Radio Show Hires New Producer; Announces Gifts and Grants

The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour, the Oxford-based music and literature program, has announced a new executive producer-director for the show, as well as a major gift and two grants.

Alice Pierotti of Como, Mississippi, has been named the new executive producer-director. Her duties include running the live broadcast and booking the musical guests, grant writing, fundraising, overseeing the show’s interns and booking out-of-town shows.

“I’ve been a fan of the show for years,” Pierotti said. “I’m delighted to have the opportunity to work on something that is so well-established but also poised to expand and improve. I’m thrilled and look forward to meeting the extended Thacker family, fans, donors and supporters.”

Alice Pierotti. Photo provided.

Over the summer the show secured $1,000 grant from the Lafayette-Oxford Foundation for Tomorrow (LOFT). The money will be used to purchase live streaming equipment that will enable the show to live stream the broadcast in high definition video and audio.

The Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC) also awarded the show $15,400 for operating expenses. The Thacker MAC grant is a portion of the nearly $1.4 million in grants the Commission will award in 2019-2020.

Finally, the program received a private $20,000 contribution from Dr. Ralph and Douglas Vance, a Jackson couple who retired to Oxford in 2012. Mary Margaret Andrews, of the Friends of Thacker Mountain Radio, Inc., said it is the largest private donation the show has ever received.

“We are honored and humbled to receive this magnificent gift from the Vances,” Andrews said. “This money will help us improve our show on many levels, including better pay for our crew and attracting top talent as guests.”

The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour, now in its twenty-second year, is broadcast live every Thursday in spring and fall on WUMS (92.1 FM) from Off Square Books on the square in Oxford. The show also performs some half a dozen shows per year at The Lyric Oxford. Admission is free to all Oxford shows.

The program can be heard year-round every Saturday at 7 pm on Mississippi Public Broadcasting (90.3 FM in Oxford) and online at MPR. The show is also broadcast on Alabama Public Radio every Saturday at 9 pm at APR.

More information on show schedules and guests is available at the show’s website: Thacker Mountain Radio.

Courtesy of Thacker Mountain Radio Show