“The Heavy Light Show” on Radio Woodstock is an aural oasis. An impeccably curated, always surprising, refreshingly diverse, two-hour break from the aural brown bread that clogs so much of the upstate audio landscape. If only it were on five nights a week instead of just one (Saturday, 9-11pm). Well, wonder of wonders, host Ida Hakila is looking to make exactly that happen—and you can help.
Since host Ida Hakila is an independent contractor at Radio Woodstock and doesn’t have the resources available to the station’s flagship daytime programming, she’s set up a campaign via crowd-funding site Patreon with the goals of keeping “The Heavy Light Show” operating Saturday nights with a podcast version of the show on an updated website and ultimately going five full nights a week with the show on Radio Woodstock. Through Patreon listeners can “vote” for the expansion with an ongoing $5 monthly supporter’s donation.
“For so many years, everybody in radio has been trying to convince me that the listeners only want the same 15 songs, and they want the computer to choose those songs,” says Hakila. “But I think you can be professional, and still play tons of new music, and introduce everyday people to a ton of new music.”
Here, Ida explains the ideas behind the effort:
To cast your vote for a continuing and expanded incarnation of “The Heavy Light Show” and learn more about the effort, visit https://www.patreon.com/IdaHakkila?ty=h.
This article appears in March 2016.
