News from Ocracoke's Village Voice

Saturday, August 30, 2014 - 01:56 Press Release

Ocracoke's community radio station has had a busy summer.

Greetings from Ocracoke. We hope your summer is going well, and that you have/will get to the island to visit us. We already have an eventful summer going….

For several days leading up to Hurricane Arthur’s arrival in the wee hours of July 4, WOVV provided regular updates, including the Hyde County Emergency Services advisories. By about 10:00 AM the next morning, using the emergency generators at the studio and the transmitter tower, the station was on the air giving updates on the island. We used generators until heroic efforts by Tideland EMC restored full power late Saturday night, and on Sunday morning the emergency was lifted.

We’ve added a special program called My Favorite Songs, where you can get on the air with our new program director, Peter Vankevich, and play a list of your 12 favorite songs.

We thought you would enjoy some notes on How we get stuff done:…

Two part-time paid employees make sure that we perform the basic broadcasting tasks. This summer we are delighted to bring on Peter Vankevich as Program Developer. Peter will lead and expand our effort to create programming that fulfills our mission “to provide the village of Ocracoke, and its visitors, with a community-enhancing medium of education, information, and discourse….” Clayton Gaskill begins his fourth year as Station Manager, and will continue performing necessary tech services and overseeing the paperwork – that is, keeping our signal on the air and online.

Even with the efforts of Peter and Clayton, nothing would happen here at WOVV without our volunteers, on the air, at our fundraising events, and on our board of directors. Our on-air programmers volunteer their time to present music, weather, news, announcements, and talk radio, all with a local focus on Ocracoke and its visitors. WOVV provides emergency alerts and other information when adverse weather and road closures threaten. We continue to serve as the voice for Ocracoke School Dolphin sports, and live-stream our broadcasts on the internet, sending a little bit of Ocracoke to those who love it, around the world.

…And how we finance it:

Each year since we went on the air in 2010, approximately thirty businesses on Ocracoke and the Outer Banks have made an annual commitment to underwrite Ocracoke Community Radio and WOVV. Several times a day, we thank each underwriter on the air, letting locals and visitors know that that business supports community radio on Ocracoke.

Special events also contribute substantially to our budget. In April, we organized the third annual Ocracoke Island 5K/10K run, supporting not only WOVV, but the new Ocracoke Community Park and the Ocracoke School Athletic Booster Club. In June, we hosted the sixth annual, now-almost-famous Women’s Arm Wrestling event. We continue to look for opportunities to put the fun into fundraising.

We welcome visitors to the WOVV studio complex on Silver Lake (all 300 square feet of it!), where you can just say “Hi” and sign up for our free email newsletter (like this one). You can also purchase T-shirts, hats, and other stuff bearing the famous WOVV logo, or perhaps just feed our contribution bucket. Each purchaser or contributor gets a bumper sticker. We continue to seek out ways to make our merchandise more appealing and convenient to get. Many who drop in are involved in community radio back home, and we’ve received lots of solid support and advice from them.

One other group rounds out our support base: individual members like you. Membership contributions are a HUGE part of our operating budget and we need your financial support to keep Ocracoke Community Radio on the air every day. Membership entitles you to discounts on WOVV events and merchandise. Membership also makes you eligible to volunteer at the station and become a part of the working team at WOVV – ask us how! If you’re now a member we hope you’ll renew for another year. If not, we hope you’ll find it worthwhile to become a member. In either case, we welcome your contributions in any amount. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation, your contributions to us are tax-deductible under IRS regulations, and many employers will match them.

We offer three membership categories:

Individual $25.00
Family $40.00
Student $10.00

All membership contributions go towards our annual general budget, for rent, utilities, and general studio and office expenses. You can join up here at the studio, across from the Anchorage Inn, or go to our website www.WOVV.org to join or renew and pay with a credit card or Paypal, or you can mail a check along with your contact information to WOVV, P.O. Box 1447, Ocracoke, NC 27960-1447.

Please accept our best wishes for the rest of your summer and fall. We hope you’ll keep listening to WOVV, when you’re here on Ocracoke at 90.1FM, or online atwww.WOVV.org.