WOVV, Ocracoke: Radio Comes to the Island

One of my fantasies has been to run a radio station in some isolated town, perhaps on an island, where I would, in effect, be the Voice of God.

I don't know if the people behind WOVV harbor such a grandiose vision of themselves, but their location would fit my fantasy perfectly: Ocracoke, North Carolina.

Ocracoke is a real village on an island out in the Atlantic, reachable by ferry, small boat or airplane. By "real village," I mean it's not a beach town, per se, unlike many other places in the Outer Banks. In fact, you have to drive a ways outside of town to get to the beach. It has a long history, most of it tied to the sea, and in particular, fishing;  residents with roots going back many generations; and sandy, tree-shaded streets where tourists and locals alike leisurely ride balloon-tired bicycles to the store.

(Continued below)

===========================================

RECORD ANY INTERNET STATION WITH RADIO2MP3!

New software lets you record music from online radio stations to your PC. Works just like a VCR! Make individual song files automatically and listen on your iPod, MP3 player or CD player. It's 100% legal and RIAA safe.

Click Here --> RADIO2MP3

===========================================

One thing Ocracoke has never had is its own radio station, even with the critical need for good communications in such a hurricane-prone location. That is changing.

A group of enthusiastic Ocracokers are nearing the go-live date for the town's and the island's first broadast station, WOVV. Also known as Ocracoke Community Radio, the station will be heard at 90.1 FM. Besides playing music, WOVV will broadcast local news, community announcements and tourist information, and will be supported by listener contributions and underwriting (the NPR model, in other words). In a nice touch, Ocracoke youth will be recruited to do most of the voice-overs for the underwriting spots.

For those of us who've vacationed in Ocracoke
but don't have the opportunity of living there, the good news is that WOVV already streams itself on the Internet (wovv.org/listen.htm -- or try the Flash player embedded here, if you see it). It's a great means of enjoying the local Ocracoke flavor from anywhere in the world.

Unfortunately (for me anyway), WOVV's stream is not available in the vTuner database, which means my vTuner-based wi-fi radio cannot currently play it.

The stream is available through other sources, though, including Shoutcast; so, for instance, you can hear it with the embedded Shoutcast player that you should see on this page. Just search in the player for "WOVV" or "Ocracoke" and you'll have it.

(Well, maybe. It was in Shoutcast earlier today when I tried it, but now I can't find it there. Oh wait, now it's back. In any case, you can always listen directly from the station's own site.)

UPDATE: Disregard my references to Shoutcast. I'm planning to remove the Shoutcast player from this site due to its slow loading time. It seems to slow down the page more than any other element on the page.

WOVV's local flavor extends to its music programming. For a town of fewer than a thousand permanent residents, Ocracoke is home to some impressive talent, including local bands Molasses Creek, Baby Dee and the Free Mustache Rides Again, Coyote and Mya Rose. The radio station gives precedence to such local artists, including devoting several hours each day to "Locals Only Beach" music blocks (see schedule).

To be clear: WOVV is (will be) a legally licensed broadcast station, with call letters assigned by the FCC, FCC construction permit, and everything. Yet somehow this crew looks like they could have stepped out of the cast of that "Pirate Radio" movie, which means they're probably having a ball with this whole broadcasting endeavor, on top of and aside from the community service thing.

CNN story about WOVV