WCAI Preserves Local Cape and Island Music Broadcast

WOODS HOLE, Mass. (May 9, 2013) – Three months after WMVY’s local music programming left the broadcast airwaves, Cape and Islands NPR® Station WCAI will bring back the beloved MVY Music Hour, the monthly local music program hosted by Barbara Dacey, a familiar radio voice on Martha’s Vineyard since 1985. The program premieres on Sunday, May 26 at 9pm, as a part of the station’s Sunday ‘Arts and Ideas’ programming slate and will air on the last Sunday of each month.

“All of us at WCAI miss the sound of MVY on our local air. We are all fans of locally-grown radio,” said Jay Allison, WCAI station founder and host of Sunday Nights Arts and Ideas. “We are very pleased that WMVY was so quick to accept our invitation to bring the local Cape and Island music scene back to the local broadcast airwaves.”

The MVY Radio Hour will feature archival interviews and one-of-a-kind performances from WMVY’s decades of local music and arts coverage. Dacey also will broadcast and share stories of songs recorded by noted local and national artists in WMVY’s studios.
 
Keeping with its commitment to expanding local coverage with local voices, WCAI – a service of WGBH – worked closely with Dacey and WMVY Program Director PJ Finn to preserve WMVY’s tradition of broadcasting local music for local audiences. In February, public radio station WBUR purchased 92.7 FM, the former home of WMVY, and local music broadcasts were taken off the air in favor of talk news beamed in from Boston. WMVY listeners and supporters raised funding to create a streaming internet station, mvyradio. The final WMVY broadcast on 92.7 FM aired on February 8, 2013.

About WCAI, The Cape and Islands NPR Station

WCAI, WGBH’s Cape and Islands NPR® station, is broadcast on 90.1, 91.1 and 94.3. The station is listener-supported public radio serving Cape Cod, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, and the south coast. Founded by local residents, WCAI is a service of WGBH Radio. Recipients of a 2007 duPont-Columbia Award, WCAI strives to celebrate the uniqueness of the communities they serve while discussing common issues. WCAI is online at www.capeandislands.org.

About WGBH

WGBH Boston is America’s preeminent public broadcaster and the largest producer of PBS content for TV and the Web, including Masterpiece, Antiques Roadshow, Frontline, Nova, American Experience, Arthur, Curious George, and more than a dozen other prime-time, lifestyle, and children’s series. WGBH’s television channels include WGBH 2, WGBH 44, and the digital channels World and Create. WGBH TV productions focusing on the region’s diverse community include Greater Boston, Basic Black, High School Quiz Show, and Neighborhood Kitchens. WGBH Radio serves listeners across New England with 89.7 WGBH, Boston Public Radio; Classical New England; and WCAI, the Cape and Islands NPR® Station. WGBH also is a major source of programs for public radio (among them, PRI’s The World®), a leader in educational multimedia (including PBS LearningMedia™, providing the nation’s educators with free, curriculum-based digital content), and a pioneer in technologies and services that make media accessible to deaf, hard of hearing, blind, and visually impaired audiences. WGBH has been recognized with hundreds of honors: Emmys, Peabodys, duPont-Columbia Awards and Oscars. Find more information at wgbh.org.