Big MonDay Allstars at the Vancouver Co-op Radio benefit (5/5/25) – photo © Mary Ann Goldstein
A sold-out benefit concert for Vancouver Co-op Radio CFRO, celebrating 50 years of public radio, sponsored by their In The Pines program and the Pacific Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Society (PBOMS), took place at the ANZA club in Vancouver on May 5. There were three bands, including a group of PBOMS veterans calling themselves the Near Family, plus local Vancouver stalwarts the Lonesome Town Painters, and concluding with a special supergroup, the Big MonDay Allstars, made up of Mark Kilianski, John Reischman, Trent Freeman, Kathleen Nisbet, Jeff Scroggins, and Joseph Lubinsky-Mast. MCs for the show included CFRO board members Gwendolyn Reischman, Kenan Sungur, and Rob McGregor, plus PBOMS President Gerard Lynch. Additionally, Artistic Director of the Cowichan Valley Bluegrass Festival, Bob Remington pitched in a couple of tickets to his very popular festival on Vancouver Island for a raffle.
The In the Pines bluegrass and old-time music show is a weekly Sunday program from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m., featuring the finest in traditional and contemporary bluegrass, old-time music, western swing, and REAL country. In the Pines DJs include Paul Norton, Jim Burnett, Kathleen Nisbet, and Rob McGregor, and can be heard on-air at 100.5 FM, via streaming audio on the Coop Radio website, or on demand online.
Near Family mandolinist, PBOMS board member, and In the Pines radio programmer, Rob McGregor, was the mastermind of this event, so I cornered him to get the skinny on all things CFRO, PBOMS, and the In the Pines show.
Hey Rob, can you give us a brief history of how the Co-op Radio In the Pines program came about?
There have been bluegrass shows on Co-op Radio almost since the station was established in 1975. One of our mandates is to present music that isn’t often broadcast in the mainstream media. Shows like Back in the Saddle and Radio Ranch preceded the current In the Pines show. We have been lucky to have a Sunday afternoon time slot for many years. Since the establishment of the Pacific Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Society in 1980, there has been a strong connection between that group and our bluegrass music programs.
What exactly is Co-op Radio?
Vancouver Cooperative Radio was established in 1975 as a listener-supported, community-engaged radio station. We provide a radio voice to a wide diversity of communities that are marginalized or underrepresented in the mainstream media. We serve ethnic, LGBTQ2+, and indigenous communities, but also underrepresented arts communities like bluegrass. We broadcast at 100.5FM and also stream to the internet at www.coopradio.org.
Do the proceeds of this benefit go to the station or the program?
The proceeds go to Co-op Radio. As production costs for shows like In the Pines are typically low, it is more important that funds go to support the station itself.
Who were the folks who got it started, and who keep it going?
There are people still programming at Co-op Radio who were there when the station opened 50 years ago. Jim Burnett, who is one of the In the Pines programmers, started doing music shows in 1975. Peter Thompson, who formerly lived in Vancouver, was extremely important in securing airtime for music programs when the station was first established. Peter now lives in California, and still presents bluegrass on his show, Bluegrass Signal, on KALW in San Francisco. A legion of volunteers keep the station going today, along with our staff and Executive Director, Gwendolyn Reischman.
What major hurdles have had to be overcome through the years?
Financial support is a persistent, ongoing challenge. Our primary source of support is listener donations and memberships. We have overcome many periods of financial challenge, but have remained on the air for 50 years.
Do you still do your show live?
Since the pandemic began, many other programmers have pre-recorded our shows at home for broadcast. I would like to return to doing live shows from our station in the future.
What does the future hold for In the Pines and Vancouver Co-op Radio?
Our current motivation is to restore our station location as a community hub. As many programmers pre-record their shows, the levels of activity and interaction at the station have decreased dramatically. We hope to get programmers re-engaged with the station with live broadcasting. We also want to host on-air performances of music to re-enliven the station building and restore the Co-op Radio Community.
Tell us about the band you put together and are playing with for this event?
The Near Family is a band composed of long-term veterans of the Vancouver bluegrass scene. They came together as a group of friends to jam on old and loved bluegrass songs, but soon realized that performing and sharing this music was also part of the package. Their sound is deeply rooted in their decades of playing bluegrass at concerts, jam sessions, and festivals all over BC. Sue Malcolm and Dave Lidstone play guitar in the band. Don Fraser plays dobro, Don Dirksen plays banjo, I play mandolin, and Stu MacDonald holds it all together on bass. All members are strong singers and instrumentalists and have performed together over the years in a variety of combinations in bands like the Soda Crackers and the Little Mountain Band. The Near Family combines solid vocals, mature instrumental chops, and years of experience to make music that is bound to please any bluegrass fan.
During the Lonesome Town Painters set, I stepped outside with Co-op Radio Executive Director, Gwendolyn Reischman, to get some further insights on the organization and its audience.
Hi Gwendolyn, can you talk about the history of Vancouver Co-op Radio and your involvement?
Yeah, you know, Co-op Radio is celebrating its 50th year, and in 1975, I was a young teenager, but a lot of the people who were fundamental to my getting involved with the Bluegrass Society and the Jazz Festival Society and the Folk Festival Society were involved in Co-op Radio. In Vancouver, when I got here in like 1985, everybody listened to Co-op Radio because there was a jazz show, there was a folk show, and a bluegrass show, and it was cutting edge at the time. It’s a different world now, but the connections that are made are still really important, and I think they still happen.
So, what do you see for the future?
Well, that’s a good question. I’m utterly optimistic about the way that we’re able to connect with people on the radio. I like to think that when I’m programming music or talking on the radio, I’m talking to an individual, and I’m connecting with them, because I don’t know what their circumstances are. They might be a shut-in or something. All the best radio reaches into the hearts of the people who are listening. You don’t know who it is that is listening, someone in their car, who maybe had a bad day, and maybe you made them feel better. It’s exciting, and not the kind of thing you get from services like Spotify because the hosts are authentic people and are passionate about what they do. When you talk to them, they feel really excited.
So that’s pretty unique, right? To have a real person talking to people live versus being pre-programmed.
Yeah, you know, even in independent media, content can be programmed in a way that’s kind of corporate. Our organization is not that, and maybe that’s why for 50 years we’ve struggled financially, but we’re still here. So we’re tenacious and and we’re obviously reaching someone.
Are there youth involved who are willing to take the torch and move forward?
In the music shows for sure, but where I think we have the most interest is in the communities that are struggling, people where they don’t feel seen and safe. They feel like they want to talk about what is in their life. The marginalized nature of the communities that we’re serving is really important to Co-op Radio.
Do you have any interesting listener stories that you can share?
I’m the executive director at Co-op Radio, so I get a chance to interact with listeners. Someone sent a note from the website saying they wanted to receive our newsletter, so I responded that I was just wondering what inspired them to receive this newsletter, and the email message that I got back was shocking. He said, “Well, I’ve been in a psychiatric hospital, and so I really have been counting on Co-op Radio.” He said, “During the Easter weekend, a crew of us got around the radio and listened to Co-op Radio all the time. We put a crown on the radio and Co-op Radio connected with each and every one of us that whole weekend, and it was fundamentally important to our well-being.” You know, getting a letter like that, getting a note like that, it just like made my knees weak.
DJ Paul Norton, who started the first bluegrass/country show on Sunday afternoon in 1978, also shared his thoughts. He said, “All proceeds from the benefit went to Co-op Radio, not In The Pines. (Although if the station gains, we gain, of course.) It was all profit … all the musicians donated their time, and The Pacific Bluegrass & Old-Time Music Society picked up the tab for hall rental and sound. Over $3,000 was raised. During COVID, everyone pre-recorded at home. Since then, Rob and I have done a mixture of live and recorded. Jim and Kathleen still record all their shows. The station compiles a list of the top fundraisers after each drive, and In The Pines is always in the Top 5, usually in the Top 3. So that’s a good way to measure popularity, we figure. What is now In the Pines went through a bunch of incarnations and title changes and probably at least a dozen hosts. We have a whole Sunday afternoon block of roots music shows.”
One O’Clock Jump – jazz, blues and Latin – 1:00 to 2:30 p.m.
In The Pines – country and bluegrass – 2:30 to 4:00 p.m.
What The Folk – singer/songwriter and world music- 4:00 to 5:30 p.m.
Vancouver’s Co-op Radio is by no means unique, as stations like it sharing their values and content exist all over the world and internet. Clearly, radio is not what it used to be and is largely delegated to an in-car experience, but just as you might have a favorite podcast or streaming playlist, you should definitely make time to discover all of the wonderful content still being produced largely by volunteers at stations like CFRO. As the Near Family sang when they kicked off this benefit, “Turn Your Radio On!”
Photos by Mary Ann Goldstein
