Hometown Radio

Radio used to be a saving grace for me in this town. It was a connection to people and music. It meant something. My cousin Candy was Miss WINX one year. When my friend and I drove to school, we'd regularly hear Bob Dylan's "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" on WHFS at 8:30 in the morning. It was just the excuse we needed to stay in the car rather than run for the bell. I never liked the deejays who sounded like a running ad for sports events, but I was a sucker for the guy who rambled on and on about the weather, and the next record he was going to play, and what band he was going to see at The Bayou Friday night.

As the DC stations we once knew and loved continue to slip away morphing into conglomerate type entities- one lone hold out carries on that kind of crazy eclectic tradition that is becoming so rare-WPFW. No corporate sponsors here. NONE . Zero. A lot of jazz, a little blues, a lot of talk. Zydeco, Reggae and World music- they've got that. I was always partial to Jerry Washington's character-the Bama, and his spirit is still alive here along with those old school House Parties every Saturday. Even their fund raisers are much easier to listen to than the more main stream public stations, relying heavily on the ding of a front desk type bell when a new pledge comes in and a lot of low key encouragement.
This year to expand the pledge drive- the First Annual Luck of The Duck Race will be happening on June 7th at the Georgetown Harbor featuring 20,000 rubber ducks. I had to get on board with this even before I found out if you "adopt" a duck, you have a chance to win a million dollars. What a concept. Anyway -five bucks gets you a duck and a chance to keep this very important Washington institution a float.