Hello CVCR Supporters! Welcome to our Impact Report for 2025. You'll get a quick recap on the past year - the celebrations and challenges - and read about what's coming next in 2026. The state of the station is strong as we close the year. We continue to break fundraising records with listener support, have more Vermonters on the air than ever in our history and the most out of any radio station in the state, and we've made significant strategic and practical strides to improve our infrastructure for the future. Most importantly, it is the people of the WGDR/WGDH that make this place special. You hear most of us on the air each week, but there are dozens of more folks working behind the scenes tirelessly to continue to realize the potential this station has always had. Together, we can, and have, met every challenge we've faced. Next year, it will be about going after opportunities that will dramatically increase listenership and the impact the station has in our community. It is exciting stuff and we can't wait to tell you more.
Stay tuned! Llu Mulvaney-Stanak, Executive Director, Llu@WGDR.org
đź“· Top photo: Civic Standard team recording in Hardwick for the Civic Radio show this year. Left photo: Llu giving instructions for our annual all station photo on the stairs of the Pratt building, outside the station.
Listen Local
We are committed to continuing to expand and improve the local programming that makes the station stand out. "Just wanted to let you know that [student's] radio project work was a hit—thank YOU so much for giving her such a cool experience to supplement her learning! Grateful again for such a cool experience for all three of the kids—so awesome!" - Mom of a homeschool student who got to explore the station and be on the air This year we had:
- 135 shows are in our schedule. 74 were made by locals this year and nearly all of those are live. 69% of the main schedule is local!
- 17 were new local shows this year
- 8 shows step back from the airwaves (retired, moved of state, etc.)
- a new, hyper local daily weather forecast added by our pay Roger Hill
- special programming like a live feed from the New Orleans Jazz Fest thanks to WWOZ, a great 6 month radio show partnership with the Civic Standard, barters with the Times Argus and Hardwick Gazette to lift up each of our media outlets with each other
- countless hours of your neighbors covering what is happening nationally and the impact here in Vermonter, as well as giving you a break from it all with great music shows.
"Thanks for replying. I ended up figuring it out the song. Yay for WGDR! Love you guys!" - A listener discovering music from one of our shows. With about a dozen folks starting new programmer training this month, we are on pace to have another record number of Vermonters on the air with us by 2026. Stay tuned in for creative, informative, and entertaining content every single day.
How folks listened has also been dramatically changing. When we took over ownership in 2021, we had an estimated 10,000 unique listeners on broadcast radio and around 5,000 listening online (combined livestream and archives). There was at least 15,000 folks listening as Goddard College stepped back. As of 2025, we now have an estimated:
- 12,000 unique broadcast listeners (and we're about to dramatically increase that with a new antenna - details on that later in this report).
- 17,500 unique online listeners (yes, that is not a typo!).
- 8-10,000 unique listeners on our archives.
- Combined, that is at least 40,000 listeners to the station each year.
This is all by design. We've worked very hard to not just put more local content on the air, but to make it diverse and sound great. We've also invested in improving the online listening experience, with an improved streaming and archive service in 2025. We are seeing all this hard work pay off with this dramatic increase in listeners!
đź“· Left photo: U-32 student, Ruby, doing her radio show (with her mom) in the studio.
Honoring Those Who've Left An Impact ​
​So many individuals come together to make this station possible. In the last year, we lost one of our most dedicated programmers, volunteers, and board members - Dave Tucker. His passing was deeply felt by all of us and we miss him dearly. We also saw the retirement of the shows from long time programmers - Jeff Lindholm (Geezer Rock), Peter Goreau (Spanning the Chasm), who both had decades on the air with us. There were many more folks who left their mark on the station - through shows or volunteering - thank you all! 📷 Right photo: Jeff Lindholm (left) and Dave Tucker (right)
Turning Challenges Into Celebrations
We faced no lease, funding gaps, capacity crunches, attacks on public media, and more this year. As we always do, we rose to the moment and:
- inked an affordable new two-year lease with Ledgeworks (the new owners of former Goddard campus);
- secured $150K in state funding for all community radio stations on Vermont to upgrade aging gear for future emergency response;
- transitioned from our founding board to a brand new board focused on strategy and capacity to ready us up for big moves in 2026;
- lined up a new tower location in Plainfield for the brand new WGDR antenna and secured over 50% of the costs it will take to move us there next spring, increasing our broadcast by 8 times the coverage!
đź“· Right photo: New tower location for WGDR on a bluebird day.
What’s Next in 2026
1. Get a new WGDR antenna and move it to a higher location in Plainfield.
Thanks to state funding and generous major donor support, we are over 50% of our way to funding this Tower Fund project of $175K. In the spring, we will take the 91.1 FM broadcast from a reach of 88 square miles to over 800. You really will hear the difference!
2. Grow for our future.
We lead the state in the most locally made programming, the most live and responsive, and the most diverse. To pull it off takes a lot of work! Next year, we plan to expand our paid staffing with new annual funding sources and , and more, so we can be even better at the programming you love and rely on.
3. Bring the radio to you.
Our future on the old Goddard campus remains a barrier for us to do more community embedded broadcast and engage with folks. Next year, we begin to strategize about a possible a new location and all that it could mean.
We also are going to do more in person community events around our broadcast area. Stay tuned for more on that soon!
đź“· Left photo: The 2025 all station photo at our Birthday Party in June.
Finances & Support
Our FY25 fiscal years closes on December 31. We will have a report to share in late January on our income and expenses. We project a final actual budget of around $135K for this year.
Your donation, of any size, makes a huge impact on keeping the programming you rely on. You can make a tax-deductible gift to Central Vermont Community Radio at WGDR.org, including making a monthly sustaining gift, or give by check to “CVCR” mailed to 123 Pitkin Road, Plainfield, VT 05667.
Interested underwriters or sponsors can support the station financially in exchange for “ad-like” mention of their services either on the air or “pre-roll” of our livestream online. We have a wide range of packages, with lots of customizable options, starting at just $253. Contact our Executive Director at Llu@WGDR.org for more info.
Thank you for investing in the future of community radio here in Vermont.
Board, Committees & Staff
Central Vermont Community Radio Board Members
- Barry Matthews, Secretary, Norwich
- Charles Rossell, Chair, Cabot
- David Mannix, Plainfield, Treasurer
- Muara Quinn, Barre
- Tom McMurdo, Montpelier
Programming Committee
- Anna Van Dine, Community Rep, Co-Chair
- Ari Erlbaum, Community Rep, Co-Chair
- Charles Rossell, Board Rep
- Steven Pappas, Community Rep
- Ken Haggett, Community Rep
- Maura Quinn, Programmer Rep
- Delia Gillen, Programmer Rep
Staff Levi Kerchner, Program Manager Llu Mulvaney-Stanak, Executive Director
đź“· Left photo: Llu Mulvaney-Stanak (staff and programmer) and Maura Quinn (Board member, Programming committee member, and programmer), in the studio live on the air during Giving Tuesday this year.