M is for Mondays...And Music: Lisa Garvey, The Mayor of Music

For years, my Sunday morning ritual has been as follows: Make coffee, fix a special breakfast, eat slowly, catch-up on blogs or magazines, BE LEISURELY all accompanied by the lovely Lisa Garvey's brilliant show on WXRV, "Brunch by the River" (BBTR). When "dance party" time rolled around, it was time to get up, get on up (as James Brown would say) - time to clean. Dishes had to be washed, floors had to be swept. BBTR has been the soundtrack of my Sunday mornings for years.

Which is why I was SHOCKED to wake up on Saturday to see a brief "wish Lisa well in her future endeavors" message on WXRV's Facebook page. Though I have never met or spoken to Lisa in my life, I was compelled to reach out to her. I found her on Facebook and wrote the following message:

Hi Lisa,

I woke up to see the news of your departure from The River this morning on my FB news feed. I only joined the online BBTR conversation last Sunday, but like I said, I've been listening for ages. I am not usually a fan girl type that writes to total strangers on the internet - but here I am, about to get all fan girl on you.

You are an amazing DJ. I especially enjoyed BBTR. I'm 29 years old, and when I was growing up I became obsessed with watching classic movies on AMC. Subsequently, I really got into the music of 20's-50's as well. Cab Calloway, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald. No one in my peer group listened to that stuff - NO ONE.

I loved jazz so much that someone took notice, and scooped me up and put me into jazz vocal competitions - where I did really well. That music was a huge and integral part of my high school experience.

My tastes exploded and became really broad in college - but I was so pumped when you would play old school stuff on FM RADIO! I just thought that was awesomer than awesome.

You are completely rad. I hope that leaving was your choice, and I hope that you get another opportunity to do what you do best. Share your love and knowledge and passion for music with people.

-Total Fan Girl, Sarah

To my surprise - she wrote back! And to my even further shock - she had been FIRED.

My reaction?

AWW HELL TO THE NO!

I committed to listening to this past Sunday morning's BBTR out of curiosity to see how WXRV would handle the transition. Not gracefully as it happened. Here is what bothered me:

• There was no DJ, no voice behind the music choices. This was likely intentional to protect the mystery DJ from the proverbial wolves stirring up commotion on WXRV's FB wall, however that demonstrated to me that the powers that be were wise enough to know how upsetting this move was to their audience.


• The mystery DJ also haphazardly played a few of Lisa's regular tunes with no regard to the format and flow of a normal BBTR show.


• Moderators removed huge chunks of conversation from Facebook discussing Lisa's departure. While some of this chatter expressed a negative opinion of WXRV, non of it was over the top or threatening, and the editing of the conversation felt very Big Brother-ish.

So at the suggestion of a fellow BBTR fan. I created a Lisa Garvey Fan Page on Facebook. As of five minutes ago the page had 92 "likes," and Lisa has proposed the idea of doing a live dj-ed brunch show at a restaurant for the fans!

One of the reasons why I choose to listen to independent radio stations is because there is an opportunity for the listeners and the djs to have a relationship, and form a dialogue. BBTR was a very special show - and it will never be replicated without Lisa at the helm. I'm so disappointed with WXRV's decision, but I'm glad that because of social media Lisa and us fans are going to find a way to make the dance party continue to happen.

IMPORTANT: While a communal love of music is awesome, it's not gonna pay the bills. LISA NEEDS A JOB! She has skills in radio, copywriting, PR and promotions or any related field. View her Linkedin profile here.