Have you ever seen the name of a musical act in a calendar of events or on a flier and thought, “I wish I knew what they sound like. Maybe I’d go.” Well we sure have, and that’s why the New River Voice has teamed up with WVRU 89.9 FM in Radford to produce a weekly radio program spotlighting local music.

The half-hour show, called “The Listening Room,” will primarily be a way to feature musical artists from the New River Valley and throughout Southwest Virginia. The show will debut Tuesday, Sept. 2 at 6:30 p.m.

New River Voice Editor Tim W. Jackson will be hosting the half-hour show and said the primary format will be an interview with an artist combined with songs by that artist interspersed throughout the interview.

“We have lots of folks lined up already for the debut season of ‘The Listening Room,’” Jackson said. “Some of the artists who we will be featuring include Emily Brass from Floyd, The Dixie Bee-Liners from Abingdon, Kat Mills from Blacksburg, Kapluckus from Radford, Dot Dot Dash from Giles County, among other places, and many others.”

WVRU Manager Jonathan Benfield said that, “The New River Valley has many fine musicians and musical groups. Our goal is to showcase the richness and cultural diversity of music in the NRV in order to help revitalize the NRV music scene.”

While bluegrass and old-time music have a few local venues for live performances, Jackson and Benfield both expressed a desire for more locales to open up to live music and for more people to support the local music scene at the venues that are already in existence.

“We hope that the addition of ‘The Listening Room’ to WVRU’s programming will help to invigorate the NRV music scene,” Benfield said.

Musicians who want to appear on the show can contact Jackson and send samples of their recorded music to: The Listening Room, c/o New River Voice, P.O. Box 1411, Radford, VA 24143. Jackson said he is looking for more music by local artists to play on the show as well as potential guests on the show.

So local music fans and musicians alike should tune their dials to 89.9, WVRU FM, Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m.

Watch the Web sites of the New River Voice and WVRU for more information regarding archived shows and previews of upcoming shows. And we’ll see you in “The Listening Room.”