Featured

WICN Radio aims to grow alongside the Worcester community

VEER MUDAMBI

“When I was a kid,” said David Ginsburg, Worcester resident and radio host, “there was a definite sense of Worcester being jealous of Boston — wanting to be a big city and not really getting there.” Over the years, like an awkward teenager following in the footsteps of a famous sibling, Worcester has come into its own. No longer solely defined by its comparison to Boston as the second biggest city in the state, Worcester is now a destination in its own right with a character all its own.

Downtown Worcester in the ‘70s and ‘80s, Ginsburg continued, was not a place you would go without reason. He chuckles that “if you had told me that in 20 to 30 years, I’d be working there happily, I’d have said you’re crazy.”

This change has become most apparent in the last several years. “Worcester has undergone significant growth over the last decade,” and 90.5 WICN Radio, where Ginsburg is the general manager, plans to change with it.

Worcester’s designation as a Gateway City has likely contributed to this growth, with immigrants resettling here, since these communities are a gateway of opportunity for new Americans. Midsize cities like Worcester anchor regional economies so the cities have rebuilt and attracted new investment. Ginsburg is keen that WICN “always aims to grow and reflect the community.”

The city’s only NPR affiliate, WICN is a small station and Ginsburg said, ”95% of our people are volunteers who do this for a love of music.” The station has five employees, three of whom are part time so while they don’t have as much room for diversification as they would like, they have been trying to increase diversity on their 15-member board. “That has been a deliberate effort“ according to Ginsburg. Presumably, this cultural and socio-economic diversity will trickle down into their programming.

WICN is primarily a jazz station, but under Ginsburg it has taken steps to evolve into a community media platform and resource. Residents can tune in for a dose of hyper local news or a respite from national headlines.

“We’ve had a lot of great GM’s running the station,” said Tom Nutile, member of WICN’s board of directors and on-air host, “but when David came in with a radio background, he took a larger look at the station and realized we should be a cultural resource and a go-to place for the community.”

The station historically has been the voice of arts and culture in the city, said Ginsburg, and his driving goal is to expand on that with a commitment to diversity of content. As one of the few remaining jazz stations in the country, WICN has kept the genre as its mainstay but is expanding to better reflect the wide variety of residents’ musical tastes, including Latin, soul and bluegrass.

This extends to the station’s talk shows as well — both existing and new additions. “One of my goals was for the station to have a more NPRish feel during the day,” said Ginsburg, himself a co-host of “Business Beat,” a business and economy interview show airing Sunday and Monday evenings. Lately, the focus has been on having guests from different nonprofit organizations and some start-ups by people of color.

Two new shows just debuted as well, “Venture Forum” and “Culture Beat,” airing back to back on Thursdays from 6 to 7 p.m. “Venture Forum” spotlights entrepreneurs in Worcester County, discussing their challenges and successes. “Culture Beat” focuses on the arts and culture scene in and around Worcester. The show developed from a two-minute segment by Nikki Erskine of the Worcester Cultural Council every Thursday morning. This stopped for a time when Erskine was unable to come into the station during the shutdown, but when restrictions were lifted, she pitched the idea for a full show, sharing events and activities for people to get involved during the pandemic.

Like so many other nonprofit organizations, WICN faced serious funding issues with the advent of the shutdown. Their underwriting funds were hit particularly hard. Now, they conduct quarterly on-air fundraisers. “This year, we were blown away with how generous our listeners were,” Ginsburg said. While he can’t emphasize enough how grateful they feel, they also needed to do more. To provide themselves with a buffer, they opened up the recording space to the community at affordable rates, as a base from which to broadcast virtual events. Even for in-person events, the rooms are big enough for social distancing and he emphasized that they were “sanitizing everything by the book.”

Since the start of the shutdowns, which gave people more time to listen to the radio, WICN’s new role has become more important than ever, providing the community both with a voice and a way to stay connected. For a station that is so grounded in the community, its history is relevant. The station started out as a joint venture between Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the College of the Holy Cross as Worcester Inter Collegiate Network and was an alternative rock station, which, Nutile said with laugh, might have contributed to them being evicted from the Holy Cross campus. Their musical journey eventually took them from rock to classical and finally, jazz.

“Worcester has always been a big important city,” said Nutile, “but I believe we have a cultural renaissance taking place — perhaps slowed down a little by the pandemic but there’s more opportunity out there.” He reminisces that when he was a kid, there was much more jazz on the radio, which has decreased over time but made what WICN does even more important.

Aside from diversity and better reflecting the city of their listeners, for Ginsburg, it boils down to a very simple objective. “In the end,” he said, “you’re trying to reach and engage an audience.”

Tom Nutile is an on-air host, left, and David Ginsburg is general manager at WICN Friday, January 22, 2021.

RICK CINCLAIR

The Promise Is Hope ‘Anxiety Relief’ concerts sharing hope and donations

RICHARD DUCKETT

Since the release of their debut album, “Where We’ve Been & Where We’re Going,” in 2015, the Worcester-based wife and husband folk duo of Ashley and Eric L’Esperance — who perform as The Promise Is Hope — had been steadily going in what seemed like the right direction.

Acclaim, awards, another album, and expanding tours were pointing the way forward. That was especially true of the increasing number of live in-person shows, which up until last March provided most of the revenue for musical acts.

“It was not uncommon to be playing three or four shows a week,” said Eric L’Esperance. “For musicians it’s always a bit of a puzzle that you’re putting together, but live performances are our bread and butter.”

Then the sudden arrival of the coronavirus quickly canceled all the live in-person show bookings.

After what the duo has described as “a few brief panic attacks,” The Promise Is Hope planned what would soon be the first of 22 weekly “Anxiety Relief” livestream concerts, along with some new promises.

The latest, at 6 p.m. Jan. 31, will see The Promise Is Hope share the screen stage with Worcester visual artist John Vo. While the duo perform songs from their latest release, “Every Seed Must Die,” Vo will be creating live illustrations inspired by The Promise Is Hope’s music and answering questions about his work during the stream.

Any donations will be split 50/50 between The Promise is Hope and John Vo.

Sharing has been part of the promise since the start of the “Anxiety Relief” concerts last March.

For the first livestream, The Promise Is Hope announced that 50% of the first concert’s donation proceeds would benefit Club Passim (the legendary music club in Cambridge) and the Worcester County Food Bank. The audience donated over $1,300, half of which duly went to the two organizations.

“Right away it felt it was important for us in our time of need to be present to the need in the community,” Eric L’Esperance said. “It seems like it resonates with the community of folks that tend to tune in.”

The 22 weekly “Anxiety Relief” concerts so far have raised a total of $13,000. Of that, $6,000 has been donated to various music venues, independent musicians, and local and regional nonprofit organizations. Over $4,000 of it has been donated directly to Worcesterarea nonprofits, including the YWCA of Central Mass, Abby’s House, Worcester Youth Center, the Greater Worcester Community Foundation, Community Legal Aid, Dismas House, Boys & Girls Club, MainIDEA, and Family Health Center.

The rest, about $7,000, has gone to trying to keep Ashley and Eric L’Esperance afloat financially.

“The concerts are our main revenue,” Eric said. There is also some money coming in from the sale of merchandise,”a handful of music students,” and The Promise Is Hope is on the Patreon platform that allows content creators to run a subscription service.

“I know it’s not a lot of money. We run a tight ship,” Eric said.

COVID-19 has also directly affected the couple, as both were infected by the virus last year. “Fortunately, it wasn’t as bad as it could be. We were able to stay out of the hospital, but it was a scary event,” Eric L’Esperance said.

The Promise Is Hope had been moving at what he called “a lightening pace” pre-pandemic, “paying our dues” as the duo tried to get established and then build a following.

Now, “We’ve been married six years and we’ve never been home this long,” he said.

The couple are writing new songs. Meanwhile, they live in a two-bedroom apartment, one of which has been made into a studio for the livestream shows.

The viewing audience currently ranges from 35 to 100 per week, he said. In the early months of March, April and May, “the numbers were higher because everyone was in shock.”

The Promise Is Hope took a break in the summer, but retained a a decent sized and still very generous audience on its return to “Anxiety

Ashley, left, and Eric L’Esperance of The Promise Is Hope.

SUBMITTED PHOTO

Relief.”

“There’s a like a core of folks,” Eric said. There have been people watching from Tennessee, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, as well as Massachusetts. “Last week we had someone from the United Kingdom,” he said.

To vary the repertoire, The Promise Is Hope has had theme nights, a Beatles night, singersongwriter shows and full request nights. In January, Ashley and Eric L’Esperance decided to split the concerts and the proceeds with other artists. Vo, a longtime friend of the couple, is the first nonmusical guest.

“People will be able to see the images appear and develop through the concert. We thought it would be a cool experiment,” Eric said.

The pandemic has been “a disruption for everyone, for our whole world, for us,” he said.

But out of where they’ve been has come “a community of support. It’s the people that really matter,” he said.

“It’s easy to get caught up in numbers and streams and sales. This (the pandemic) has really opened our eyes. It’s the people in our community that matter most. It’s helped to get a clearer sense of that,” he said.

In terms of the future, Eric L’Esperance said, “we don’t know what it will look like. We definitely plan to tour again, but hopefully our heart has shifted in a good way and we’ll be able to carry that forward.”

“The Promise Is Hope & John Vo for Anxiety Relief XXIII” will be at 6 p.m. Jan. 31 on Facebook (www. facebook.com/thepromiseishope/ live), YouTube (www.youtube. com/c/thepromiseishope), or The Promise is Hope website (www. thepromiseishope.com/tour). People can donate to Sunday’s concert via PayPal (www.paypal.me/ tpih) or Venmo (@TPIHmusic) and donations will be split 50/50 between The Promise Is Hope and John Vo. “Please include your email address in the description of your donation and you will be emailed one of John’s illustrations after the concert as a thank you.”

Provoke The Truth mixes two styles to make his own

ROBERT DUGUAY

There’s always something intriguing when an artist is forging their own path. They refuse to be trapped in a box and they couldn’t care less about the current trends and norms. It’s the ultimate antithesis to artistic classification and making the listener asking themselves about what they’re hearing is done on purpose. Under the name Provoke The Truth, Lucas Rodriguez is bringing a jolt of originality with both hip-hop and instrumental guitar-driven rock. His style isn’t like the rap rock that was around during the late ‘90s, think of it as if your favorite six-string virtuoso also released recordings where they spat lyrics over cool beats.

When it comes to what came first for him in his musical journey, it was the electric guitar. It wasn’t until his teens when a couple of legendary rappers influenced him to start writing poetry and eventually start making his own kind of hip-hop.

“I started playing guitar when I was 10 years old, so that’s definitely been my primary outlet,” Rodriguez says of his first love. “Once I got into high school I started listening to a lot of hip-hop and I was into real lyricism, artists like Nas and Eminem played a big part in that. Then I started writing my own poetry and I ended up making my own beats and that’s how I started rapping. I also have so many inspirations from so many different guitarists but my Top 3 is definitely Carlos Santana, Angus Young from AC/ DC and Randy Rhodes, who was part of Ozzy Osbourne’s band during the ‘80s.”

Last year alone, Rodriguez put out five albums, four singles and an EP. He also recently being burnt out.

“I like going back and forth in between hip-hop and rock while trying to dive into different styles of guitar,” He describes how he gets out of a creative rut. “When I get tired of that particular sound, I’ll listen to hip-hop beats and I’ll get a new perspective when it comes to creating new music. That’s really how I keep myself rejuvenated.”

The year is still young, but Rodriguez wants to take 2021 to focus on his art and continue his creative voyage. He cherishes his artistic freedom and he wants to keep on making new music that’s a reflection of him without serving the status quo.

“To be honest, my goals are similar to what they’ve always been,” he says about what he wants to accomplish in 2021. “I just want to make music because I love it regardless if anyone else digs it or not. I’m making my own music to my own tastes while writing, producing and recording everything on my own. I’m making my own sounds in my own original way while having my own process and that’s what I prefer to do. As far as accomplishments go, I want to keep on putting out more albums and more singles.”

“This isn’t a phase for me, this is who I am and this is what I do,” Rodriguez adds. “I make music, I make music every day and I want to share it with the world.”

To check out Rodriguez’s discography, visit Provoke The Truth’s Bandcamp page at provokethetruth.bandcamp.com or follow his projects at Facebook. com/ProvoketheTruth.