The popular Island radio host has won three Massachusetts Broadcasters Association awards for her Vineyard Current public affairs program.
As co-chairmen of the Red Stocking Fund of Martha’s Vineyard, we are distressed to learn of the recent sale of WMVY. Greg Orcutt and the entire staff at WMVY have been stalwart supporters of Red Stocking’s efforts to provide food and clothing to Vineyard children and their families. For over a decade, the radio station has been a willing and able sponsor of both the annual chowder contest and of the chili fest. These are two of our three major fundraisers each year and account for almost half of our over $75,000 budget. WMVY has assured us that this year’s fundraisers will happen as planned. However, there is no guarantee beyond this year. This fact will present Red Stocking with a real challenge in the future to continue providing the level of service that our children need. This is one example of WMVY’s being truly an integral part of Island life. Unfortunately, a hole has now been torn in the fabric of the Vineyard community.
As the news raced around the Island Tuesday that its signal would be sold, WMVY launched an ambitious fund-raising drive to stay online and on the air.
“This is real. We must evolve. Or face extinction,” an announcement on the station’s website declared.
Radio station WMVY, the popular independent local station that has been on the air on the Vineyard for nearly three decades, will sell its broadcast signal 92.7 FM to WBUR, the well-known National Public Radio station in Boston.
Radio station WMVY, the popular independent local station that has been on the air on the Vineyard for nearly three decades, will sell its broadcast signal 92.7 FM to WBUR, the well-known National Public Radio station in Boston.
Back to the Island - An Evening For Friends of WMVY radio begins at 8 p.m. Thursday at Nectar’s by the airport with performances by Livingston Taylor, Mike Benjamin, Sabrina and Groover, Jason Spooner Trio, The Daytrippers and Jemima James and Dan Waters.
There is no set admission fee for the benefit, but attendees are being asked to pay what they can. Proceeds will benefit the not-for-profit arm of WMVY that supports free streaming of all programming online at mvyradio.com.
For details, call 508-221-5778 or visit mvyradio.com.
The blue front door of radio station WMVY looks like a relic from colonial times. Its last coat of paint was perhaps slapped on before the day in 1986 when a young singer from Wellesley and then Cambridge named Barbara Dacey first knocked on it. Once inside the small studio, she offered to do some unpaid on-air commercials as a way of auditioning for some work.
