Internet radio station gives worldwide exposure to aspiring musicians of Appalachia

Appalachian musicians are getting worldwide exposure through an Internet radio station based in West Virginia that mostly plays local bands from the Charleston area but hopes to expand to cover musicians in the entire region, Bill Lynch reports for The Charleston Gazette. The station, New Appalachian Radio, which began airing in March, was created by two former college classmates.

Station co-founder Jody Herndon told Lynch, "New Appalachian music can sound like a lot of things. It can be country or rock or rap or even metal. It’s just all influenced by being here." (Gazette photo by Kenny Kemp: Station founders Eric Meadows and Jody Herndon)

Herndon and co-founder Eric Meadows said that "What they hope to do is to give local people the chance to hear their favorite local bands someplace other than the clubs as well as spread that music farther out," Lynch writes. They said they also hope the station becomes popular enough to influence Appalachian musicians to remain locally instead of taking their musical talents to urban areas like New York or Nashville. (Read more) Listen to the station by clicking here.