In just over a month, we’ll have been on the air for twenty years. This is objectively weird to me. I’d like to ask y’all to help us celebrate. First, a little history:
We started with Valley Free Radio, then a brand new station–they started on August 9, 2005, and we started on August 12. (They’re having a twentieth birthday party too!) I’d been involved in the station for quite a while before it went on the air, and, while it had some bumps in the road leading up to getting on the air, and presumably there have been more, it’s still plugging along providing great community radio for the Pioneer Valley.
After about 2 1/2 years with VFR as our home station, the nice folks at 93.9 The River asked if we’d like to move over there. We said sure, as long as the show could still be on VFR too, and that was our home from February 2008 until May of 2015 (we started syndicating the show in the summer of 2012).
And then 2012 is when the mighty KUTX 98.9 became our flagship station.
We’re also a good long ways into Spare the Rock Records, which has generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to amazing non-profits.
Anyway. I never expected to be doing radio for kids for this long or to operate a record label or to book a bunch of shows or any of the rest of it. Both of our kids are out of college, though listeners know they pop on the show regularly. But I still love jumping on the air weekly and doing events and all the rest.
And what I love most of all is hearing from listeners. So what I’d like is to hear from folks about what the show has meant for you. I’d especially love to hear from those former kids who might have some memories of the show or our events, or from parents or guardians or caretakers who found the show fun, or from folks without kids who enjoyed it, or from current kids, or from artists who appreciated getting some love from us. I guess that’s not narrowing it down much. If the show or our events or the releases on the record label have meant something to you, let me know.
You can record a short little thing for possible airplay; you can send me an email; you can record a video; you can send a carrier pigeon, I guess? I’m at show at sparetherock dot com.
In light of the recent flooding in the Hill Country, I’ll make a donation to Kerr County flood relief efforts for each submission.
I’m going to be doing the August shows pretty soon (like next week, most likely) so if you want to potentially be included in the “official” 20th birthday show (August 9), get something in soon? But I’ll celebrate throughout the late summer and fall some, most likely, too.
