WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour is a one-hour live radio show from Lexington, Kentucky. It is created, produced, and hosted by folk singer Michael Johnathon. The program celebrates grassroots music with a friendly, in-person conversation between artists and the audience. It runs as a nonprofit, all-volunteer project.

The show started in 1998 in a tiny studio that seated about 20 people. It was first recorded on cassette and picked up by WRVG in Georgetown, Kentucky. In 1999 it moved to a 150-seat room at the Lexington Public Library. After selling out 50 straight shows, the program moved in 2000 to the Kentucky Theatre. In January 2013 it moved again to the Lyric Theatre & Cultural Arts Center, which seats 540.

WoodSongs has grown a lot since it began. By 2005 it was heard on about 320 radio stations; by 2013 it reached more than 500 stations in North America and around the world. The show is available to both noncommercial and commercial stations. It is also broadcast by the American Forces Network in 173 nations and to every US Navy ship at sea. In Kentucky, KET (PBS) airs the show several times a week. Nationally, the program is distributed by the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA), and RFD-TV also carries it.

The show is produced once a week for 44 weeks a year, every Monday evening at the Lyric Theatre in Lexington. Since it began, it has produced more than 750 broadcasts and sometimes goes on tour.

In 2013 WoodSongs partnered with Alltech, Kentucky Tourism, Lexington Tourism, and Tourism Ireland for a double-broadcast from Dublin, Ireland, attended by about 2,000 fans. The Ireland broadcast celebrated Kentucky bluegrass with Irish bluegrass artists and was also shown on DISH TV, reaching many more homes. WoodSongs has also taken shows to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, to celebrate Ozark music, drawing almost 1,000 fans.

All participants are volunteers. The show works with the local community, schools, and universities through internships and helps students set up weekly productions. It partners with music teachers, private instructors, and local arts groups, and features local performers in the Lyric Theatre lobby.

WoodSongs regularly highlights Kentucky and Appalachian artists and has featured more than 300 Kentucky artists on a global stage, including J.D. Crowe, Ben Sollee, Homer Ledford, Dale Ann Bradley, EXILE, and The McLain Family Band. The program welcomes artists from all genres and backgrounds.

Michael Johnathon also started the WoodSongs CoffeeHouse network, with more than 90 concert stages nationwide to give local musicians a platform. He later founded the WoodSongs Front Porch Association (a 501(c)(3) nonprofit) with more than 56 community chapters from Hawaii to Florida. A TV documentary about this community project aired on RFD-TV. Most WoodSongs episodes are archived on woodsongs.com and can be watched for free. The University of Kentucky hosts the global WoodSongs archive, managed by Ron Pen at the John Jacob Niles Center for American Music. DZWR also streams archived episodes every Saturday night.