Virginia Center for Public Press

We are WRIR-LP 97.3FM, the City of Richmond's one and only community radio station. We are nonprofit, non-corporate, on air and online 24 hours a day, every day. We are all volunteer powered and donor funded. Our mission has been, and always will be, to uplift and provide a platform for the underrepresented voices of Richmond and beyond to be heard and preserved. This year we celebrate two decades of service to our community and we SERIOUSLY need your help.

It's time for some radical honesty, folks: It’s getting harder and harder to live out our mission in our current space. Even as we continue to champion and broadcast underrepresented voices in art, culture, local music, advocacy and civil rights, we're just not where we need to be.

For 20 years, we've leased a space above The Camel, a popular bar and venue on W Broad Street. Our station is housed in a converted 100 year old apartment and that space is deteriorating. Rapidly.

Case in point:

… And we're paying a landlord for it all; tossing money into someone else’s pocket instead of using it to support the organization and our community.

This is why we are renovating our new, ADA accessible location in Shockoe Bottom.

We have a beautiful new station under construction right now at 1806 E Main St., but we don't have much time left. Our lease is up in September. The sooner we finish this project, the safer our volunteers and guests will be and the better we can serve the community that supports us.

Here's some more radical honesty: We aren't able to finish construction on our new home and vacate our current space without more resources. We need $1,000,000 to complete this project. Material costs are rising daily. We are hemorrhaging funds by paying rent and utilities on W Broad plus mortgage and contractors at E Main. That's why you're reading this, and why we're here, hat in hand, asking for your help.

When you throw down your hard earned cash in support of WRIR, you know it's going toward a welcoming and inclusive new space that is safe, clean and accessible, with new equipment, new studio spaces -- including a live performance area -- along with more community focused programs, outreach efforts, and workshops. For a full list of what we've got cooking in Shockoe Bottom, click here.

WRIR has always been an underdog. We like it that way, but right now we're more under than we've ever been before. We know that our plucky, indie station has always been living proof that the people of Richmond support their own. That's how we've been able to rely on grassroots fundraising to run our daily operations for the past 20 years.

To make it to 21 years and beyond, we need your support to help get us out of the Richmond Landlord Special and into our forever home at 1806 E Main Street in Shockoe Bottom, where we can continue fulfilling our mission and striving to be the best possible community partner.

Please give what you can and share this far and wide. Let the world know that here in Richmond, Virginia, there is a small indie radio station with a big heart and an even bigger voice dedicated to amplifying the underheard, at home and around the world. WRIR-LP 97.3FM Richmond needs your help NOW!

Learn all about our organization and the project that will change YOUR community radio station's future HERE! Thank you for your support! We are truly grateful.

**If you are a local artist/act who has played at our events, heard your music spun by our volunteer DJs, or are one of the many, many small businesses or nonprofits with which we share space (and funding!), please reach out to us to see how we can uplift one another.**