Monday Night Polka | Hudson Valley Radio

Hudson Valley Radio | Monday Night Polka

Every Monday I am in our Kingston Real Estate Office. After work a bunch of the staff heads to an exercise class together and then I grab some sushi for my ride home (I live further south in the Hudson Valley). All of this stuff is pretty fun, sushi....work...workout. But the thing that I've come to look forward to the most on Mondays is something I never thought I'd look forward to at all. Polka. 

One of the great things about living in an area like the Hudson Valley and Catskills, where the arts are really important to people, is that even the artiest amongst us are forced into the occassional encounter with an art form we don't know anything about. Maybe we never heard of it, maybe we heard of it and didn't particularly like it, and maybe we had some vague inkling but thought, "Enh, I don't have time for that." So it was with me and Polka. Really my only encounter with Polka growing up was that scene in "The King and I" where Ana teaches the King how to Polka. There's also a chance that I once did a single polka step in the "With a Little Bit O'Luck" number from "My Fair Lady". I have a vague remembrance of that. 

But driving home on a Monday night a few months ago, attempting to get away from the endless repetition of Taylor Swift and Rhianna (who I like, but how many times can you hear one song?), I flashed past a funny beat on the dial and decided to go back. I was on WVKR 91.3, Vassar's indeprendent radio station, and they were playing polka. It was just so peppy! So full of joie de vivre! Within three measures I was bopping my head back and forth to the beat. I was actually bummed when it was over. Was I going to have to hear "Uptown Funk" again for the bazillionth time? Imagine my excitement when I realized that I had not just fallen victim to a polka one-off, it was just one item in the playlist of a radio show entirely devoted to Polka! And it had just started!

THIS is why we live here. Being in a place where people have the time, creativity and resources to share different art forms with people is a gift.

WVKR also has programming devoted to specifically to pipe organ music, reggae, ambient music, soul and hip-hop. Here's their complete programming schedule. The Monday Night Polka Beat - 7 to 9! 

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