You are invited to join me on my great new experiment on Community Radio this Thursday at ll a.m. until noon.

Thomas Lawrence Toscano is a remarkable person, he is almost single-handedly keeping Community Radio Station WBTNAM radio alive in Bennington, Vt. He describes himself as a composer, conductor and philosopher and I can already testify that he is all of those things.

I call him “Maestro,” he has been working in the music world for 61 years.

Toscano is a former opera singer and the producer of a  Brooklyn Opera Company before he moved to Vermont. He is funny, outspoke, a fiercely individualistic man and he is working day and night to keep community radio alive.

He has the gruff Brooklyn exterior down, but he has a big heart, and a great passion for his bleeding little radio station. When I went to see him today, he was all alone in the station and had been for  hours.

Today, he and I spent a couple of intensely creative hours together putting together a promo for the dog/animal talk show I am trying to host for the radio station. Come and listen.

This is certainly selfish – I have always wanted my own radio show – but I also passionately believe in community radio, not easy for anyone anywhere in the country to listen to thanks to new streaming technology.

Just go to their website and click on “live.” I have volunteered (taking no money) to host a weekly one hour talk show focusing on dogs, cats and any other pets people wish to talk about.

We are doing a dry run on the station this coming Thursday at ll a.m. You can access this broadcast live here. The station is on the edge, perhaps a dog talk show could  help.

Thomas asked me who my favorite musician was and I answered instantly: Van Morrison. We went on his approved list of music we could play and we both went right to “Bright Side Of The Road,” which is my favorite Van Morrison song. It’s going to be the theme song of “Talking About Animals.” Come and listen.

If you live in the Southern Vermont area, you can call the show at 802 442-1010. If you live outside of the listening area, you can hear the broadcast free anywhere in the country  by slicking on the “live” prompt on the top of the website home page and streaming it.

It’s just that simple. You don’t need an app to do that and it costs nothing.

You can also call the show and talk to me toll free: 866 406-9298.

Thomas says the station has gotten few callers in recent months, I hope we can help alter that. I have high hopes for a hopefully intelligent talk show focused on pets and animals.

I also hope I can help draw some volunteers and sponsors and donations to the station, the equipment looks as if it was purchased just before the Korean War, there are almost no volunteers, WBTN is in dire straits, if you like the animal show, feel free to donate a few dollars directly to the station.

I told Thomas the cavalry might well be on the way, but you never know for sure.

I think this is a worthy cause for the Army Of Good, here pennies will make a big difference. You can donate online here if you want to support community radio – a true voice of the people – and push back on the hideous corporate takeover of our media – just see what that has wrought upon us.

We hope to find a local sponsor for my show, or a sponsor interested in pets and animals. We’ll see.

Thursday is a dry run, a test to see if this could work under very difficult circumstances.  At the moment, the station can only broadcast on AM. They are hoping to somehow acquire an FM transmitter.

I can talk a long while, but I hope there are calls, that some of you have questions for me on this trial run. Any questions relating to dogs, cats, horses, sheep, ponies, even fish will be most welcome. 866 406-9286.

I love everything about this station, it needs to live.