30 years ago, WDIY 88.1 made its way to the airwaves and started to form connections with the community through its continuous broadcasting and local news.
I interviewed programmers Dina Hall, Kate Scuffle, Tom and Betty Druckenmiller about their involvement, what makes WDIY so special, and how they’ve seen the station evolve over 30 years.
Dina Hall: “I have been an on-air programmer volunteer, probably goes back to around 2011, and I've hosted some of the Folk programs. I started out with Live from Godfrey Daniels; that was back in 2011, and then I did that for a number of years. Most recently, unlimited possibilities, and Sunday folk. I've been able to work that in as my own work schedule allows.”
Kate Scuffle: “I'm the host of Lehigh Valley Art Salon most Mondays of the month, at 6:00pm. I also write, which I really enjoy. I write the Celtic cultural moment, which runs halfway through our Celtic Fair program on Thursday nights, with the host. Rick Weaver. I write the little kind of historical moments, and Rick scores them with Celtic music.”
Tom Druckenmiller: “I am the producer and the host of “In The Tradition” every Wednesday night, here at 7:00pm on WDIY, and I also produce and host the Sing Out Radio magazine every Sunday at 10am on WDIY, which is nationally syndicated, but thankfully, it's being carried by WDIY.”
Betty Druckenmiller: “I provide some production assistance to Tom, more with Sing Out than anything else, because I do the technical background stuff for that, but also provide transportation, moral support, and look things up while Tom is on the air.”
Tom replied to Betty, “You’ve done more than that!”
Tom: “I think it's a great opportunity. We are very fortunate to have the opportunity for people who, pretty much anyone who wants to get involved with radio can get involved here, whether it's from a programming standpoint, from volunteering at events, things like that, to get you involved with the music.”
How does WDIY support local musicians? Here's what Dina, Betty and Tom said.
Dina: “That is one of the most important things I think that we’re able to do here at WDIY, is to amplify the voices and sounds coming out of our community and sharing them, not only with the folks right here in our town and in the Lehigh Valley, but well beyond it.”
Betty: “By playing their music on the air so the community can hear what it is that they're doing that's that's one way and interviews for the same purpose, publicizing events, local calendars. And you know, so many of the programmers that we know also are musicians, whether it's classical or folk oriented, or traditional.”
Tom: “I've been playing music since I was seriously, since I was about 14 years old, and I'm now 108, no I'm 73, so it’s been a big part of my life forever.”
Tom shared an experience he had at WDIY where he had the chance to interview a member of The Weavers, Ronnie Gilbert.
Tom: “Ronnie Gilbert was a member of The Weavers back in the 1950s. She was doing a concert someplace at Lehigh or somewhere, I forget what it was. But again, it was one of those situations in which you could bring her to the station and interview her on your show. It was magical, because this woman has done more in her life than I’ll ever do in five lives, musically at least. She was very sweet, very forceful. It was just a great opportunity that I would never have had except for being here at the station, and it was important to me, because those are people that I looked up to, really looked up to.”
“I tried to get Bob Dylan to come on my show, but to no avail, couldn't even get through to his management.”
I asked them whether they had any advice for anyone who is thinking about volunteering with the station. Here's what they all said.
Dina: “I think it's helpful, as it was, for me, to find someone here, find the volunteer programmer that you might aspire to, that is some sort of an inspiration to you, and maybe ask them for guidance, or come in and sit in the studio while they're doing their show and shadow them for a while, which is what I did. I shadowed Mike Space for a number of weeks in learning how things were done, and then he set me in there and let me just work the board, and maybe speak a little bit. That was a good way to get into it.”
Kate: “I would say, if you're a newcomer to WDIY to relax, get comfortable, know that you have the opportunity here to be creative, involved, supportive. It's a small paid staff, and I don't know how everyone does it all. An enormous amount of volunteers, really inspiring. I can't get over how the station produces the quality that it does, with the resources available to all of us. So, it's an exciting place to come in and contribute.
Tom: “It's going to be worth it. You'll learn, you'll make friends that you wouldn't meet in any other way, and you'll get a sense of contributing to the community, which is important. I bring up community all the time when we're doing pitching, but it's an important concept here, and it there are skills and things that you'll learn here that apply outside the world of radio, and that's important too.
Each of these volunteers shared their concerns about federal funding cuts to public media and radio. Here's what they all said.
Betty: “Well, there's a connection here that that with the community, because of the all about, you know, 120 or so volunteer programmers who are college professors, college students and high school students who are musicians, perform in the community, who are artists, visual artists, who go from gallery to gallery, and there are a lot of people we never would have met otherwise. Tom always says that, but there's so many people involved with the station that there would be a real loss of community, information and sense of working together to better the Lehigh Valley that I think would be lost if programming had to change or be eliminated, and that would be really hard.”
Dina: “The community would be losing its voice. WDIY is a voice not just for music, not just what's happening as in current affairs, but there's a level of intellect, curiosity and knowledge that WDIY helps foster and support. You won't find that on mainstream radio; You won't find that on any streaming services.”
Kate: “What we would be losing? Maybe the way I describe the role of the arts in a community, I think of the station in exactly the same way. I mean, we make community. We are the community. We celebrate and connect the community. Our mission, our ability and our resources to do that are structured differently than a commercial station. You know, it's not to cast aspersions. NPR, nonprofit radio, PBS have intentionally crafted a space that allows space for this kind of open sharing of information, things that aren't driven by the dollar constantly. And I feel like WDIY is a big beating heart in the community.”
