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Date: 8/3/2021
NORTHAMPTON – As 93.9 The River celebrates its 40th anniversary throughout the summer, two of the station’s hosts sat down to discuss the station and its first 40 years.
Monte Belmonte, the host of WRSI’s “Mornings with Monte” show, said the station was founded on July 26, 1981, after Ed Skutnik and his friends combined their record collections to create a radio station.
“A man named Ed Skutnik signed us on July 26, 1981. He told me RSI stood for Radio Station roman numeral 1 because it was the first FM station in Franklin County in Greenfield. He sold it and then bought it back and then thought of it as Radio Skutnik Inc., and it was formed out of his and several other’s record collections and formed a symbiosis with the renaissance of Northampton,” he said.
After starting in Greenfield, Belmonte said the station moved to Northampton in the early 2000s before merging with WHMP in 2004.
Belmonte said listeners of the station can enjoy a variety of music.
“You are as likely to hear Bob Dylan as you are Beyonce or the Muppets. I like to make the analogy that we are that cool restaurant in your favorite town where there are a couple staples you can get every time you go there but there might be a special now and again. When you come here it feels like the same restaurant, but you are surprised by the specials,” he said.
Since she started at the station 11 years ago, Joan Holliday, the host of “Riversound Café with Joan Holliday, said the station has always offered diverse musical options that have evolved in her time there.
“I think we have become more diverse with our musical programming. I have been fortunate working here because at other radio stations I worked at they had a no two women in a row rule, but they never had that here, I can play six women in a row,” she said. “We like to include music from people of different cultures, and I think we have gotten even better at that since I came here,” she said.
Belmonte said one of his favorite memories at the station was when he dressed up as a gorilla when the station was giving away Indigo Girls tickets.
“Back in like 2003 or so, we were giving away Indigo Girls tickets, and I dressed up as a gorilla and drove around as the ‘Indigorilla’ and people had to find me and give me a banana. I gave out clues on the radio for where I was, and somebody literally threw a banana at me to get it to me first for the tickets,” he said. “This was all being broadcast live on the radio with Rachel Maddow and the last location was at our old location on Main Street and she was laughing hysterically while watching me get chased by someone with a banana.”
Holliday said she has too many good memories of her time at the station to count, and her coworkers are at the center of most of them.
“People often assume it is the big stars that come through and it is, but most of my best memories here are from the people I work with and the listeners I have talked to. Monte introduced me to my husband and was the best man at the wedding,” she said.
Holliday said once people come to WRSI, they tend to stay for the long haul.
“It is an unusual thing about this station, when people come, they tend to stay. Normally on-air staff are looking for the next bigger market or wanting to move, but when you work here it is like, ‘No, I want to stay here, thanks,’” she said.
In the next 40 years, Holliday said she wants the station to continue to serve the community.
“I want to continue to serve the community with great music and great people. Especially music that is diverse and hand chosen. Unlike a lot of other radio stations, we very carefully curate what we play on the air, and I want to make sure we continue to do that,” he said.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Belmonte said he has learned how important the station is to its listeners.
“The pandemic has made it clear how important the radio station is to the people in the community. In a year where things were so out of balance, the fact that we were on the air every day doing what they had come to know I think was a gravitational force for people. We did a 40th birthday event in Amherst and no fewer than three people were brought to tears in the course of talking to me about what the station meant to them in a time when things were so out of whack,” he said.
With the work the station does in the community, Holliday said it has become an anchor of kindness in the area.
“I think WRSI is a real anchor of kindness and compassion in this community, especially with all that Monte does. He does the walk from Springfield to Greenfield, Monte’s March, for the Food Bank and he has done annual benefits for the Cancer Connection,” she said.
Holliday said the station, the listeners and the businesses in the area share a symbiotic relationship.
“It is a very symbiotic relationship between us and the listeners, we would not be here without them, and we love them. We are also lucky to have advertisers who are really local, and it is a mission for us to better our community by supporting these businesses,” she said.
Belmonte added that about 95 percent of the station’s revenue comes from advertising from locally owned businesses.
The River’s general manager, David Oldread, said it is amazing to watch the hosts at the station connect with their audiences.
“When you work with talented people like Joan and Monte and you see the impact they have on the local community, it can be an amazing thing to watch how they connect to their audiences and see the way their listeners and fans react to them,” he said.
Oldread said he is excited to take part in the celebration of the station.
“I find myself as general manager as the caretaker for this property that has been a gem to the upper valley. I could not be more honored to help in the celebration of it,” he said.
As part of the 40th anniversary festivities, The River hosted a three-band concert at the Shea Theater in Turners Falls on Aug. 1 and the anniversary will culminate at this year’s Green River Festival during the last weekend of August.
Despite starting at the station this year, Oldread said he has lived in the area for a long time and has seen the impact of the station.
“I have lived in this area for a long time and the station provides a soundtrack to the upper valley and the community here. When you have a station that can be an agent of change and impact the local community it is pretty incredible,” he said.