WTJU General Manager Nathan Moore has long been telling colleagues that merely spinning records is not enough for a radio station in today’s world. “The whole medium is changing,” he said, “We are competing with Spotify and Pandora in people’s cars. What makes them want to tune to us instead of their favorite custom stations?” The answer, Moore said, is that stations like WTJU can connect people to their local music scene by featuring a variety of artists they can engage with in their own community. With that in mind, Moore and his team applied for a $25,000 matching grant from Levitt Pavilion, a national nonprofit organization seeking to reinvigorate America’s public spaces. Held at the IX Art Park, last fall’s inaugural slate of ten concerts, was a smash success, highlighted by local standouts like UVA’s Erin and the Wildfire, trumpet great John D’earth and the brass-band-meets-circus-acrobats musical madness Portland’s March Fourth! The series, which drew an average of 1,400 music lovers each week, will return in 2016 thanks to another matching grant from the Levitt organization. The second series will bring a brand new lineup of national, regional and of course, local acts to the Charlottesville stage. “The University and this whole community really has been such a great incubator for excellent music for decades now,” Moore said, “Events like this go a long way toward helping us to play that important role.”