Listen to a podcast where I talk about my Appalachian radio tour

ALSO: I'm back from my trip and still have several stations to write about

So earlier this month, I visited 13 radio stations throughout central & southern Appalachia. Mostly community radio stations, as well as a couple college ones. I wrote about eight of those stations… and then I got a head cold, lost steam, came home, and had to do all the stuff one does after being gone for 17 days.

Today, I’m offering a quick update and some bonus content.

I’m back home in Charlottesville now, and my cold is gone. I took copious notes while visiting Appalshop’s WMMT, WDVX and WOZO in Knoxville, Asheville FM, and Radio Bristol at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. I’ll write about these stations before the summer is out.

My brain has also been turning over all the things I saw and learned. It’s starting to gel around some summary thoughts, and I plan to write more about those.

But first, I got to share some of these half-gelled thoughts in a podcast.

A pal of mine is the host of a Virginia state politics podcast called Pod Virginia. On Tuesday evening, he asked if I’d do an interview about my trip, focusing mostly on the Virginia stations on my tour. Yesterday, we recorded. Today, the episode went live.

Besides profiles of WQSV in Staunton, Allegheny Mountain Radio, and Radio Bristol, I also shared some commentary about JD Vance, Appalachian economic history, and one or two ideas about the future of community media.

If you're interested, you can listen in Apple Podcasts or Spotify.