News for December 2025:
We are excited to share some major news this month! In May 2024, Wave Farm's WGXC relocated from Hudson to a Catskill storefront right on Main Street. This new location has already been a success story and now we are hoping to expand! The WGXC Catskill studio at 393 Main Street has been a shared space since our relocation, but we are now in a position to be the sole tenant (with your help!). With your support we will build this space as a place for more community programming, workshops, and in-studio performances. WGXC’s Catskill studio has become a grounding place for our station, and on this Giving Tuesday through the end of year, we hope you will consider donating as an investment in community spaces and media.
This month, turn out in person to the Wave Farm/WGXC Holiday Party at The Avalon Lounge on December 18th! And tune in for special broadcasts,including Radio Art Research Fellow Bill Corrigan's Marine Navigation series broadcasts on three Saturdays: December 6th, 13th, and 20th. Also new to the WGXC airwaves are On the Mic: Eclectic music, discussion, and interviews hosted by 3 teenage girls in Columbia County, archival recordings from Woodstockhausen East 2025 festival, soundscape and performance "The Sounds of the Winter Solstice," and over 40 new tracks added to the Local Waves music library.
Applications are now open for NYSCA/Wave Farm funding opportunities for media arts artists and organizations. And, for those around Catskill, NY, we are pleased to offer another year of the Sound Engineering and Public Performance Mentorship program in partnership with Avalon Lounge!
Moving into 2026 are a bevy of new programs that engage our local, regional, and international communities, and deepen access to the airwaves. Also, stay tuned for an announcement about Wave Farm’s 2026 residency, fellowship, and visiting artist opportunities coming in the next few weeks!
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Apply by January 15, 2026
For New York State artists, the Media Arts Assistance Fund (MAAF) provides support for the completion and/or public presentation of a new or recently completed artwork in all genres of sound and moving image art, including emergent technology. Grant awards assist artists in completing new work, reaching public audiences, and advancing artistic exploration and public engagement in the media arts. Artists may apply for up to $7,500 in support by January 15, 2026. The Media Arts Assistance Fund is a regrant program in partnership with New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA). There is no fee to apply to MAAF.
For full guidelines and application instructions, click here! Featured image: still from 2025 MAAF for Artists Grantee Tamar Ettun's IVF Documents.
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Apply by May 1, 2026
For organizations, MAAF provides funds to support technical strategies for online development as well as to hire outside consultants to support organizational and professional development. Eligible organizations have missions specific to the media arts, dedicate the majority of their programming to technology as an art form, and are current NYSCA grantees. Priority will be given to Electronic Media and Film organizations. Applications from multi-disciplinary organizations that incorporate art and technology will be considered on a case-by-case basis for applications that are specific to their media arts activities.
For full guidelines and application instructions, click here!
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Wave Farm in Partnership with The Avalon Lounge
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Apply by December 15, 2025
Sound Engineering and Public Performance Mentorship Opportunities
Wave Farm is pleased to announce a unique opportunity, in partnership with the Catskill, NY performance venue The Avalon Lounge, for 2026.
One individual will be selected from an open call for a Mentorship Program in 2026. Mentees learn the ins-and-outs of presenting independent and experimental performance in a community setting.
For more info and to apply, click here!
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Thursday, December 18, 2025, 7 - 9 p.m.
Upstairs at Avalon Lounge
29 Church St, Catskill, NY 12414
Turn out on Thursday, December 18th at 7pm Upstairs at the Avalon Lounge for the next edition of “Breaking the Algorithm IRL"! This month is the Wave Farm/WGXC holiday party, so join us to hear from WGXC volunteer programmers both on the mic and on the turntables. And, maybe bring a record or track of your own for us to cue up! Theme: holiday music that's unusual, askew, or downright weird.
"Breaking the Algorithm IRL" is a monthly series presented by Wave Farm’s WGXC 90.7-FM as part of our Local Waves initiative and the show "Local Waves in Conversation." Part conversation led by Mike Amari of Chosen Family and part DJ set by a WGXC volunteer, the series highlights local artists, musicians, venue owners and bookers, and record label owners.
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Marine Navigation 1: Hydroacoustics
Saturday, December 6, 2025, 3 - 4 p.m.
Marine Navigation 2: Round Trip
Saturday, December 13, 2025, 3 - 4 p.m.
Marine Navigation 3: Across the Atlantic
Saturday, December 20, 2025, 3 - 4 p.m.
WGXC 90.7-FM: Radio for Open Ears
90.7-FM in NY's Upper Hudson Valley and wgxc.org/listen everywhere
Radio airspace and seaspace share a problem of mapping and, therefore, of control. In 1609, Hugo Grotius accelerated the project of empire by arguing in his Mare Liberum that the sea and the air were alike in the sense that they could not be permanently occupied and were without limit, and that therefore they should be regarded as a commons. A breach formed between the empty expanse of this ideal landscape and the reality of turbulent waters. Waves of broadcast and of water are linked by more than metaphor: when they meet at the surface they produce interference, which can disrupt navigation. These pieces occur within the pattern of that interference and in the space of the breach. Listen in, and don’t worry if you find yourself getting lost.
Image: A hydrophone used by Jean-Daniel Colladon in the first recorded attempt to measure the speed of sound underwater. The year was 1826; Colladon was listening for the sound of a bell submerged beneath the waters of Lake Geneva. Item from the Musée d'histoire des sciences de la Ville de Genève. Image courtesy of Rama.
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Leila Adu/Paul Geluso (Duo) + Angel Names + Ximena Bedoya
Friday, December 12, 2025, 2 - 3 p.m.
Dean Fraser + softbits
Friday, December 19, 2025, 2 - 3 p.m.
WGXC 90.7-FM: Radio for Open Ears
90.7-FM in NY's Upper Hudson Valley and wgxc.org/listen everywhere
Starting on December 12, tune in on Fridays at 2 p.m. for broadcasts from the Woodstockhausen 25’ East performance archive.
Woodstockhausen is a bi-coastal festival dedicated to experimental music, installation, and audiovisual performance. In 2025, the festival was held in a barn and on a field in Bloomville, NY in July, and in a redwood clearing in Boulder Creek, CA in August. This festival brings local, regional, national, and international artists together to showcase boundary-pushing works, encouraging creative exchange and extra-regional community in an open and generative atmosphere.
Recordings produced by Paul Geluso and Ben Krasner.
"From Our Transmit Partners" features archival recordings from Wave Farm's institutional and individual Transmit Partners. Wave Farm has a growing list of institutional and individual Wave Farm Transmit Partners who use the Wave Farm Radio app to transmit their own programming. For more information, visit the Wave Farm Transmit Partner page here.
Image: Ximena Bedoya performing at Woodstockhausen East '25 on Friday, July 25, 2025, courtesy of Woodstockhausen.
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Sunday, December 21, 2025, 10 - 11 a.m.
WGXC 90.7-FM: Radio for Open Ears
90.7-FM in NY's Upper Hudson Valley and wgxc.org/listen everywhere
Tune in for a special solstice broadcast of "The Sounds of the Winter Solstice," a soundscape and vocal performance by artist Zaneta. This piece is an excerpt of a larger work called "Invitations from the Land," which was recorded at WLC’s Israel Wittman Sanctuary in the Zena Highwoods on the winter solstice of 2024.
Drawing from field recordings captured at powerful celestial moments like solstices and equinoxes, Zaneta creates immersive sonic worlds where the forest itself becomes both stage and collaborator. Layered within these soundscapes are her sung responses, an intimate practice rooted in her Filipinx heritage and the tradition of singing to the forest passed down by her grandmother.
The piece features interviews from residents of the Zena Highwoods, the WLC Land Stewards who maintain Israel Wittman Sanctuary, and WLC’s Program Curator, Miranda Javid. This broadcast invites listeners to slow down, attune to seasonal rhythms, and experience the living dialogue between artist and landscape.
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NEW TO THE WGXC BROADCAST SCHEDULE
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On the Mic: Eclectic music, discussion, and interviews hosted by 3 teenage girls
1st Wednesdays from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
WGXC 90.7-FM: Radio for Open Ears
90.7-FM in NY's Upper Hudson Valley and wgxc.org/listen everywhere
Premiering on Wednesday, December 3 at 4 p.m., "On The Mic" is hosted by Pepper Goldfarb, Anabelle Bissonnette, and Adele Golby. The show contains eclectic music, discussion, and interviews with invited guests. This is a program hosted by 3 teenage girls from Columbia county.
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BIG MONTH for Local Waves! With our Open Call this month to any and all local bands/artist who released music in 2025 to send in their work for the Local Waves Library, we have (so far) received 40+ submissions in November alone! While I split this up into 2 months of updates, here is a somewhat random selection of 20 of those releases (all released in 2025):
Al Olender / Al’s heart on sleeve indie songwriter (but with some grit) is on full display with new singles and an album coming in February
Birchwing / Feel good electro wave from Redhook
Bradford Reed / Acra’s own, who creates/builds his own instruments and then tames them in surprising and interesting jazz-inflected electronic pieces
Breakfast In Fur / in my opinion one of the hudson valley’s best bands in the 2010s, they have been on hiatus for nearly 10 years and out of nowhere dropped this gem of an album. Big twee indie rock vibes, think Galaxie 500 or Belle & Sebastian
Brother Jax / very cool, tropicalia-tinged indie folk from Kerhonkson
Escavela / vibey slowly evolving soundscapes from this Beacon artists debut release
Jackson Simpson / Finally someone putting some respect on Stewart’s name
Karen Schoemer / prolific and wide ranging spoken word punk writer, Karen’s new album is an experiment in form and creation that is not to be missed. Released on the Kingston-based Dromedary Records.
Kira McSpice / dark and witchy folk from (no pun here) South Salem, NY. Very good record, highly recommended for fans of Marissa Nadler or the quieter side of Chelsea Wolfe.
Lea Bertucci / another totally unique and engaging release from this prolific composer, sound experimenter, sometimes minimalist. One of the reviews says “Lea has her own musical language” and that is very true.
Mikaela Davis / a new, one-off track that exemplifies Mikaela’s dreamy americana vibes
Miss America / this record rips! Lo-fi, garaging but emotional songs. Red Hook is killing it
Most Serene Congress / weird unknowable sounds, improvised spoken word. A Wave Farm / WGXC classic. And it was recorded live at the VERBATIM event near Hunter in October!
Sam Shepard / this song about frozen dairy is giving Ween in the 90s vibes
Schmave / New Paltz-based band has been around for a minute and every record zigs and zags in new directions. Very playful, spacious indie rock that you can (almost) dance to
Schune / A new project for longtime Setting Sun leader Gary Levitt. Schune is an experiment in that he wrote and recorded these songs without guitar, and that led to new, industrial leaning sounds.
Sweet Harm / the type of sophisticated lo-fi pop punk that only middle-age folks who used to throw DIY shows can make
The Veggies / crunchy and on theme with its bedroom-punk riffs and distorted drum machine
Velouria / how is this kid from Columbia County making the best garage pop in the area ?
Will Lawrence / known as a hired hand in some of the best americana bands going today, Philmont’s Will Lawrence also crafts his own beautifully written and performed (almost entirely by him) pastoral chamber folk pieces.
-Mike Amari of Chosen Family Presents
Local Waves airs every Friday at 8PM. All local artists are encouraged to send music to be added to this ever growing library. Send to music@wgxc.org with ‘‘Local Waves’ in subject, mp3s (320kps) or Bandcamp download codes are preferred!
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Your Generosity Makes Wave Farm Possible!
Wave Farm remains tirelessly committed to making the airwaves a participatory medium. We are an international transmission arts organization driven by experimentation with the electromagnetic spectrum. We cultivate creative practices in radio and support artists and nonprofits in their cultural endeavors.
These activities are made possible, in part, from state and federal art grants, foundation support, earned income derived from consulting services and curatorial engagements, and from private, tax-deductible, support from individuals like you.
Support from listeners, attendees, and collaborators provides a critical piece to keeping Wave Farm programs afloat, especially WGXC 90.7-FM Radio for Open Ears, and we are grateful to the many individuals who have shown their generosity past, present, and future.
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