WRSI The River Host: Emily Bourque Finds Her VOICE
By Melissa Karen Sances
Published in Northampton Living July 2025
It’s really scary to put your whole being out into the world,” says Emily Bourque, the weekday afternoon DJ at Northampton’s beloved radio station, WRSI The River. With a lively personality and an easy laugh, she seems like a natural on the air. But Bourque has a secret: After 10 years in radio, she still feels like she’s finding her voice.
Now 35, Bourque was in her mid-20s when she met local legend Monte Belmonte, a WRSI host who now executive produces New England Public Media’s “The Fabulous 413.” (We featured Belmonte and his lovely family in February 2024.) Known for his lightning-fast quips and his endless public service, Belmonte has headlined fundraisers like the annual Monte’s March, now the March for the Food Bank, a food drive centered on his two-day journey pushing a shopping cart from Springfield to Greenfield. Bourque, who worked at the Lady Killigrew Café at the Montague Bookmill – one of Belmonte’s favorite local haunts – was a guitarist and ukulele player who ran her own fundraiser, which brought bands together to raise money for local nonprofits. On many occasions, she bent his ear about being a guest on his radio show to promote “Covers for a Cause.”
He said no every time – but he thought she had potential.
“Emily had never worked in radio, but the best radio hosts are the ones with whom you’d like to sit down and have a cup of coffee,” says Belmonte. “I would literally go and have a cup of coffee with Emily from the other side of the counter at the Lady K, week in and week out. In all honesty, it was wine. But Emily clearly had a desire to communicate via the means of the radio. And that desire made it easy to take a chance.”
After the pandemic sidelined Covers for a Cause, Bourque sent a demo to Belmonte. “I have a record of wanting to be a radio host,” she says, “coming out of nowhere is a cool fact.” Her experience with local music and her background in talking people up in public made an impression. Soon she was on the air on Sundays and, eventually, on Saturdays, too. It was, she says, absolutely horrifying.
“I was shaking like a leaf every time I went on the air,” she recalls. “I got a lot of really good constructive criticism, like moving my mouth away from the mic when I was nervous. It was not graceful.”
For eight years, Bourque honed her craft through seismic shifts at the radio station. Belmonte left, followed by longtime DJ Joan Holliday, who moved to family. That was when Bourque got the 3-7 p.m. slot on weekdays, and the terror returned.
“When I started on Sundays, somebody gave me a backhanded compliment: ‘They put you on the weekend when nobody’s listening,’” she says with a laugh. “It made me feel safe. Now I feel like I have a responsibility to get stories out there.”
In addition to queuing up a mix of songs – she loves Balkan music – Bourque interviews guests for segments four days a week. Tuesday’s segment is “Out on a Limb.” On Wednesday she hosts “Small Business,” which features a different local business. The week ends with “Foraging Friday.” Her favorite segment is “Dog Pause,” which dispels myths with Diggity Dogs Service Dogs on Thursdays.
Bourque is a lifelong dog lover – “I’m pretty sure one of my first words was ‘doggie,’ even though I was told I sounded like a seal,” she says – whose Golden Retriever is a Diggity Dogs alum and a WRSI hopeful. “She runs through the studio and collects treats from all the people that work there, and I’ve started a running joke that musicians want to take a photo with her and not me.”
While Bourque and her protege are settling into their new routine, she notes that her confidence is building, but she doesn’t know if there will ever come a day when she’s free of fear.
“I just want to share people’s stories and put the right people on the air,” she says. “I really do feel like I’m just beginning, so I’m just hoping I can do everybody proud.”
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