Allegheny Mountain Radio Welcomes Two New Station Coordinators To The Radio Family

Dunmore, WV – Allegheny Mountain Radio is happy to announce that two new but familiar faces can now be found at the stations in Highland and Bath Counties. Erin Will is the new Station Coordinator at the WVLS studio in Monterey, while Carol Hardbarger is taking over as Station Coordinator at WCHG in Warm Springs.

Erin Will, a Highland County native, is a graduate of Highland HS and Bridgewater College. Broadcasting has long been a calling for her.

“Always had an interest in broadcasting” says Will. “When I was a little girl I wanted to be a meteorologist; I wanted to be the weather girl’. And then, when I was in high school I completed an independent study with Winnie Richardson through the radio station WVLS.”

She says a few classes in television broadcasting in college convinced her that wasn’t the right path for her. She says the radio was too strongly ingrained in her heart and mind.

“I can remember when the radio station came to be; I was probably eight years old” she says. “I spent a lot of time at my grandmothers’ house and she would always have the radio station on and I would listen to it a lot. Ever since then I’ve always had an interest in the radio station here, wanted to see it succeed; that kind of thing, I’ve always been drawn to it.”

She spent a year working as a Vista volunteer for the Highland Center before coming to AMR. She’s hoping to get more Highland County residents involved with the station and possibly start a radio club at the school. For now, she’s just enjoying her new job.

“I really love it” she says. “I can honestly say I enjoy getting up in the morning and coming to work every day. The radio station is here for the people of Highland County.”

Carol Hardbarger is the new Station Coordinator for WCHG in Bath County.

“I absolutely love the concept of having volunteers work in the organization and then have an organization totally focused on the community in which it exists” says Hardbarger. “I had grown up in a radio family starting in the early 1950’s, so I’m very much aware of what radio used to be in rural areas in the United States.”

She found out about the job almost by accident.

“I was digging through my newspaper trash one day, pulled out an older copy of the Recorder [newspaper] and for some reason looked at the classified ads which I really don’t do” she says “and saw the ad for the station coordinator at WCHG and low and behold it was the last day to put in a resume. I said well, sink or swim, I’m gonna do it.”

In Allegheny Mountain Radio, Hardbarger found a kindred spirit.

“I’m absolutely thrilled because philosophically I identify very much with the objectives of the organization, the education mission, the community service mission of the organization so I’m just thrilled to be part of it” she says.

Indeed, Hardbarger has a long history of educational and community work, including teaching agriculture classes at both the high school and university level. She also does web design and training materials for Microsoft.

Please stop by either the WVLS studio in Monterey or the WCHG studio in Warm Springs behind the high school and say hello.