Louisville music lovers may be unaware of a truly remarkable, homegrown radio station featuring strictly local music known as the Crescent Hill Radio. CHR is a proud supporter of music originating from right here in our community. They not only stream original recordings by Louisville artists 24/7, but they also provide live shows featuring local artists and community themed topics. Through their website, listeners can stream live or check out previously recorded shows. Additionally, CHR hosts a Concert on the Lawn event for every Frankfort Avenue Trolly Hop at their address 2520 Frankfort Ave. This free concert features a different line-up of local musicians each month and is open to all ages. “So how did such a unique project come about?” you may be asking.
It all began merely 4 years ago when Kathy Weisbach put a simple playlist of her and her friends' music online as an audio stream. Later, when restoring her grandfather’s 1938 Zenith Radio, she got another idea: to start a low-watt AM and internet radio station, of all local music. “I have always been aware of really good musical recordings by local bands that got absolutely no airplay. There's just so much of it,” Kathy says. She got a low-watt AM radio transmitter called a “Part 15” and gave birth to the Crescent Hill Radio.
It wasn’t long before Kathy’s personal project received a swarm of people wanting to contribute local music to stream, ideas for shows, and to volunteer to DJ. She set up an area in her basement and they started doing live broadcasts. Finally, they built a basement radio studio on Frankfort Avenue, home to CHR today.
“We now have a full sound studio, a lot of great people on the team, and lots of shows - live and pre-recorded. Our shows are stored indefinitely on our SoundCloud page for on-demand listening,” explains Kathy. “We also collect community announcements sent by local organizations and run those 3 times daily.”
CHR not only offers listeners an opportunity to be exposed to new music originating right here in their community, but it also provides a lot of information about local community events and trends. CHR shows are themed with a diversity of community topics and musical genres. See below for a complete list of shows.
The Farmer and the Foodie: local farmers markets and recipes - Sundays 1 PM
The Classical Hour with Nada Loutfi: live piano performaces - Sundays 4 PM
Best of Bluegrass - Sundays 7PM
BlackListedComedy: features local stand-up comedians - Tuesdays 7 PM
Danny Flanigan Song Swap: live from Clifton’s Pizza - Tuesdays 9PM
Keep Louisville Loud: local punk and hard core music - Tuesdays 10PM
The Homegrown RadioHour: folk - Wednesdays 7 PM
Flies on the Wall: rock and Americana - Wednesdays 8:30 PM
Cumberland Country:live country, bluegrass and Americana - Thursdays 6 PM
Hippy Head's Spotlight: live rock - Thursdays 8 PM
From a Basement on a Hill: rock and acoustic rock with ties to the U of L college scene and more - Mondays 8 PM
Kentuckiana Blues Radio Show - Fridays 8PM
Audio Blog - Fridays 9PM
Cardinal Couple: talk show about Uof L Women’s athletics - Saturdays 11 AM
Keep Hearing Voices: storytelling and eclectic voices from different neighborhood - Saturdays 12 PM
La Vida Local: news about local food scene and events - Saturdays 1 PM
Louisville Arts Live: musicians, artists, and spoken word artists - Saturdays 3 PM
Photo courtesy of CrescentHillRadio.com
