10th Anniversary Celebration with 10,000 Maniacs, Rolling Hills Radio with Ken Hardley, and more!

JAMESTOWN – The area’s only locally owned and operated non-religious radio station, WRFA (107.9 FM Jamestown, streaming at www.WRFALP.com), will celebrate 10 years on the local airwaves on Saturday, Sept. 13 with an afternoon and evening of live radio programing that includes interviews and musical performances.

• ACCESS LIVE STREAM (STARTS AT 2:40PM)

SEPT. 13 SCHEDULE:

• 3 p.m. – Interviews with community members and local non-profit organization leaders (Streaming and broadcasting);
• 4 p.m. – Community Matters roundtable discussion on local economic development with community leaders, hosted by Jason Sample (Streaming and broadcasting);
• 5 p.m. – Rolling Hills Radio with Ken Hardley with special guests John Latini and Miche Fambro (live at the Reg Studio Theater and streaming, broadcasting) (Get Tickets);
• 7 p.m. – Interviews with WRFA and Reg Lenna Staff (Streaming and broadcasting);
• 8 p.m. – Live concert with 10,000 Maniacs (live at the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts and streaming, broadcasting) (Get Tickets).

10 Years of Community Radio

WRFA began broadcasting as a non-commercial, low power radio station on Sept. 13, 2004 with a mission to provide educational and volunteer radio programming to listeners in the Jamestown area. It was started by musician Dennis Drew from 10,000 Maniacs, with a broadcast license held by the Arts Council for Chautauqua County.

Since its first broadcast, the station has grown to include online streaming, a variety of volunteer-produced programs and a public affairs department that focuses on news and issues affecting the greater Jamestown Community. Today, the station continues to operate with an independent spirit, mixing syndicated public radio programming with locally produced music, news and public affairs shows. Its license is currently held by Reg Lenna Center for The Arts.

Celebration Begins with Community Matters Roundtable

The 10-year anniversary celebration starts on Friday, Sept. 12 with a special recording of Community Matters, a program that focuses on issues that relate to the Jamestown and Chautauqua Region.

The program will feature a roundtable discussion on the future of economic development in the Jamestown area and will include officials from both local and state governments. The program will be moderated by WRFA Public Affairs Director Jason Sample. The program will be streamed online on Saturday, Sept. 13 beginning at 4 p.m.

Special Rolling Hills Radio Performance

On Saturday, Sept. 13 at 5 p.m., the 35th episode of Rolling Hills Radio with host, Ken Hardley, will be broadcast live and streamed online from the Studio Theater (adjacent to The Reg) before a live audience.

Rolling Hills Radio, features singer/songwriters and small groups from around the nation and locally who perform Americana, folk, country and other roots music. Hardley will be joined on stage by Michigan’s John Latini and Miche Fambro from Geneseo, N.Y.

The show begins at 5 p.m. and is free to the public, but tickets must be ordered ahead of time at The Reg box office.

10,000 Maniacs at the Reg Lenna

Jamestown’s 10,000 Maniacs are part of a small group of American bands that defined college rock during the 1980’s and 1990’s. For over three decades they have written and performed powerful, danceable and socially conscious original music including “What’s The Matter Here?”, “Like The Weather” and “These Are Days.” The group toured extensively and independently produced their own records years before the industry caught on. After signing with Elektra Records, they achieved international fame with several albums, including the acclaimedOur Time In Eden.

Since the departure of original singer, Natalie Merchant and the death of founding member Robert Buck, the band has settled with a lineup including original members, Steve Gustafson and Dennis Drew, longtime drummer Jerry Augustyniak, guitar player Jeff Erickson and their vocalist since 1994, Mary Ramsey. The Maniacs released the album, Music From The Motion Picture in 2013 and is currently working on their new album, Twice Told Tales.

The Maniacs played at The Reg in 2006 and, in 2011, celebrated 30 years with concerts at Jamestown Community College (JCC) and an art retrospective at The Reg’s 3rd On 3rd Gallery.  Drew, who continues to serve as General Manager of WRFA, is no stranger to starting up radio stations. Before his time with 10,000 Maniacs, he and bassist Gustafson started JCC’s first radio station.

Tickets for 10,000 Maniacs are $10. Limited premium seating is available for $25.

V.I.P. packages may also purchased. These include tickets to the concert, a pre-show reception on The Reg mezzanine and a meet and greet after the concert with the band in the 3rd On 3rd Gallery.The packages are priced at $60 and $75 and include food and beverages from local businesses including Sandee’s Bakery, Hartley’s Potato Chips, Stedman Corners Coffee Roasters, Gypsy Moon Cake Co., Tom’s Place, Lone Palm Cookie Company, Ecklof Bakery, Fresh Picked Vegetarian Delicatessen, Peterson’s Candies and Southern Tier Brewing Company.

Live Streaming of All Events

Live streams of all the anniversary programs can be found on Sept. 13 at www.WRFALP.com. Streaming services will be provided by event sponsors, Digitell, Inc. and the official provider of voice and data for the Reg Lenna Center for The Arts, DFT Communications. Other sponsors include Shults Auto Group, Arthur R. Gren Company, Inc., Hogan Energy Consulting and Northwest Savings Bank.

Tickets for all of these events can be purchased and more information can be found at www.reglenna.com or by calling (716) 484-7070. The box office is open week days between 10 a.m.and 5 p.m. Reg Lenna Center for The Arts is located at 116 East Third Street with convenient street and ramp parking.

The 2012-2013 Rolling Hills Radio season is now underway. Helping to make the season possible are: (front row, l to r) Jeff James, owner of the Labyrinth Press Co.; Ken Hardley, Rolling Hills Radio host; and Vince Horrigan, Chautauqua Region Community Foundation grant committee member; (back row, l to r) Dennis Drew, WRFA General Manager; Art Wingerter, President of Univera Healthcare; and Jim Holler, owner of Trinity Guitars. (Submitted Photo)

JAMESTOWN, N.Y. – Chautauqua County’s only local radio program dedicated to live music is now in its third season on the air. Hosted by local singer Ken Hardley, Rolling Hills Radio combines performance and interviews to both showcase the music and reveal the inspiration behind the work of the region’s most talented artists. The program is recorded on the final Thursday of each month at the Labyrinth Press Co. in Jamestown, and broadcast on local radio station WRFA-LP (107.9 FM).

Rolling Hills Radio (formerly known as the Woodsongs Coffeehouse Radio Hour) is funded in part by Univera Healthcare, the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation, Trinity Guitars and the Arts Council for Chautauqua County.  Because of the support from the sponsors, WRFA is able to handle all production and provide national syndication of Rolling Hills Radio, the first such local program to be produced for a national market.

Rolling Hills Radio Host Ken Hardley

Each performance showcases the original work of two different musical artists. Host Ken Hardley discusses with each artist their life history and inspiration before each work is presented and then breaks down their technique and creative process with incisive and graceful questioning. In addition to performances, Hardley helps guide the audience to a better understanding of the process of creating works of art with insightful and humorous dialog.  The artists come together at the end of each performance to unite the sometimes contrasting or complimentary styles in a musical grand finale, blending some very unique sounds into a common moment of original music.

The first episode of Rolling Hills Radio was recorded on Sept. 27, 2012 and featured nationally performing artists Bat McGrath (Nashville) and Miche Fambro (Geneseo, N.Y.). It will makes its broadcast debut on Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012 at 7 p.m. on WRFA, with encores at 1 p.m. Friday, Oct. 5 and 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 7. A podcast of the performance is also available on the WRFA website and several video excerpts can also be found on Youtube.

More information on Rolling Hills Radio, including a complete schedule of the 2012-2013 season, can be found on facebook at facebook.com/RollingHillsRadio.

Inspiring the Community initiative:
In addition to supporting programming on WRFA-LP, Univera Healthcare wanted to help spread the word about WRFA and its role as a center of inspiration to the community. Univera has created custom-designed magnetic picture frames, so that friends of WRFA can post pictures of whatever inspires them on their refrigerators at home or on their file cabinets at work. Friends of WRFA are also invited to post their inspiring photos on the station’s facebook page at facebook.com/wrfalp. Two thousand magnetic frames are available at sites around Jamestown.

For more information about the Inspiring the Community initiative or Rolling Hills Radio, listen to WRFA-FM 107.9 or visit the station online at WRFALP.com for a complete list of locations.

ABOUT WRFA
WRFA-LP is a listener supported, non-commercial, low power FM radio station provided as a public service by the Arts Council for Chautauqua County. WRFA is dedicated to providing access to the arts, cultural and educational programming and a forum for the discourse of public affairs.  In addition WRFA provides community outreach through programs at area public schools, the East Side YMCA and the Boys and Girls Club of Jamestown and Hispanic Youth Radio. The station also relies on participation from local volunteers. For more information on the station, visit www.wrfalp.com.