WXGR and TVP Records share new studio and events in Portsmouth

It was squirming room only at the Dolphin Striker’s Spring Hill Tavern in Portsmouth on Dec. 3, as WXGR hosted its first Winter Chill. Guitarists Jim Dozet and Seth Wheete, bassist Greg Rothwell and trumpet player Russ Robar flanked DJ Scott Ruffner (a.k.a. Sir Buck), owner of TVP Records. Together they laid down ambient jazzy grooves that flooded the basement bar with warm sonic textures.

But even people who didn’t make it to the Dolphin Striker could tune in and listen to the music at 101.5 FM, WXGR, a non-profit radio station licensed in Dover. During one tune, WXGR DJ Rob Connelly went out to his car to listen on the radio.

He reported back that the music was coursing through the airwaves clear as a bell.

Winter Chill will return to the Striker the first Thursday of each month, and WXGR will continue to broadcast the music live. It’s one of several planned collaborations between WXGR and TVP Records, both of which recently moved into a new studio on Congress Street in Portsmouth, above Market Square News. Connelly and Ruffner began discussing the idea of renting a single space for their separate ventures about six months ago.

There were obvious advantages to working together. At TVP, Ruffner works with local musicians and seeks outlets to spread their music to a broader audience. At XGR, Connelly searches for local talent to play over the radio and perform at events. It seemed a mutually beneficial relationship, so when an affordable space became available in downtown Portsmouth, they pounced.

“It’s so symbiotic it just was stupid not to do it,” Connelly said.

Portsmouth is now home to two low-power FM radio stations, the other being 106.1 FM, WSCA, which has a studio on Islington Street. WXGR features a diverse array of local and international music, often going two or three days without repeating a song. In a city with a dwindling number of performance venues, Connelly and Ruffner hope to help local artists find an audience with collaborative efforts.

Connelly and Michael Wadleigh (director of the 1970 “Woodstock” movie) started WXGR in November 2003, establishing a studio in Eliot, Maine. The following month, a fire burned down the studio and destroyed most of its equipment. It wasn’t until April 2004 that the station went back on the air.

But to Connelly, the real story of WXGR begins in October 2007, when the station established a transmitter in Eliot adjacent to that of 105.3 FM, The Shark. The new transmitter dramatically increased the station’s signal, which can now reach as far as Exeter, Rochester, and Ogunquit, Maine. “In a weird way, the station has only really existed since ’07,” Connelly said.

Until recently, however, WXGR did not have an official headquarters. “We basically can operate the whole station from a laptop from anywhere in the world,” he said.

WXGR’s new home in Portsmouth enables Connelly to tap into the heart of the Seacoast scene. A fortuitous illustration occurred on Nov. 20, when DJ Logic was in town to spin records at a fundraising event at The Music Hall. Mere hours before Logic was scheduled to take the stage, Connelly approached him and brought him to the studio around the corner. Logic hung out chatted for about 45 minutes, and Connelly aired the interview an hour before the event.

That type of unscheduled programming on the airwaves has Connelly excited. Instead of dragging all his equipment around to follow the action, he can bring the action right into the downtown studio. “The immediacy of it is great, so I think it’s a cool next step for the station,” he said.

Ruffner enjoys similar advantages for his record label. The second-story studio includes a spacious wood-floored room with a loft above. Ruffner can bring musicians into the studio to record, and then Connelly can broadcast the results from his setup in the loft. 

“The options are almost limitless with the station being right here and the equipment we have,” Ruffner said. “There’s not much we can’t do.”

TVP Records released its first Seacoast CD, “Flush,” a little over a year ago. It’s a compilation of material by hip-hop artists and instrumentalists from various local bands, including Ruffner’s own group The Head. To increase hype for the album, he organized a CD release concert coupled with a fashion show at Club Ioka in Exeter. Since then, he has hosted at least 10 “funk and fashion” shows around the Seacoast.

“It started as a gimmicky thing for a CD release party, and everybody started calling me up saying, ‘When’s the next one?’” Ruffner said.

TVP’s next funk and fashion show will take place at The Portsmouth Pearl on Saturday, Dec. 12, and Connelly will broadcast the event live on WXGR. It’s another example of the station and the label working together to spread the sound.

The future could bring other collaborations. Ruffner, who hosts a radio show on WXGR every Saturday night from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., plans to produce more compilation CDs featuring local artists. Connelly hopes to expand his radio reach by interviewing more musicians from outside the area (he recently interviewed members of Washington, D.C.-based band Thievery Corporation). As Connelly communicates with radio stations from other parts of the country, he’ll pitch them music by local artists under Ruffner’s label, thus promoting Portsmouth as a vibrant music scene.

“We’re trying to start that pipeline in two different directions, with Portsmouth being the hub,” Connelly said.

The Flush Funk and Fashion Holiday Extravaganza begins at 7 p.m. on Dec. 12 at The Portsmouth Pearl, 45 Pearl St., Portsmouth. Tickets are $15, with a portion of proceeds benefiting the National Congress for Fathers and Children of New Hampshire.