![\"Randi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/RMZ-radio-headshot-1.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRandi M. Zimmerman, WMNF General Manager<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRandi M. Zimmerman, WMNF General Manager<\/p>\n
Science and poetry were the mental fertilizer of my childhood,\u00a0feeding my soul during hard times.\u00a0When I became a public-school science teacher,\u00a0students during the month of April\u00a0could write poems about science instead of turning in homework\u00a0because April is National Poetry Month.\u00a0Every April 22nd, I read\u00a0The Lorax\u00a0aloud on Earth Day \u2013 Dr. Seuss\u2019 blend of poetry and science. At WMNF, Environmental issues are also the focus of our mission calendar, where each month\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0calendar\u00a0connects\u00a0issues, people, and organizations through\u00a0what we do on air. What\u2019s special is that\u00a0April offers\u00a0even more this year,\u00a0because\u00a0this\u00a0month,\u00a0we\u00a0celebrate independent music in Tampa Bay with both Gasparilla Music Festival and Tropical Heatwave.<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay has always been vibrant with talent. More than 30 years ago, when WMNF presented Tropical Heatwave for the first time, the landscape changed dramatically. Tropical Heatwave since its inception has brought in great music that is fun to listen to AND great to watch! Music lovers enjoyed Tropical Heatwave so much, they developed other eclectic music festivals\u00a0like\u00a0Gasparilla Music Festival, one\u00a0of the few still around. But, make no mistake about it: they\u00a0were following WMNF\u2019s lead. Now, independent music lovers have both to attend in one month, April 2026.<\/p>\n
What no one else has been able to duplicate is the Tropical Heatwave vibe. Whenever people attend the event for the first time, the first thing they notice is hundreds of happy people smiling hard\u2026 for hours. I am quite sure that just being at Tropical Heatwave is enough to bring on those happy faces, and\u00a0WMNF staff and volunteers work tirelessly for hours to make sure you will feel it too. Tropical Heatwave 2026 promises to give you more of\u00a0that joy and then some!\u00a0If you need more convincing, check out the lineup here:<\/p>\n
Welcome to April! A month for poetry, science, the environment, and great independent music.<\/p>\n
Randi M. Zimmerman<\/p>\n
General Manager, WMNF 88.5FM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Randi M. Zimmerman, WMNF General Manager Science and poetry were the mental fertilizer of my childhood,\u00a0feeding my soul…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[97920,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-214761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-randi-zimmerman","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}