Anna Creech

How long have you been involved with WRIR and how did you first hear about the station?


I ran across the station tabling at a festival I was attending not long after moving to Richmond at the end of 2007. I started volunteering, got trained to DJ, and started my first show in 2008. I picked up the music director duties in 2013.


Tell us about the duties of your job and what part of it you love the most and what is most challenging.

 
The main thing I do is organize the new music that gets sent to the station. It used to be mostly CDs, but now it’s mostly MP3s. I’m a librarian by day, so it’s hard for me not to want to spend too much time on making sure that the file tags are correct and that everything is labeled so that it can be found later. I’ve also been reporting weekly charts, but we are in the process of splitting that out to another person. After 10 years, it’s time for me to step back a little and let newer volunteers take on some responsibilities. I love getting exposed to so many new artists every week. It’s kind of amazing how much music is out there! What we get is only a small portion of it, and even that seems like a lot.


What advice can you offer other MDs regarding the ways you encourage your DJs to play the new music the station receives from labels and promoters?


We have a server that holds all of the digital music. Every week when I upload the new content to it, I email out a list of what’s there. I keep a copy of the albums I want to highlight in my personal Dropbox, and share the links with the DJs to encourage them to check those out, since not everyone has remote access to the music server. (Those Dropbox files get deleted after a month.) The other thing I do is copy over any text the labels/promoter send to describe the music, and save that as a text file in the same folder as the MP3s. I don’t know if anyone else uses it, but I certainly find all of that information helpful when planning my own show.


What ways does the station reach out to/interact with the community and work to grow your audience/footprint?

We table at events around the city. Every year, we host a birthday party for the station that features local bands. We have a live recording studio dedicated to highlighting local (and visiting) musicians, and maintain and online archive of those performances. Our primary news and public affairs focus is on bringing forward local voices, and we use our resources to provide recording equipment, time, and expertise to under-represented groups in particular. Recently, we purchased a building with ground floor access and more than twice the space of where we currently are (second floor above a busy restaurant and music venue). We’re looking forward to engaging with the community even more through the increased accessibility and the potential of block parties and partnerships with nearby businesses.

What was your favorite album of the past year or so and why?  Is there a 2023 release on the horizon you are eagerly awaiting?

This is such a hard question for me. I listen to a lot of music, as you might expect, and I enjoy quite a bit of it. Picking just one makes me feel bad for all the others that I couldn’t highlight! I guess the album that has the most songs I keep coming back to this year is MUNA’s self-titled, that came out in June 2022. I haven’t run across one that hit me like that yet this year, but there’s still time left. As for upcoming releases, I’m looking forward to more Lydia Loveless next month.

Do you have a favorite artist or album you never get tired of listening to?

Yes, I’ve been an Indigo Girls fan since 1994, and I never get tired of their Rites of Passage album.

Who is an artist or band totally outside the realm of the music you play on WRIR that people might be surprised to know you love?

For my own show, I mostly focus on new released from female-fronted bands and solo artists. According to my iTunes stats, I’ve played the heck out of Dan Black’s 2010 album, UN.

If you had the power to instantly change one thing going on in the world at the moment, what would it be?

There are so many things that need to change that it’s hard to pick one, and especially one that would have real impact. I think maybe I’d make it so everyone had all the resources they need to live and thrive, rather than a small few hoarding most of it.

What event or person in your life would you say has shaped you the most as a person?

I went to a Mennonite university for my undergraduate, and that’s where my budding love for multi-voice-part singing really bloomed. (Mennonites generally don’t use instrumentation in worship services and sing in four-part harmony.) 25 years later, and I’m still singing in choral groups. I took a lot more from my experiences there than singing, but we don’t have time to go into all that. Suffice to say, those four years have reverberated through the rest of my life.

If you could choose, what time period in the past would you most want to travel back to visit and why?

Nah, I’m good. There’s not much in the past for me.

Do you have a favorite restaurant in town that you recommend people try?

We have so many great restaurants! It’s one of the things I love about living in Richmond. If someone was looking for recommendations, I’d want to narrow down to the kind of food they’re looking for. If they just want a cool place, then I’d suggest Mekong. It’s a Vietnamese restaurant with a food menu as massive as its beer list, which is quite extensive. I haven’t had a bad dish or a bad beer there.

What in your life brings you the most joy?

Making memories with my kindred spirits.

Lightning Round:

Dog or Cat? Cat
Morning Person or Night Owl? Both
City or Country? City
Beach or Mountains? Mountains
Watch TV or Read A Book? Read a book
Sunny or Rainy? Sunny
Restaurant or Home Cooking? Restaurant
Pants or Shorts? Pants
Warm or Cold drinks? Cold drinks

Do you have any current favorite TV shows you’re enjoying/binging?  How about a movie (new or old) that you’ve watched recently that you would recommend?

I mostly watch baseball games if I’m watching anything, but last year I started a project to catch up on all of the Star Trek I’ve missed since the mid-90s. I’m currently in the latter half of season 2 of Deep Space Nine, and it’s getting really good for 90s episodic TV.

Finally, if you could have a lifetime supply of anything, what would it be?

Cheese.