For friends and supporters of community public radio station WDFH FM-90.3, Saturday was a night to remember. The station held an inaugural party to celebrate its new studio  in Yonkers, and included listeners in the festivities with live musical performances.

The Dobbs Ferry/Ossining-based station has been through a lot in its 19 years on the air. Founder Marc Sophos said that it was the largest gathering of people in the station's history, adding that the celebration of the station's new studio was an unbelievable moment for him. Other staffers agreed.

“I really feel that we are right now on that magical inflection point between potential and reality," said Vinny Cohan, a program host at the station. "Now for the first time in the history of the station we have a tower and a space. It is not over, though. We want as many financial supporters as we can get."

An anonymous donor provided the money for the station to operate out of the Yonkers location for three years. The station's new tower allows it to reach approximately 400,000 potential listeners, 40 times more than it could reach previously, said the WDFH website.

But the station can't rest on its good fortune; the yearly operating budget for the station is $200,000, said Sophos, so the non-profit station still needs donations from the public to stay on the air in the future.

Guests entering the new studio found themselves in a partitioned, 1,000-plus square-foot room with soundboards, food and drink, and a small television that showed WDFH's tower installation. Dozens of chairs surrounded the main on-air studio, where people happily mingled before the station's live broadcast.

Program host John Dyer of Piermont said that the improvements to the signal as well as a new space is “to us, what heaven may be to some people.”

Dyer said that just as the station's signal boost was approved by the FCC, "Mercy College said that 'you can't use the space anymore.' So Marc had to dismantle the studios, which was soundproof, state-of-the-art studios—beautiful little studios and we had to take it down."

"We had nowhere to go. We had to take all the stuff and put it in storage,” Dyer said.

Dania Abu-Shaheen of folk rock group Starnes & Shah has been a supporter of WDFH since 2003, when she submitted an album to be added to the station's rotation list. Since then, she's taken part in several live studio performances and interviews.

“Marc and the whole team here is amazing. We need more community outlets,” she said.

Starnes & Shah and Jann Klose of the Bronx brought their singer/songwriter/folk rock mix to the WDFH studio-turned-stage.

"This is a real station, with real coverage, with people who play what they want to play versus playing what they're told to," Klose said. “This is by far one of the best spaces. It feels like a real radio station. There are records and CDs everywhere. You have turntables and old, analog equipment. I imagine this is how real FM stations used to feel.”

Adding a live audience to the mix was a rare sight to see. With many stations across the county syndicating shows from the largest of corporate-owned stations, there are fewer and fewer stations that would welcome a live studio audience—much less over 100 excited fans.

Members of the studio audience, like Dunstanette Maceuley of the Bronx, said she came to support the WDFH and its mission.

“I came because I want to participate in programs for people of all classes, especially immigrant communities for which no voice can be heard. There is a need for this is in the community,” she said.

Chrissy Carlino of Wayne, N.J., said she enjoys the station's individuality. “It's not this big corporation run by a bunch of people in suits," she said. "You can see the people and what they do, their passion and their love. It's more organic.”

Click here to read more about WDFH FM-90.3.