Arts Alive! podcast: Joe Bourdow, Radio St. Pete

Our guest on today’s Arts Alive! podcast is Joe Bourdow, founder and station manager of Radio St. Pete, which streams local content – music, news, sports and more – 24 hours a day, commercial-free.

Radio St. Pete is online, and also at 96.7 FM.

The former president of Valpak began the station, out of his home, as a retirement gift for himself (he’d been a DJ and a sports announcer at various times in his career).

Radio St. Pete officially signed on the internet July 4, 2013, and eight years later received its on-air license from the Federal Communications Commission.

The FM station’s low-power signal only reaches part of the city, but Bourdow and his all-volunteer team treat it like it’s coast-to-coast, broadcasting exclusively St. Petersburg-made music, conversations and ideas.

The online stations, and there are four of them (click here to see what they’re sending out), draw far more listeners, anyway.

Bourdow discusses his vision of what a community radio station’s responsibility is, where RSP fits into the current climate … and where it’s going in the future.

Click on the arrow to listen to the interview.