Newsletter

February, 2026

Hello lovely people!

Welcome to the very first New Harmony Radio newsletter in which we will seek to keep you updated on the process and progress of running the station and give you some insight into where we are trying to get to.

But that is just us talking to you. We would love to hear from you as well and there will be more about that later in this newsletter.

So after many months of staring at equipment and saying things like ‘ Gosh! I say, this is a little frustrating” or “ My my, I’d like to have some kind words with those nice people who write this software”, (that is a very polite paraphrasing of what I actually said!) We finally launched our first test live show on 2nd February. If you didn’t hear it, fear not good people; the broadcasting stars aligned and it was a success.

This means we can now start working out a schedule for live shows that we will publish and can deliver a wide mix of talk and presented shows as well as playlists. The final piece of the puzzle is solving some technical issues around enabling people to dial in to the shows and then we will be well on our way!

Currently, nearly everything on the station from 7am to 12pm is curated shows (i.e not auto generated from a music library.) Its taken along time to create enough playlists to fill the time available but we are creating more all the time and bringing new music into the library so you don’t hear too many repeats. In fact we have over 3,500 tracks in the library at the moment which is a lot more than many commercial stations play in a week and we cycle new ones in and old ones out to keep things fresh.

Some of you may have heard the ‘Snowed-in’ shows Erin and I did which was another first for us and they were great fun and seemed to be well received. Being a young station, things do go wrong but we try not to edit too much out. 

A good example was a late show I recorded recently where during the intro of a particularly chilled track I accidentally triggered the Klaxon sound effect, somewhat ruining the mood, When the track ended I attempted to explain what had happened but struggled to stop laughing, but we kept it in the show. It is us.

We now have an advisory board team who are all specialists in different areas and we will be putting their bios onto the site soon, but they are all local and have a great deal of experience in music and radio. 

Jim Spann - Owner of the New Harmony Soap Company, lover of radio and an experienced broadcaster

Tina Schutte - Leader of the New harmony Choir, singer, pianist, non-profit guru and the busiest person we know

Dave Hurlbut - Veteran of 54 years in the radio industry as a manager and broadcaster and understands local radio intimately.

We are also now set up to accept donations on our website and sponsorships for shows and are getting traction there. A big thank you to Jen Duane for her generous donation recently and an amazing gift in kind to the station of a new computer from Sarah Lancaster which we are now running the whole station from. My old laptop has stopped wheezing now and I think it is making a good recovery after nearly a year of running everything!

So, we are now going to start live and recorded interviews with the folks of New Harmony. These will be a mix of shows covering their musical tastes, hobbies, histories and foibles. 

But, as I mentioned earlier, we really want to hear from you. Whether you want to tell us you liked (or hated) a particular show or song, have an idea for a show we could do or a story you would like to tell, let us know and we will build a pipeline of shows to reflect you, our listeners. No idea is too mad (I have one that involves interviewing people’s pets ), however, our bylaws do not permit overtly religious or political content and we strive to be a haven from the noise of the everyday.

You guys are the gas in our engine so do let us have your feedback to the email address below.

Meanwhile, thanks for listening, Stay happy and strong and if you ever need a pick me up, pick up New Harmony Radio, the Deep Track station.

Take care, friends,

Colin & Erin

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April, 2026

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Well folks its been a hectic few weeks on Planet New Harmony Radio. We had the pleasure of welcoming Marco Grillo to stay with us here for a couple of weeks. Marco is an Italian guitarist of exceptional talent and performed at events in New Harmony and St Louis with Erin Bode. As if that wasn’t enough, he also managed to find time to do two cooking classes at Capers Emporium and deliver a guitar masterclass at the Guild’s Depot rooms.

Any of you that witnessed the shows would have seen the combination of expressive accompaniment combined with blisteringly fast solo runs that are a hallmark of Marco’s playing which, when combined with Erin’s satin and velvet voice, is a magical experience!

Particular thanks go out to the Blaffer Foundation who provided accommodation free of charge for Marco. This makes a huge difference in enabling musicians to come to New Harmony and means they can extend their stay to make it a residency rather than quick visit.

Meanwhile, back at the Radio Station things are developing. We are excited and grateful to have our first sponsor in the New Harmony Soap Company. It makes a huge difference to us both financially and in terms of motivation to have this kind of support. It also means we can acquire a few more essential items for the station.

In terms of scheduling shows we are moving away from our previous policy of creating recurring playlist programming to building the schedule freshly a few days in advance. This should mean that you are unlikely to hear the same show at the same time each week. It does mean a LOT more work for us but the support we have from you makes us determined to build a station that will continue to surprise and delight you.

Another development is we are now starting to build playlists submitted by patrons. Currently we have five contributors: the New Harmony Soap Company, Backbeats records, Dr. Lori McKenzie, Bill McKenzie and one from Collette Johnson from Cardiff, Wales. This is great because it allows the station to have an identity away from just Erin and myself and infuse new music into our rotation. If anyone is interested in submitting a playlist let us know and we can send you the guidelines.

Some things that get us excited here can seem small beer to others but my recent acquisition of a microphone boom arm has transformed my life! Instead of chasing a static microphone around the desk, knocking over cups of coffee and trying to work in a shoebox I can now glide my microphone back and forth as if it is suspended in the sky. It also makes me feel like a proper DJ. I have spied another for sale at Artefakts on Main Street so pretty soon we may have two. This will, I am convinced, distract interviewees from our otherwise cramped studio as I hypnotize them with it like Kaa in Jungle Book.

That does raise the fact that we are starting to definitely suffer growing pains in the space we are in so we will be trying to leverage our non-profit status to get a grant to move and refit  a more appropriate space this year. Our dream would be a shopfront in New Harmony where we could wave to people and they could walk in for a chat. If anyone has such a space and would like some tax relief for a year or two, do let us know! :) 

Live broadcasting is still something we want to do a lot more of but funding doesn’t allow us to schedule it in regularly at the moment.  We are planning to do more presented shows in the next month including more of the popular Erin and Colin shows that you seem to enjoy.

Well folks, that’s it for this month. Thank you so much for your support and please pass on any thoughts, advice, commentary or criticism to us at newharmonyradio@gmail.com. We love to hear from you!

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See you around town,

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Colin and Erin

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