On Saturday, September 26, we are unplugging the station and carrying it down the street.

From 5 to 7 PM, WCOM is broadcasting live from the inaugural Music Market at The ArtsCenter, an official kickoff to the 29th Annual Carrboro Music Festival. Two of our DJs will be set up on the floor with the remote rig, talking to musicians who are playing the festival the very next day. Tune to 103.5 FM that evening and you will hear it as it happens, room noise and all.

What a live remote actually sounds like

In the studio, everything is under control. You have a chair, a script if you want one, and a door that closes. A live remote has none of that. The room is the show. You get the clink of the happy hour, somebody’s kid running past the mic, the vendor at the next table laughing at something you cannot hear.

That is not a bug. That is the entire point. Community radio sounds best when you can actually hear the community in it.

Two DJs are taking hour long shifts. The conversations run 10 to 15 minutes each, casual, no script. And the musical range is wide. Chris Amsbary, who built this event, told our hosts to expect everything from ska to roots rock to Afrobeat to heavy metal, and then back again, and to be ready to talk about all of it. At a happy hour. On air. That is a real ask, and it is also more or less the job description here.

Who is playing

The Music Market runs from 4 to 7 PM at The ArtsCenter, 400 Roberson Street, presented by WCOM, The ArtsCenter, and the Carrboro Music Festival. The lineup: The Rattletraps, Pippa Hoover, Lemon Sparks, Burns and the Torchlights, The Unsustainables, Vattel Cherry, Red October, Nick Langston, Lady Jane Gray, and Muirin.

The market half of the Music Market

Look at who is setting up tables and you get a pretty good picture of what actually keeps a music town running. Nightsound Studios and Alala Productions. Main Street Music of Carrboro. Ramblin’ Rhodes Tye Dye. Read Band Books. The Carrborean. The Town of Carrboro. Finca Burger, because nobody has ever been worse off for a burger. And us.

There will be signed festival merch, which is the sort of thing you only get at a kickoff and then spend the next year wishing you had picked up.

And then Sunday happens

The 29th Annual Carrboro Music Festival takes over downtown on Sunday, September 27, starting at 1 PM. More than 100 acts across venues all over town, presented by the Town of Carrboro, and completely free. Do not miss the hip hop showcase at the Cat’s Cradle Back Room at 2 PM.

The Music Market is one of a few Saturday warmups. There is an open mic at Carrboro Town Commons from 2 to 4 PM, and Cat’s Cradle hosts the official Kickoff Show that night. Full lineup, stages, and schedule are at carrboromusicfestival.com, and there is a festival app if you would rather plan your day on your phone.

Come find our table

If you are at the Music Market, stop by and say hello. We will have people there all afternoon who can tell you how to get involved, because WCOM runs entirely on volunteers and we are recruiting for our Programming, Operations, and Communications committees right now. You do not have to be a DJ. You do not need experience. You mostly need to like Carrboro.

There will also be a tip jar, and we are not going to pretend to be shy about it. WCOM is low power and listener funded, and every dollar given through our donation page reaches the station, because Zeffy takes no cut. Not a small percentage. None.

Since this weekend is billed as a homecoming. WCOM first went on the air on September 29, 2004, at 11:27 at night, out of a 100 watt transmitter on top of an elementary school. We turn 22 two days after the festival. Twenty-two years of volunteers hauling gear around this town, and here we are hauling it down Roberson Street again.

We hope you hear us on Saturday. 103.5 FM, or streaming at wcomfm.org.