If you’ve ever tuned in to MVYRadio, attended a program at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum or stood in line at Reliable Market wondering, “Whose voice is that?” you’ve probably crossed paths with Laurel Redington and Ray Whitaker. These two creative powerhouses have helped shape the Island’s cultural soundtrack for decades – Laurel as a longtime voice and producer at MVY and now director of programming and audience engagement at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum; Ray as a DJ, storyteller and host of the station’s popular Sunday interview show, the Vineyard Current.

They met on the air and built a life rooted in shared creativity, humor and deep community connection. Their love story is a Vineyard classic – too much to lay out in this space, as much as I’d like to! Married 29 years this October, they continue to contribute to the best of Island life.

This month, I put the dynamic duo in The Vine hot seat to talk about high summer, radio, road etiquette, reinvention – and what makes a perfect summer day on Martha’s Vineyard.

Q. Laurel, you first came to Martha’s Vineyard as a young person.

Laurel: Yes, in the late-eighties my dad was a wetlands expert and came here as an environmental consultant. And I learned to love the natural world, the wetlands, the cedars, the fields, the oaks. It’s in my blood.

Ray: I don’t think there’s a day that goes by that we don’t look at this place and think how gorgeous it is. You can’t get jaded.

Q. Ray, you came in the early nineties, but when did you first learn about Martha’s Vineyard?

Ray: My dad was a cop in the Bronx for many, many years and we moved around a lot, but nobody in my family had ever left the tri-state area. Before I got here I was working at three different radio stations in New Jersey and I kept seeing this ad for the Martha’s Vineyard station. It had such a mystique. I had read a book about John Belushi, and it had really great descriptions of the landscape. When I saw the ad I just kept calling and calling and sending my headshot and eventually I got the job.

Laurel: I remember driving up and seeing this electric blue car with Jersey plates in the station parking lot at the end of the dirt road and I’m like, “Oh, this is gonna be fun!”

Q. Was there an immediate connection?

Laurel: Well, he was like nobody else here, full-length black leather jacket – very matrix before The Matrix – sunglasses, the ducktail. I walked into the studio and the track lighting hit his blue eyes, and well, it was one of those things where our souls kind of high-fived each other and just went back to their corners.

Q. Laurel, as programming director at the museum, you’ve had a front-row seat to the mounting of the seminal exhibit, Jaws: Creating Amity Island. How has the show influenced your summer programming?

Laurel: I’ve had the privilege of witnessing this exhibit come to life from a unique vantage point – not shaping the content but supporting and responding to it. Behind the scenes, it’s been incredible to witness the care, thought and sheer effort that’s gone into building something of this scale. It made me feel both proud and deeply grateful to be part of this team. It reminded me of the power of storytelling, and the importance of creating space for people to connect – not just with history, but with each other. We’ve been working to design programs that feel open, welcoming and rooted in the themes the exhibit explores – whether through music, conversation or shared experience. My hope is that our summer offerings feel like an extension of the exhibit’s energy: inviting, thought-provoking and grounded in community.

Ray: It’s definitely going to provide some programs on the Current. In some regards Laurel and I work in tandem. We share ideas, so there’s a lot of cross-promotion.

Laurel: It’s almost a twofer – but not quite. But it’s a Vineyard thing. That’s what’s so beautiful about the Vineyard – we’re all connected and we all help each other. In other places, there would be real competition, but here we have a collaborative spirit.

Q. Ray, for summer visitors tuning into 88.7 FM for the first time, what should they know about this incredible station and what sets it apart?

Ray: MVY has a [more than] 40-year-old history and bragging rights to being at the forefront of what came to be known as the adult album alternative format. It was once called album radio when we were a commercial station. Deeper album cuts, some newer tunes and unique Island programming that, thanks to the internet, can be heard all over the world. As much as the Vineyard is known as being tony and for the vacationing high rollers, MVY is still a local radio station.

Q. In the height of July, what do you think summer visitors need to understand about our Island home?

Laurel: Well…we could get into the traffic.

Ray: It’s July, let’s talk about it.

Laurel: I know Islanders will understand this. There are road rules of engagement – like what to do when turkeys are crossing the road and how you navigate The Triangle [in Edgartown] or drive through Five Corners [in Vineyard Haven]. The biggest takeaway for the visitor: Don’t put on your blinker if you’re going straight through Five Corners!

Q. Aside from an awkward intersection that hundreds of cars coming off the ferry have to drive through, could you share another aspect of living here that makes the Island so special?

Laurel: Our way of doing things the old way, old courtesies, rules that don’t apply when going off-Island.

Ray: It’s kind of like a Mayberry at sea.

Laurel: And everybody here has more than one story. You see them one way, but you scratch the surface and there’s the alternate, the other story. And the three-job phenomenon: So many people have three part-time jobs, consulting gigs or a side hustle.

Ray: I was going to add that this place is perfect for reinventing yourself.

Q. What’s your ideal July day?

Laurel: July is my birthday month so I love disappearing. We go to the beach when everyone is off the beach. We’re definitely not amongst-the-crowd people. When I’m out there I embrace it, it’s genuine, but I definitely have to remove myself. Just hearing the sound of the wind at our house on our deck – it’s so private. That’s one of my favorite places.

Ray: I like hearing the ferry whistle from a distance. That’s one of my favorite things. If you listen to the Vineyard Current , in between segments you’ll hear the sound of the waves but you’ll also hear the ferry. I recorded those from our deck. And now we’ve got new whistles with the new freight boats which I have to record!

Q. Ray, I think for most Island residents catching the Vineyard Current on Sunday morning is appointment radio. Do you ever run out of interesting guests?

Ray: It’s impossible. We can always come up with something, and now actually one of the favorites is our recurring dog training segment with Jeremy Jones. He’s very well spoken, he’s funny and people have come to rely on hearing this once-a-month feature.

Q. Is there something you two haven’t done on this Island?

Laurel: We haven’t done a program together – not yet! We have all of these ideas written down and one that keeps rising to the surface is us doing a radio show together called The Great Compromise – because we’re so different. But we complement each other so well. The compromise is that we have very different approaches – so we have to work independently and then come together.

Q. This last question I gave you ahead of time. If you are programming the ultimate WMVY radio summer mixtape, what’s the opening and closing song?

Laurel: We’ve been thinking about this because when it comes to doing playlists, we always do it together. This might be boring, but the first one would be Inner City Blues by Marvin Gaye. That song embodies the need to get out of the city, go be by the sea.

Ray: The very final song would be Summer Wind by Frank Sinatra; it might seem cliché, but that song is perfect.

Q. Ray and Laurel, thanks for being in our hotseat at The Vine!

Laurel: Thank you so much. We have never done a joint interview before and this is really special for us.

 

Sissy Biggers is the Q&A columnist for The Vine and a regular contributor to Martha’s Vineyard Magazine.