Merry Christmas

Post Gathering of the Vibes Party at Acoustic Cafe

I'll be your MC for this show. See you there!

Staying on the CT shore after Gathering of the Vibes? Come join us for another awesome night of music on Friday July 27th in Bridgeport..::..2013 Vibes Ticket Giveaway..::..RadioVibes MC David Golden Full Circle Music Productions Presents a Post Gathering of the Vibes Party at Acoustic Cafe with Fundimensionals, Capital Zen & two DJ sets by Skeeba of Business Casual Disco. -- $8.00 -- 21+ -- Doors 8:30 PM -- Show at 9 PM --

The rest of the credits

Now that I've had a day to sleep it off, and memories are coming into focus, I want to take the opportunity to thank some more folks who made this such a great weekend.

WPKN table & hippie van:
Thanks to Paul Nordling for the van, and Terry Hopper & Kathy Reilly for spending an incredible amount of time meeting and greeting listeners all weekend long. You may have also met Mark Muller, Sam Hopkins, DJ Darkflow, Bobby Mondavi, and John Corvino, among others.

The following WPKN programmers yielded precious air time for the broadcast:

• 3rd Thursday: Cliff Furnald, Binnie Klein, John Motavalli, Bob Shapiro, Eric Ford
• 3rd Friday: Dave O., Richard Pheneger, Howard Thompson, Mike Horyczun, Ray Terlaga, Kathy de Mino, Eric Ford
• 3rd Saturday: Car Bob, John Lugo, Deb Guhl, Larry Stoler, Jeff Day, Mikki
• 4th Sunday: Lou Pomales, Pam Smith, Liz Becker (filling in for Bill & Joan Nolan)

These folks all do wonderful radio. Please give them a listen when you have a chance. Special thanks to program director Ebong Udoma for letting me wreak havoc with the schedule for four days.

Don't forget, WPKN is a listener-supported community station. It's listeners like you who keep it going. Please consider making an online donation today.

Roll the credits

You've heard Janet, Cliff, Dagan, Gordy, and me all weekend on mic, but this broadcast would be impossible without the many people behind the scenes. Many programmers yielded their air time so that we could do this special broadcast, and many others volunteered their time in the WPKN studio watching the board and programming radio between bands all weekend, or hanging out at our tent and van at the festival. If I leave any names out, please don't be upset.

In-studio support: Terry Hopper, Bob Johnson, Sam Hopkins, Rod Richardson, Dave O., Mark Muller, Collette Rossignol, DJ Dizzy, Eric Ford, Mark Mushin, DJ Mondavi, Larry Stoler & Phil Bowler, Jeff Day, Del, Liz Becker, Tom Poplawski, and Lou Pomales.

Special thanks to Dave Schwartz, who doesn't like to take credit, but is the technical wizard who sets up our remote studio here on the festival grounds, WPKN's technical director Mark Conese for the in-studio work, and former General Manager Peter Bochan for the vision and leadership in our studio upgrade. WPKN's new General Manager Steve di Costanzo has worked tirelessly to coordinate things around the studio and with our on-site tent and hippie van.

Thanks to Ken Hays for inviting us to be part of Gathering of the Vibes, and to the staff for their support, and my broadcast partner Gordon Taylor –  as Main Stage MC.

Above all, thanks to my wife Janet Golden for coming with me on this crazy adventure for the past six years.

Sunday schedule

• 10:00 a.m. – Between the Lines
• 10:30 a.m. – Tom Poplawski
• 11:00 a.m. – Radio Vibes featuring an exclusive interview with Mickey Hart
• 10:40 a.m. – World Peace Ceremony
• 12:00 noon – Radio Vibes Pregame Show
• 12:30 p.m. – Keller Williams
• 2:00 p.m. – Max Creek
• 4:00 p.m. – Steel Pulse
• 6:00 p.m. – The Avett Brothers

In the WPKN studio:

• 10 a.m. – Tom Poplawski
• 2 p.m. – Lou Pomales
• 7 p.m. – Liz Becker

8 p.m. – Antique Blues with Bill & Joan Nolan

Saturday schedule

Good morning Vibe Tribe! Here's what's coming up today.

• 10 am – Radio Vibes pre game show
• 11:00 a.m. – Ryan Montbleau Band
• 1:00 p.m. – Cosmic Jibaros
• 3:00 p.m. – Deep Banana Blackout
• 5:00 p.m. – Mickey Hart Band
• 7:00 p.m.  – Strangefolk Reunion
• 9:30 p.m. – Primus
• 12:00 midnight – STS9

In the studio:

DJ Mondavi until 4 p.m.; then Larry Stoler until 7 p.m.; Jeff Day until 10 p.m.; and Del until 2 a.m.

Friday evening on Radio Vibes

Music from the Green Vibes Stage:

• 6:45 p.m. – MiZ
• 9:00 p.m. – George Porter, Jr. & Runnin' Pardners
• 10:19 p.m. – Kung Fu
• 11:28 p.m. – Twiddle

WPKN Programmers:

• 1:00 a.m. – Eric Ford
• 2:00 a.m. – Bob D'Aprile

Updated 10:25 p.m. Started Kung Fu a few minutes early.

Friday Schedule

Good morning, Vibe Tribe! Stay dry. Here's our main stage schedule.

• 10 a.m. Radio Vibes Pregame Show
• 11 a.m. School of Rock All Stars
• 12:45 p.m. Assembly of Dust
• 2:45 p.m. 7 Walkers
• 4:45 p.m. The Greyboy Allstars

Subject, as always, to artist agreement. 

Early morning rain

It's 4:10 AM. After a monster set from Lettuce and Soulive, the Late Night stage is quiet. I am about to fall asleep to the soothing sound of rain on my tent.

Late Night stage from behind the fence

Friday morning on WPKN

After our broadcast ends at 1 a.m., the music and vibes continue on WPKN.

• 1 a.m. - Rod Richardson, "Radio Nothing"
• 2 a.m. - Alfonso
• 6 a.m. - News
• 7 a.m. - Del or TBD
• 9 a.m. - Dave O.
• 10 a.m. - Radio Vibes, Day 2

In our studio ...

Bob Johnson will be with you between bands up until 8 p.m.
From 8-11, DJ Dizzy will hold down the fort.
From 11 pm on, Rod Richardson.

WPKN is listener-supported station. If you like what you hear, please hit the tip jar.

Thursday Schedule

Good morning, Vibe Tribe! Here's today's schedule on 89.5 FM, subject to change. All music is subject to artist approval.

9:00 am - Radio Vibes
12 noon - Organic Farm Stand
1 pm - Peter Bochan, "All Mixed Up" - Tribute to Woody Guthrie
3 pm - Radio Vibes pre game show
4 pm - Quincy Mumford
5:35 pm - Zach Deputy Band
7:05 pm - Yonder Mountain String Band
9:00 pm - Dark Star Orchestra

Streaming on wpkn.org:
Due to licensing agreements, we are not allowed to stream the Main Stage artists. We will broadcast music from the Green Vibes stage and other recorded live music while Main Stage music is playing on the radio. We'll update the schedule later today.

UPDATE: Streaming on wpkn.org

5:35 p.m. - Leroy Justice from the 2010 Vibes

Quiet time in the park

There are a lot of staff here but it's still mostly empty. Generators are humming, and there are bursts of white noise from the main stage PA as they tune the system.

In less than eight hours I'll be on the air. For now, I'm enjoying the quiet time in a chair by the water.

Vibe Tribe Traffic Reporting with Waze

Radio Vibes always has spotters in the line on Thursday morning. This year we’re trying something new. There’s a moble app called Waze that combines GPS crowd-sourcing with traffic reporting. You can participate by installing it on your mobile phone. We’ll be watching Waze—maybe we’ll see you!

One of the neat features of Waze is groups. Look for a group called "Vibe Tribe." Any alerts you posted by a member will be seen by everyone in the group. Why not download it today and test it out on your way to the Phish & Furthur shows? Let us know what you think.

The night before the night before

The first part is done: mixers, microphones and CD players. Tomorrow we move the computers in and do some more testing.








It's still looking a little sparse without the rest of the equipment, and the other decorative enhancements.






The Ferris wheel is looking good, but it's kind of eerie in an almost empty park.

Our coverage area

If you're curious about our coverage area, here's a nice map.

Crunch time!

In less than 48 hours, Radio Vibes will be live on WPKN 89.5 FM. Today is a busy day for the crew. As I write, we're waiting for a phone company tech to make a quick repair to our broadcast circuit. Once he's done, we'll run some music over the line from the park back to the studio.

Tonight I'm hauling gear from the station over to our trailer—what Mickey Hart called "the Taj Mahal of trailers." We'll set up a good part of our remote studio this evening, and we should be able to send programming back to WPKN.

It's all coming together, and we're looking forward to bringing you another year of Radio Vibes on WPKN.

The end of the beginning

Link to the mother ship

The planning phase is over, and the building phase has begun. The broadcast circuit connecting Seaside Park to WPKN has been installed. The day the phone company installer shows up is the day it all becomes real.

Home for the festival weekend

Once we successfully send audio from the bandshell back to the studio – to be sure everything is "just exactly perfect" – we start packing everything we need to set up our remote studio. There's nothing glamorous about our backstage studio. It's an 8' x 10' room in a trailer, but it's where we spend most of the weekend during Vibes.

Freshly unboxed

Meanwhile, on the home front, Dave G. has a brand new Mac Mini that will have its shakedown cruise at Vibes. This is where all the interviews are edited.

Welcome, Vibe Tribe!

If you found us from our page on the Gathering of the Vibes web site, welcome! This is where we'll be posting programming and schedule updates throughout the weekend.

Vibes Pre-Party & Food Drive Tomorrow Night

Arch Street Tavern, Hartford, CT. Ticket info here.
Bring non-perishable food for Strangers Helping Strangers. Radio Vibes will be MC for the evening.

We're Back for 2012!

We will once again be broadcasting Radio Vibes on WPKN 89.5 FM. The fun starts around 9:00 Thursday morning and continues all weekend. We will have traffic and weather information, frequent schedule information, interviews, and all the main stage music we can get (subject to artist agreement). When we shut down for the night, stay with our local hosts who will take you through the night and morning until we join you for the next broadcast day.

As you drive toward Bridgeport, you can pick WPKN up at around Stamford, Danbury, Rocky Hill, and Old Saybrook — as well in most of Long Island.

Stay in touch with us through our social media channels:

• Facebook: http://facebook.com/radiovibes
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/vibesradio (hashtag #vibetribe)
• Blog: http://vibesradio.blogspot.com

That's Radio Vibes on WPKN 89.5 FM (http://wpkn.org).