and as soon as the snow clears in the spring, and there’s easy access to Chipman Hill in Middlebury where the station will be situated, WOXM- 90.1 FM VPR Classical will make its debut!

This campaign was a success thanks to an energetic group of community volunteers who forged ahead despite the interesting challenges that the economy provided. Special thanks to Bonnie McCardell and her husband John (a member of the VPR Board of Directors) who lead the effort tirelessly and who deserve a big round of applause for their efforts to bring VPR Classical to Addison County. Well done, and thank you!