Diane Crumley's blog

The Davis Music Festival is back and celebrating its 10th year! The event runs from Friday, June 17, to Sunday, June 19, and hosts 40 bands in three days across six downtown venues. Opening night happens at Sudwerk Brewing, where KDRT will again broadcast live from the kickoff. This year Sudwerk will have two stages, and KDRT will be onsite for interviews and live audio from the north stage with The Big Poppies, Wolf Jett, and Royal Jelly Jive. The live broadcast begins at 5 p.m. Friday on 95.7 FM with audio streaming at kdrt.org. The Davis Music Fest benefits the Davis School Arts Foundation. For more information about all bands, schedules, etc., go to DavisMusicFest.com

Since its inception in 2004, Don Saylor’s Soup’s On event has raised more than $300,000 and increased community awareness for many worthy causes in Yolo County. In 2022, its final year, Soup's On will benefit Davis Media Access and will feature the live music of MUMBO GUMBO.

Our volunteer programmers are looking forward to a special week of programming Dec. 5 to 11 during our annual fall on-air fundraising.

This year's theme, "Creativity Runs in our Roots," is particularly appropriate because we've worked hard to discover new ways to support the vibrancy of our community radio station. Whether producing shows from home, or adjusting to new safety protocols and schedules while using the KDRT studio, our intrepid group of more than 30 DJs have kept the grassroots spirit alive this year! We invite you to support these efforts today.

Today we join with organizations in more than 75 countries to "unleash generosity" via Giving Tuesday donations for the nonprofit community.

It's taken a special kind of dedication from our KDRT volunteer programmers this past year to continue to create new shows to share, often from their homes, instead of from the inspiring, fun atmosphere of the KDRT studio. We've all felt that it's been especially important to keep the feeling of community connection going through the 24/7 programming at KDRT. 

We look forward to a time when the studio is filled again with live music and conversation from visiting musicians and local guests. 

Please consider a donation today to help support these efforts into the future.

We invite everyone to join us this Friday, Nov. 26, as we celebrate what we're grateful for on the day after Thanksgiving. We're calling it "Sip Local, Shop Local, and Listen Local" as we meet on the heated outdoor patio at Berryessa Brewing Co. in Winters, with the taproom open from 3 to 8 p.m. The live music runs from 5 to 8 p.m., featuring Robbie Thayer (lead singer for local favorites Bottom Dwellers) and a special guest.

As a grassroots organization, we support the "Shop Small, Shop Local" movement, and a fun variety of custom tie-dye t-shirts and swag created by the Berryessa Brewing crew, and the hyper-local handcrafted Amy Loves Mustard, will also be available.

Next week, we at KDRT, and our parent organization Davis Media Access, are joining groups in more than 75 countries that are participating in the international "generosity celebration" Giving Tuesday on Nov. 30. We hope you'll add KDRT to your donation list this year at davismedia.org/donate

Longtime KDRT programmer Don Shor is Davis Media Access' 2021 pick for Volunteer of the Year. He'll be honored as part of the National Philanthropy Day celebration, hosted by Yolo Community Foundation, at 4:30 p.m. Nov. 16, 2021 at the Davis Central Park Pavilion. For more information, see https://yolocf.org

Shor is probably best known in our community as the owner of Redwood Barn Nursery, and he modestly describes himself as “a guy who likes plants and jazz.” He produces two extremely popular weekly shows on KDRT, each with listeners across the country and globe. The Davis Garden Show, with co-host Lois Richter, is one of the longest-running shows on KDRT, and Jazz After Dark averages 6,000 downloads per week.

The San Francisco Press Club recently announced the winners of its 2021 Greater Bay Area Journalism Awards, and KDRT’s Davisville placed second and third among small noncommercial radio/audio public-affairs programs!

The winning episodes were an interview with Winters’ Nora Cary, “The Palms, on indefinite hiatus, is ending its lease in Winters” (Aug. 17, 2020), and a discussion with Ryan Easterday, a U.S. Navy commander from Davis (Feb. 17, 2020).

The contest recognizes excellent work by journalists and other communicators in 12 counties ranging from Monterey and Marin to Yolo. Davisville has previously won six S.F. Press Club awards for shows created in 2019, 2018 and 2017. On the program, journalist Bill Buchanan interviews people about events, news, and stories involving Davis. He produces the show, and his brother Jim Buchanan is the sound engineer. Both Davis residents have been volunteer programmers at KDRT for more than a decade.

This week marks the start of fall, the return of students to UC Davis, and the 17th birthday of KDRT. Our launch party was held on a warm Friday evening, Sept. 24, 2004, on the Davis Media Access backlot. It featured live music, hay bales for seats, speeches, cake, camaraderie, and excitement about having our own community radio station!

The event drew families, students, public figures, neighbors, artists, local business owners, and the many volunteers who had been working since 2000 to get this station on the air. Davis Enterprise columnist Bob Dunning was the evening's emcee, and Mayor Ruth Asmundson flipped the on switch to officially launch our broadcast.

Seventeen years later, we are proud to offer Davis locally produced radio that draws on the help and huge commitment of our 34 volunteer programmers, many of whom have been with us for a decade or more. We treasure this local resource, and look forward to the day when we can again come together with the community to celebrate in person. Until then, stay tuned to 95.7 FM, "where the grassroots grow," and stream our wide variety of shows at kdrt.org.

In honor of “Make Music Day” celebrated across the globe each June 21 on Summer Solstice, today we present the “Make Music Davis-DIMI Showcase 2021” which will air on KDRT 95.7 FM  at 10-11 AM and 6-7 PM. This song showcase highlights five emerging local young musicians/bands from the Davis Independent Music Initiative (DIMI) project recorded by Davis Media Access at the Davis Veterans Memorial Theatre. Additionally, from 11 AM to 1 PM June 21 we will air special extended live recordings of performances from DIMI 2021 Award winner Boca do Rio, and from multi-SAMMIE Award winners The Nickel Slots. We will also feature some highlight performances from the well-loved Thursday Live! community concert series recorded at Davis Odd Fellows Hall.

During the 24 hours of Big Day of Giving (BDOG) on May 6, KDRT and Davis Media Acccess received close to 100 donations, and we exceeded our 24-hour goal for the second year in a row. Thank you for the generous support of our grassroots community media!

The 98 participating nonprofits in Yolo County received $1.5 million -- up 75% from the pre-pandemic 2019 figures, according to the Yolo Community Foundation. Also shattering records was the total of $13.3 million for 688 regional  nonprofits reported by local BDOG organizer, the Sacramento Region Community Foundation.

Did you plan on donating to KDRT and just not get around to it? No problem. BDOG2021 served as the kickoff for our Annual Spring Appeal Fundraiser. You can donate throughout May and June at kdrt.org/donate.