New England Public Media announced Tuesday that it had received the largest gift in its history: a $3 million donation to bolster NEPM's ability to play classical music overnight.
The gift came from Walter Wolnik, a native of Indian Orchard who worked as a systems programming consultant in the labs of several Boston-area hospitals before moving to Amherst in 2000. There, he was active in town politics, an avid gardener, a savvy investor and a music lover who, upon his death last September at the age of 76, gave lots of money away to local music organizations.
NEPM President Matt Abramovitz called Wolnik’s gift to the station “transformational” and said that it came as a complete surprise. Wolnik had made smaller donations totaling no more than $12,000 since 1991, he said.
“Here is a member of our community for whom it was so important to hear music in the wee hours of the night that he gave a legacy gift of millions of dollars to make sure that it was always available to other people,” Abramovitz said. “To me that is kind of the best of what public broadcasting brings out.”
The gift announcement comes less than two months after NEPM moved classical music off of its flagship 88.5 FM station to other channels, where it plays all day. The station also streams classical music online and on its Classical NEPM app.
Abramovitz said that Wolnik’s gift is fairly restricted in how the station can use it. He said that Wolnik was very clear: He wanted the money to support classical broadcasting overnight — in other words, after midnight.
Kevin Collins, the founder and director of the Amherst Red Barn Music School, was a close friend of Wolnik’s. He said that the two met as Town Meeting members in Amherst. They bonded over their love for music, often getting together to listen to Wolnik’s extensive library of songs — from Philip Glass to Arvo Pärt and everything in between.
Collins and Wolnik would often listen, during the day, to Australian Public Broadcasting music programming that was playing overnight on that continent. That’s where Wolnik’s passion for late-night classical music emerged, Collins said.
“He always envisioned that New England could produce New England music that people in Australia could listen to at night,” Collins said. “That was his vision for New England Public Media, to feature music from New England, whether it was night music or daytime.”
Eventually, Collins became Wolnik’s caretaker. He said that the two developed a routine together that included singing daily the eponymous song from the 1964 musical "Hello, Dolly!"
“We had music all the time,” Collins said. “It’s funny because everything we did, we did to music. We would sing songs every night.”
NEPM has faced serious financial struggles recently. Earlier this year, the station’s leadership laid off a quarter of all staff after two consecutive fiscal years of operating losses totalling nearly $8.5 million. NEPM was formed in 2019 as a merger of New England Public Radio and Springfield’s WGBY public television.
Although Wolnik’s gift is restricted to overnight classical programming, Abramovitz said that it nevertheless contributes to the organization’s overall sustainability long term. That’s especially true given the station’s recent launch of Classical NEPM, he added.
“Having this infusion of money and this resource that we can draw from to support even a portion of that programming makes us a stronger institution,” Abramovitz said.
Note: This story was independently reported by Dusty and edited by Maureen Turner at the request of the NEPM newsroom. NEPM leadership did not review the story before publication.
