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.

25 years marks a silver anniversary. But after spending nearly a quarter century at the microphone, Barbara Dacey’s memories are colored gold. “She was dressed beautifully. She was wearing this big hat and walked into the door in a way that was very dramatic,” said Ms. Dacey, the curly-haired woman who first knocked on the Vineyard Haven doors of radio station 92.7 FM herself in 1981.

Barbara Dacey is relieved.

A temporary eleventh-hour agreement last weekend between radio
webcasters and a record industry royalty collection organization ensures
that Internet-based streaming radio stations will operate under existing
royalty fees. Meanwhile, negotiation continues between webcasters and
Sound Exchange, which collects royalties for the Recording Industry
Association of America.

Barbara Dacey knows what keeps a song on the radio. For the past 18
years, she's worked at WMVY, sifting through popular music and
engineering a special blend of tunes for the eclectic Island radio
station.

The station is throwing itself a 20th birthday party at the Hot Tin
Roof on Thursday, June 12, with singer/songwriters Dar Williams and
Patty Larkin. The event is aimed at dedicated listeners, as tickets are
not for sale, but are being given away over the air.