Launched in 1947 by the Colombian government, Radio Sutatenza was a publicly broadcast radio school that educated farmers and peasants living in the outer, undriveable mountainous regions of the capital city, Bogota. (Perhaps fearing a political peasant rebellion), the cultural arm of the Colombian government hoped Radio Sutatenza (la “escuela radiophonica”) could teach peasants how to read and write Spanish by organizing literary listening groups and informal schools. Radio Sutatenza taught peasants how to “vivir mejor”-- or, have a better life -- and, over the next 40 years, Radio Sutatenza broadcast hundreds of shows on literacy, hygiene, western medicine, gender roles, family planning and others to the masses at the edges of “civilization.” Used as a tool for nation building, Radio Sutatenza was considered a great success for transitioning Colombia and its people into the modern era.

Jenni(f)fer Tamayo's work VIVIR MEJOR- a brief, poetic history of Radio Sutatenza is a lyric radio poem that satires and critiques the colonial project that undergirds the central mission of Radio Sutatenza. Interspersed throughout the broadcast are lyric reflections that depict Tamayo's family’s personal connections to the radio show. How might have Radio Sutatenza and its mission to “vivir mejor” influenced their family’s choice to emigrate from Colombia in the early 1980s? What does it really mean to “have a better life” under settler colonialism and capitalism? And, how has the broadcast and its aim to “civilize” continued to haunt the artist and other Colombian migrants?

Jenni(f)fer Tamayo is a poet, performer and visual artist whose works reimagine the narratives about and politics of undocumented figures in the contemporary U.S. In their books, performances, and digital media, the “illegal” immigrant is recast as a punk figure that queers the norms of personhood and citizenship. They are the author of the hybrid poetry collections [Red Missed Aches, Read Mistakes] (Switchback Books), YOU DA ONE (Noemi Books), to kill the future in the present (Green Lantern Press) and their most recent collection, bruise/bruise/break, explores the enduring colonial legacies of American poetics, migrant futurity, the power of creative kinship. Their writing is widely published and has been anthologized in Best American Experimental Poetry, New Latin@ Writing, and HarperCollins. They were born on Muisca territory (Bogota, Colombia) and are currently building a home/skool on the unceded lands of the Yesah Confederacy (Piedmont region of North Carolina).

From Wednesday, July 15 to Friday, July 31, the theme of our summer pledge drive will be "Slow Down, Tune In." Join us during those two weeks for special broadcasts and programming, events in Catskill and Acra, and an opportunity to slow down and take stock of what keeps our community connected and our ears open. Your support makes this possible!

Schedule of Events: 

Meadow Walks, Hive Flights: an afternoon in support of community radio

July 19, 2026: 12pm - 2pm 

Wave Farm + WGXC Acra Studio, Acra, NY

Live Sounds, Slow Music: an evening in support of community radio

July 24, 2026: 8pm - 11pm

27 Cafe, Catskill, NY

Breaking the Algorithm IRL: Craig Chin

July 30, 2026: 7pm - 9pm

Avalon Lounge, Catskill, NY

Join Citiot for its monthly salon on Friday, July 17 at Beattie-Powers Place, with proceeds benefitting Wave Farm! (In case of rain, the event will take place at Citiot: 404 Main Street, Catskill).

This month's theme is "Indelible Ink: Stories, Poems, and Songs about Lasting Impressions," and features Adam Minegar, Deb Parker, Dennis Gordon, Gert Meijer, Gillian Cummings, Wave Farm Artist-in-Residence Jenni(f)fer Tamayo, Jen Noble, Kirsten Bates, and Ross Lekites.

Doors at 6pm. Show at 7pm.

Wave Farm with HOSE x Deadass Beekeeping host an afternoon of beehive tours and close listening, special tours of Wave Farm’s Art Park, live slow radio performances, and refreshments. The Listening Apiary is a living ecological installation. Guided by Anthony and Gecile of Deadass Beekeeping, guests will be introduced to the colonies, observe the inner workings of a hive, and learn how honey bees move through and respond to the surrounding landscape. Beverages, snacks, and a honey tasting will be offered in honor of the seasons, the bees, and the ecosystem that sustains us. This event, as part of our summer drive, is a fundraiser for the WGXC, with ticket sales directly benefiting the station.

Radio performance by M(K)G and a reading by artist-in-residency Jenni(f)fer Tamayo.

Tickets available here.

Join us on July 24th at 27 Cafe in Catskill for a gathering of live sounds, slow music, and great community. Performances from Grayson in the mirror, Dani Derks, and Kenji Garland & Jimmy Garver will carry us through an evening focused on listening, in support of WGXC 90.7-FM. Ticket sales will directly benefit the station.

Tickets available here.

Turn out on Thursday, July 30 at 7pm Upstairs at the Avalon Lounge for the next edition of “Breaking the Algorithm IRL"! This month’s event features a discussion with Craig Chin of Errant Space and Drone Day, and a DJ set by Marcos Cabral of "AIRPORT KEYS." Entry by donation. See you there!

"Breaking the Algorithm IRL" is a monthly series presented by Wave Farm’s WGXC 90.7-FM as part of our Local Waves initiative and the show "Local Waves in Conversation." Part conversation led by Mike Amari of Chosen Family and part DJ set by a WGXC volunteer, the series highlights local artists, musicians, venue owners and bookers, and record label owners.

SOLD OUT

HOSE, Deadass Beekeeping, and Wave Farm present an evening with Laraaji performing live from the Listening Apiary at Wave Farm's Art Park.

Widely regarded as one of the pioneers of ambient music, Laraaji has spent decades exploring the relationship between sound, improvisation, and deep listening. For one evening, Laraaji will perform overlooking the beehives, with honey bees and the sounds of the surrounding landscape becoming part of the listening.

This is an intentionally small gathering. Capacity is limited to preserve the experience.

Doors open 5PM | Show starts 7PM.

Suggested $10 donation. Advance reservation required. If the event is sold out, a waitlist is available here.

Local Waves at The Local is a new free series at The Local curated by Mike Amari/Chosen Family in partnership with Wave Farm's WGXC featuring Hudson Valley artists performing original music.

Sunbeam of No Illusion is Thayer and Seretan’s first official collaboration on record, though they’ve performed together in a wide variety of contexts since 2023. Drawing on the resplendent natural world of their shared upstate New York the pair calls forth the specters of the valley.

Ben Seretan (Climax, NY) makes music that is always very something: loud, cathartic, gentle, serene, open-hearted, off-the-cuff. Centering joy, his work takes many forms - a 24-hour-long atlas of guitar clouds, secular praise exploding into crash cymbals, tremendously gentle piano chords on a bed of bugs. He also maintains a correspondence project called My Big Break featuring new sounds and new writing every Thursday.

John Thayer is an audio engineer and multi-instrumentalist (chiefly drums and percussion) whose experiential compositions are inspired by a deep attention to the sounds of the natural world. His recordings, centered around a hybrid of studio techniques and improvisatory performance, range from long-form, multilayered ambience to polyrhythmic electro-acoustic collage. Having been a very active member of the New York experimental scene, his compositions and installations bear wide-ranged influences drawn from his many collaborators over the years.

"We need to think small. We need to think local. When all the music ever created is a swipe away on your phone, it's easy to miss the incredible original artists who are making and releasing music right here in the Hudson Valley. This series will serve as an expansion of the Local Waves radio show I co-created with WGXC (which plays all new, local music every Friday 8pm) to further highlight these acts with a free, monthly concert in a fantastic venue at The Local. I hope that folks will use this series as a way of discovering new artists, and getting to know their neighbors in the process." - Mike Amari

More about Local Waves here.

RSVP for the August 12th show here.

Join Wave Farm and New Ear for an extraordinary Drive-in event at the historic four-screen Hi-way Drive-in, Coxsackie, NY, presented in collaboration with EAI.

Performances from Leila Bordreuil, Evicshen X Anamorph, Kyp Malone (TV on the Radio), Brian Chase (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Geologist (Animal Collective), Brendan Canty (Fugazi), Gladsone Deluxe, and Victoria Keddie.

Moving images including silent selections from the EAI Collection with live soundtracks by performing artists.

DJ sets from Theo Baker and Mayuko Fujino.

Read more about the artists, organizers, and purchase tickets here here.

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SCHEDULE

5 p.m. Doors

DJ Theo Baker is an artist and researcher excavating overlooked technologies and vernacular culture to create work across writing, sound, and software. He is host of Infinite Contact on Wave Farm R adio WGXC 90.7-FM.

DJ Mayuko Fujino is an artist and the host of Beakuency: Meet Bird People in Hudson Valley! on Wave Farm Radio WGXC 90.7-FM.

Leila Bordreuil is a cellist, composer, and sound-artist based in Brooklyn.

Victoria Shen (Evicshen) is a San Francisco–based experimental sound artist and performer who builds self-designed instruments to push the physical and expressive limits of turntablism, noise, and embodied sonic practice. Anamorph is the visual art practice of digital artist Brendan Dawes (UK) and filmmaker Gary Hustwit (USA). Their work merges design, code, and video to create experiential projections and systems-based cinema.

Kyp Malone

Brian Chase drums for rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs and NYC’s experimental music community, as well as directing the record label Chaikin Records.

Brian Weitz, also known by his stage name Geologist, is a musician best known as a member of the experimental pop group Animal Collective.

Brendan Canty is the drummer in the Messthetics and Fugazi.

Gladstone Deluxe is a New York-based artist working with percussion and electronics.

Victoria Keddie is an interdisciplinary artist working across sound, video, installation, and performance, whose practice explores the architectures of communication—acoustic, spatial, and technological.

11 p.m. Close

Turn out on Thursday, August 27th at 7pm Upstairs at the Avalon Lounge for the next edition of “Breaking the Algorithm IRL"! This month’s event features a discussion with Miriam Atkin, organizer of Verbatim // Text Sound Expo, and a DJ set by Christopher Funkhouser of "Poet Ray'D Yo." Entry by donation. See you there!

"Breaking the Algorithm IRL" is a monthly series presented by Wave Farm’s WGXC 90.7-FM as part of our Local Waves initiative and the show "Local Waves in Conversation." Part conversation led by Mike Amari of Chosen Family and part DJ set by a WGXC volunteer, the series highlights local artists, musicians, venue owners and bookers, and record label owners.

Light Phone is an experiment in hyper-local communication. Inspired by the ‘Astro Phone’ or ‘Light Telephone’, devices developed in the 1960s that transmit sound via modulated infrared light, documented in Lori Emerson's Radical Technology Sourcebook (2025), the project repurposes disused remote controls into short-range communication devices. Interested in the distinctive grain of infrared transmission, Light Phone will create a network of low-power, DIY, line-of-sight telephones that future Wave Farm residents can use to communicate across the landscape.

During her residency, Hannah will document these transmission experiments on 16mm infrared film, exploring how analogue film might render otherwise invisible wireless signals perceptible - perhaps even allowing a telephone call to be seen as well as heard. The resulting short experimental film will capture the textures of light, transmission and landscape, hand-developed in plant-based chemistry made from foraged Wave Farm vegetation.

Hannah Kemp-Welch is a sound artist with a social practice. Since gaining her amateur radio license in 2019, she has focused on developing inclusive pedagogies and technologies for electromagnetic listening. She constructs DIY antennas to tune into natural radio, documented in the BBC Radio 4 feature All Under One Magnetosphere (2025), produced with Oliver Sanders. She recently co-curated the symposium Electromagnetic Fields: Artistic Research and Radio Waves. Her edited collection Listening Glossary will be published by Silver Press in October 2026. Hannah is an Associate Lecturer for MA Sound Arts at London College of Communication, a PhD student with Creative Research in Sound Arts Practice (CRiSAP), and a member of feminist radio art group Shortwave Collective.