“I enjoyed your radio show immensely!,” wrote Anitra this morning.
“It was a very nice way to spend a few hours listening to people sharing ideas and learning some great ideas, instead of arguing and pointing fingers at each other like the big newscasts, which I’ve stopped watching. What a wonderful thing to happen to you and WBTN.”

I appreciated this message very much,  and I got quite a few like it, which was exciting.

Anitra caught the very thing I most want do do in this radio broadcast: talking thoughtfully about animals while being good to each other.

And the broadcast is a wonderful thing for me, and I hope, the station also. I’ll work hard to make it work.

I will never make a caller feed stupid or under assault, I respect the very different ways in which people view dogs and other animals, and on our broadcast yesterday, I believe we came very close to achieving that goal.

When someone tells me they believe their dogs return in another life after they die, I do not sneer at them or roll my eyes. I listen. That is how I grow.

I suppose there is a political element to this show, we aim to do good and be good to each other. I think we have to make our own spaces to keep our grounding and our sanity, it sometimes seems as if the world is going in the other direction.

And we all love animals and wish to talk about them and learn about them.

I want to know more. And I want the show to be – like my blog – a safe place where people can be good to one another, talk openly,  and not feel assaulted or criticized.

It is good of people to call my broadcast, I will certainly not repay them with ridicule or denigration, even as they may see things differently, as is often the case with me and the wider world.

Conversation is a critical part of the show, if people don’t call, the show will fail. It will take awhile, I know that, and I have no idea how much time I do have.

I much enjoy doing the show with the station director, Thomas Toscano, he is a life long musician, composer and conductor, and there is a good chemistry  between us. He is bright and thoughtful.

Without him, I could never manage the Stone Age console the station has used for so many years.

Thomas hopes I hopes I can learn it, but I suspect he is learning that I can’t, it is way beyond my Dyslexic mind. I would lose the focus of the calls pushing all those buttons..

Every phone call requires hitting a series of buttons in a series of different orders. Disconnecting a phone line so others can call is not a simple thing.

I got many messages from people who called but couldn’t get through, or found the line busy, one caller tried 16 times before he made it. People did get through.

I wish I could tell them that this community radio station had the tools the big commercial broadcasts do, but they don’t, at least not yet. Calling is not simple, neither is hosting or broadcasting.

Hopefully, that will change. I want to help make it change, but it will be a challenge for anyone who wishes to participate. It seems a lot of people do.

For me, the challenges of this primitive operation are also very real.

The microphone is weak, and I must keep it close to my mouth at all times. There is no one to help screen the calls, take the calls,  manage the calls,  control the volume. There is no system for keeping 20 or 30 calls on hold, as the better funded stations can and do.

Part of this experience for me is helping this community radio station survive and get some of the tools they need to get stability and some modern equipment. I’ll try to help them, if the Army Of Good agrees. So far, we’ve cleaned out two different WBTN Wish Lists.

There are many simple and free ways for anyone to participate in this somewhat radical experiment of my radio show. If it makes people like Anitra feel good, it will work.

First, you can call. The whole enterprise relies on interactivity.

I won’t lie to you. Calling me (866-406-9286 or 802 442 1010.) may never be easy, at least for a few months,  although a whole bunch of people got through Wednesday and we had a great time.

You can hear the podcast of the show here at WBTNAM.US, or you can download the Simple Radio App and hear the station from your own device at any time by putting in the call letters WBTNAM1370.

You can  live stream the broadcast by going here.

You can also support the station and my show by donating here.

We are looking for sponsors, and believe me, it is not expensive to sponsor a program at WBTN. If you are or think you know a relevant sponsor, you can call Thomas Toscano at 892 442-6321.

Spots can be as low as $5 in some cases.

And you can support me and the station also by e-mailing me your questions, [email protected]. I’ll read them on the air. I’m on every Wednesday, one to three p.m. I love to get calls (866-406-9286 or 802 442-1010).

When I got home yesterday, Maria said what she most loved about the show is that we had good conversations but were very good to each other.

Nobody had to listen to or suffer through the eternal conflict an argument that are the hallmarks of the big commercial TV and radio stations.

They are ugly and uninformative. I will never host a show like that. On the radio, I learn that I feel a great connection with people I speak with and meet, and sometimes struggle to make connection to people who e-mail me or send me Facebook messages.

So this is a powerful experience for me, and I hope the people reading it will find a way to participate in it, and at least listen to the broadcast.

I thank you. How wonderful if we could trigger a renaissance for this brave and spunky community radio station. Thomas Toscano is a natural conductor, and not only of music.

My money is on him.