Across the USA and the world, an unprecedented 150+ radio stations in 12 countries will celebrate the unique format of vinyl records by going vinyl-only on the air for Vinylthon 2022, this Saturday, April 23.
Organized by the non-profit College Radio Foundation and open to all radio stations, commercial and non-commercial, Vinylthon is an industry-wide fundraiser supporting vital scholarships for students currently involved in college radio who aspire to become professional radio broadcasters.
This year the Vinylthon event has support and audio content for participating stations from artists including alt-J, Band of Horses, Death Cab for Cutie, Portugal. The Man, Vance Joy, Spoon, Little Feat, Gary Numan, Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram and many more artists.
Vinylthon founder Rob Quicke says, “This is our biggest year yet, with the most stations ever participating, and some great content from artists who support the event. The whole reason is to raise money to support the next generation of radio stars, so it’s an important cause too.” Quicke is also Faculty Advisor at WPSC 88.7 FM at William Paterson University of New Jersey.
Over 150 participating stations are planning special celebrations of vinyl throughout the day, including:
- Noncommercial Alternative/AAA station WAPS-FM (“The Summit”), based in Akron-Canton-Youngstown-Athens, OH, will devote over 12 hours to all-vinyl programming. The Summit has also arranged a global simulcast of the finale of their show (9pm to 11pm ET) on world-band shortwave radio WRMI “Radio Miami International” (on frequency 4980kHz), with a 100,000-watt transmitter in Florida sending the signal worldwide.
- Commercial station 95.9 The River (WERV-FM) out of Aurora, IL, will be playing two hours of vinyl from a live broadcast at Black Dog Vinyl Cafe in Plainfield, IL, with giveaways and a special collaboration beer release to punctuate the event.
- College station Radio Bux at Bucks County Community College in Newtown, PA, plans to broadcast 48 straight hours of non-stop vinyl, starting at midnight on April 23.
This year the College Radio Foundation has partnered with Jacobs Media for the Vinylthon event. “Anyone who has had to fill a job opening at a station knows how difficult it is to find talent, especially younger people, who want to work in radio,” says Jacobs Media President Fred Jacobs. “Participating in Vinylthon is not only a unique promotion with potential listener and ratings benefits, it’s also an inexpensive way to support young people who want to be a part of the industry we love.”
Participating stations that broadcast at least 12 hours of vinyl will be presented with the Golden Slipmat Award to recognize their deep passion for vinyl. The award is a pair of golden slipmats made by official sponsor Glowtronics, exclusively for the event.
