Happy New Year!
I hope the end of 2025 was restorative for you. Looks like we’ll need all the reserves we can muster if the first weeks of 2026 are any indication.
I also want to send a big thank you to our 2025 donors. I won’t name them in order to respect their privacy, but Faith, Rick, Dave, and I are lucky to have the support of a growing number of islanders helping keep the station going. None of us make any money off of the station. Instead, your support means that we can play our music while paying artists the royalties they deserve, we can host our archives (both music shows and interviews), and maintain a web presence. Your donations have also meant that I can spend less time trying to keep the lights on, so to speak, and more time with community interviews. In the last couple of months, we’ve featured the Food Pantry, the new principal of PIES, and Chuck Radis, one of the island’s many authors. I expect more great conversations in 2026 thanks to your support.
I will also be revamping our AM transmitter when the ground thaws this spring with better grounding to expand our analog reach for those of you who share my goal of being more #analog in 2026.
3 Songs that Changed My Life
This month, Eric Wallace shares his three songs that changed his life. Eric works in computer science on software, systems, and IT. He lives on Peaks with his family and is also a musician, as you’ll learn below. Thanks, Eric, for your excellent choices and stories.
1. “Fitzcarraldo” by The Frames — The Werner Herzog movie that inspired this song is an odd one, sharing the story of a plucky fellow who seems always down on his luck but keeps on fighting, even when it involves trying to move a steamship over a mountain. Glen Hansard has a lot of great songs that move me, but this is one I turn to time and again when I need a reminder to keep on pushing towards the life I want. (By the way, the best version is a live recording on the album “The Roads Outgrown”.)
2. “Rapture” by Peter Mulvey — Years of introspection, therapy, and self-help books have never done for me what sometimes a single song can do. In this case, “Rapture” teaches me so much about the ways I protect myself and, more importantly, how I can let go and find more freedom.
3. “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by SImon & Garfunkel — This one made my list not because it’s a favorite song (Paul Simon has many that I love much more!), but because of how it featured in a key moment in my life. When I was a pre-teen, a family friend named Bill often took me under his wing and inspired me to try new things, particularly when it came to acting and music. When Bill decided that I should learn how to sing a solo with both skill and emotion, he pulled out the sheet music to “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and we dug in. That moment changed my understanding of myself.
If you want to be featured in our ‘3 Songs that Changed My Life’ feature, email me at chris@peaksislandradio.com
This Month’s Featured Music
January is a quieter month on the station as Dave takes some time off from new shows. We’ll be airing some of the best of Next to Silence in his regular time slots, Mondays and Fridays at 7pm, and Tuesdays at noon.
Rick continues to delight with new Swingin’ the Blues episodes as well as the final month of Music without Borders. Rick will debut a new show in 2026, details to follow.
If you have ideas for a show, please reach out to me at chris@peaksislandradio.com and we’ll work with you to try to turn your idea into reality.
All the best,
Chris
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