TPR to participate in Public Radio Music Day

Troy Public Radio (TPR) will participate in this year's Public Radio Music Day later this month.

This year’s Public Radio Music Day will be commemorated on Oct. 28 and coordinated by the noncomMUSIC Alliance. The theme of the event is “Sounds Like Home,” and its purpose is to shine a light on the local music and radio stations staying strong through the recent funding cuts to public media. For Troy Public Radio, the message hits deep.

“One of the main purposes of our station of TPR, our motto is, news and information by day, musical inspiration by night,” said Kyle Gassiott, operations manager for TPR. “I think it’s the idea of music being a really important part of what we do and a really important part of what we offer and what we give to our listeners.”

Those large funding cuts causing so many local stations to struggle come at a time when many people disregard the radio. It’s seen as a dying form of media, but Joey Hudson, host and producer for TPR, doesn’t look at it that way.

“It's kind of a misconception because we’ve reached an audience of over 40,000 people,” Hudson said. “Then there's national reporting, so we’ve had several students do national reporting, and with that, we're talking around 27 million people tuned into Troy University students, so it's really amazing.”

Not all their listeners are coming from a strictly radio show audience. TPR has been developing their podcast catalog for a few years, especially in the field of music.

“With us kind of refocusing to do podcasts like ‘Clarinet Corner’, ‘InChoir’, ‘Mad Melodies’, were able to really zero in on topics that certain people with certain special interests – like a musician – might search for,” Hudson said. “I think it's a really unique and amazing thing that we're able to do in the music podcast space.”

With Public Radio Music Day approaching, Student Producer Jameson Speece, a senior communications major from Hayneville, Alabama, really appreciated what his station can offer in the music realm.

“I think one of the things that I really love about NPR, and also about TPR, is that in the South we're pretty isolated, but what NPR does is it gives us a view to other people, to other places, to other styles of music,” Speece said. “I think it's wonderful that we get to have that and not have to charge people a bunch of money for it.”

That specific aspect of TPR is one of the things that sets it apart from other radio stations in the area. It’s also why a day like Public Radio Music Day is so important to them.

“TPR is the only station of its kind in this area,” Speece said. “If you look up all of the different stations that we're able to get in Troy, TPR is the only one that airs any sort of classical music, any sort of jazz music or any sort of music from other cultures.

“Everything else is pretty much like rock, country and gospel, so we're special in that we offer a more broad spectrum of music for people to listen to and for people to enjoy.”

Despite the hard times public radio has had in recent years, NPR and TPR continue to offer those things to students. Anyone looking to tune in to Troy Public Radio can find them on WTSU 89.9 on FM radio or listen to the Troy University Podcast Network at today.troy.edu/podcasts.