The folks at BluegrassCountry.org are in a festive mood this week, as they celebrate the start of their fifth year of cybercasting bluegrass music, and two weeks of special programing and events in recognition of this milestone.

This Internet bluegrass radio outlet has been a pioneer in this field, and is an offshoot of WAMU, the large public radio affiliate in Washington, DC. Residents of the DC area will recall that WAMU was once a premier source of bluegrass, folk and acoustic music over the air, with several hours of daily programing, plus the long running Bluegrass Overnight show that spun bluegrass in the wee hours of each night. When the station moved to a talk/news format several years ago, bluegrass lovers in the area were dismayed, and many expressed their frustration to the station management.

Enter, BluegrassCountry.org, which was WAMU’s answer to the dilemma, where shows and show hosts who were on the air prior to the switch found a home on the Internet, and which has since grown to include hosts and shows from all over the world. Bluegrass programming is available as an audio stream all day, every day, delivered in a commercial free environment.

As a part of their anniversary celebration, they are running a major fundraiser, hoping to generate $50,000 to secure the continuation of the cybercasts. If you listen to public radio, you are familiar with this sort of annual appeal, and will perhaps be receptive to the idea of helping to support commercial-free radio on the Internet. They have quite a ways to go to reach their goal, and are asking bluegrass lovers worldwide to consider becoming a member and supporting them financially.

Deering Banjos is also involved in this fund raiser, and is offering one of their GoodTimes banjos in a giveaway, and making two of their professional grade instruments available as a membership premium for especially generous donations.

The anniversary celebration will conclude on Friday (7/28) with a series of live interviews during Bluegrasscountry.org’s Thank You Party, where the song requests of donating members will drive their programming.

Interviews on Friday will be with Mark Newton at 10:30 a.m., Little Roy Lewis at 11:00, Russell Johnson at noon, Larry Stephenson at 1:00 p.m., and Chris Stuart at 2:00. All times are EDT.

Links to listen to their audio stream can be found on the Bluegrasscountry.org site, using either Windows Media or streaming MP3.

Thanks to Clyde Scott of BluegrassRadio.org, where bluegrass is also streamed 24/7, for his assistance in preparing this post.