Sonja Hedlund

Ballads and Banjos was one of the first weekly live shows produced in a new community radio station in Jeffersonville, New York: wjffradio.org. That was in 1990. Some years 100 people were responsible for the overall management and broadcasts.

Over the years Sonja Hedlund took over the show in the early 1990s. Gradually her music taste expanded beyond the greats of American folk music to new singer song writers and world music. She played jug bands, blues and dixie land. The aim was to start the day with gentle tunes. Many shows had a central focus: traveling, the dust bowl days, the civil war, world war one, farming, friendship and aging. Being live, the weather report, road conditions and closings of public places were announced.

People called in with comments and suggestions. Some callers were regulars: the man delivering bread, the house bound woman wanting to know the details of the weather.

The covid epidemic changed a great deal at Wjff. Volunteers had to stay away from the station and produce shows at home. For several years, Greg De Nuncio had produced his own late night show, “The Great Insomniac” driving 60 miles to the little station by a dam site. Both produce shows at home.

A new modern high tech studio in Liberty is now the home of Radio Catskill.

With the long history of Ballads and Banjos, you can now listen to old shows. Please enjoy the music. Please share comments, suggestions with Sonja and Greg

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And as Sonja says at the end of every show
Work like you don’t need the money
Love like you’re never been hurt
Dance like no one is watching!