A brief overview . . .

WDFH-FM 90.3 in Ossining, Westchester County, New York, is the only public radio station in New York's lower Hudson River Valley.  We are entirely nonprofit and noncommercial.  WDFH's music programming includes a freeform mix of progressive and alternative rock, jazz, blues, and folk.  WDFH is also seriously committed to news and public affairs and to social justice issues.

Our programming reaches a very broad audience, ranging from high school students to those who grew up listening to the underground stations of the late 1960s and remember when radio was an art form, not the overcommercialized, computer- and consultant-driven media profit center it is today.

WDFH's music programming includes progressive and alternative rock, jazz, folk, and blues in a freeform mix.  We play everything from the newest music, much of it from small, independent labels, all the way back to the earliest rock and roll and blues.  We give no preference on the air to hit singles, favoring album cuts instead.  Thus, you'll often hear songs you "never hear on the radio."  Compared with typical commercial stations, which may have 1,000 or 2,000 songs in rotation, WDFH has about 120,000.  WDFH's music is programmed not by a computer program that mixes and matches hits in an effort to maximize ratings, but rather by the program hosts themselves.  This gives us the flexibility, all but lost in radio today, to play sets of songs that have common lyrical themes, that explore different aspects of a musician's talent, or that have other kinds of artistic connections.  Because WDFH's on-air staff is comprised almost completely of a large number of volunteers, a wide range of perspectives and interests is represented on the air, leading to often fascinating unpredictability and variety.

Our news and public affairs programming is integrated into the music  in a way that is intended to reach as many music listeners as possible.  Our goal is to provide our listeners with in-depth news, public affairs, and analysis, focusing particularly on local issues.  We are working to establish relationships with local experts in a variety of fields.  These experts will participate in on-air discussions in an attempt to make complex issues understandable and accessible for our listeners.  WDFH also broadcasts news and public affairs programs such as In Focus, Democracy Now!, Free Speech Radio News, Alternative Radio, CounterSpin, This Way Out, Making Contact, Sprouts, and local political debates (click for program listings and schedule).