View from the Hill: Lost River Sessions continues to grow

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) - Lost River Sessions, is currently in production of its fifth season and continues to expand in popularity.

Lost River Sessions is in 36 states, and 163 million people watch it weekly.

It has 10 live shows a year featuring Americana, Folk, and Bluegrass genres.

“Definitely we get emails almost every day of artists who say hey, I want to perform on Lost River Sessions,” said Amy Combs, Director of Development for WKU Public Media.

Launched by WKU PBS and WKU Public Radio, Lost River Sessions continues to strike a chord with audiences in person, on the radio, and on television.

“Somebody that performs on Lost River Sessions will be on the radio and that radio will touch almost the entire state of Kentucky and Northern Tennessee and Southern Indiana, so that’s a definite. The TV part is almost like a separate negotiation,” said Combs.

Students are a big part of the show’s success, giving them hands-on experience in all aspects of the production.

“There are always students that are helping with the tv portion, you’ll have one or two full-time staff that are directing those shoots but everyone else, which can be up to seven to 10 students are doing everything,” said Combs.

She says this is the first year a student has been hired to help with the social media component of Lost River Sessions.

“I’m learning probably something new every day. With just event planning and doing actual social media marketing to reach an audience and not just my friends, yes I’ve learned quite a lot,” said Sophomore Laila Randolph.

She says her job is to engage younger audiences.

“There’s already a really good foundation of Lost River Sessions supporters so I think my job is to just get it out there to people that don’t know which is the students and younger people, young people on campus,” said Randolph.

All but two of the 10 shows a year take place here at Bowling Green’s Capitol Arts Center, with the other two scheduled somewhere in the WKU Public radio listening area.

The Emmy award-winning program is also getting more sponsorships from businesses outside of Bowling Green.

“I think the word is getting out a bit and people want to be associated with Lost River Sessions and people see the value in connecting with what we have going on here,” said Combs.

Lost River Sessions has a show on March 17 at 7 p.m. at the Capitol featuring Flat River Band with the Jenkins Twins.

For more information on Lost River Sessions, you can log onto www.lostriversessions.org.

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