Goddard College Community Radio (WGDR and WGDH)
Goddard is home to Goddard College Community Radio, a community-based, non-commercial, listener-supported educational radio station with nearly 70 volunteer programmers who live and work in central and northern Vermont and who range in age from 12 to 78 years. WGDR, 91.1 FM, is licensed to Plainfield, Vermont. Its sister station, WGDH, 91.7 FM, is licensed to Hardwick, Vermont.
The station began as a student-driven project in the late 1960s—a carrier-current AM station that was intended to be heard only on campus under the call letters WGOD, or "The Voice of Goddard." By 1972, the station had ceased operation and in January 1973 a course at Goddard was formed under the direction of Kirk Gardner to establish an FM station that would broadcast to the surrounding communities in Vermont. Students applied to the Federal Communications Commission for an FM transmitting station license, and obtained the call letters WGDR, which had been previously used by a marine station. Students also participated in reconstruction of the space allotted in the Eliot Pratt Center Library building for the station's studios. They obtained some new studio equipment, arranged for a news service, contacted record publishers for NFS copies of the latest released music, and organized a broadcasting schedule. A 10 Watt FM transmitter was installed with a broadcast antenna mounted on a mast on the roof of the building, directly above the studios. The first 'board' in the 'air studio' consisted of a Shure M67 mixer and a Broadcast Production Master, along with some custom built circuits. The station was broadcasting by late Spring 1973. The station remained at the 10 Watt level for at least a few years during which time, its coverage area allowed it to reach some towns in the surrounding area but not others because of the hilly terrain. Years later, the station's radiating power was upgraded with a bigger transmitter and more efficient antenna.
In 2009, WGDR received a My Source Community Impact Award for Engagement for the work it has done in the Central Vermont community. The following year, Kris Gruen was appointed station director.
In March 2011, the station expanded to a second, more-powerful (1,100-watt) trransmitter with the launch of WGDH at 91.7 FM, which simulcasts with WGDR and can be heard throughout Lamoille County in north-central Vermont and in parts of Washington, Franklin, Orange, Caledonia, Essex and Orleans counties. Today, operating under the umbrella name Goddard College Community Radio, it is the largest non-commercial community radio station in Vermont and is the only non-commercial station in the state other than the statewide Vermont Public Radio network that receives funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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