Every April, this week rolls around: The week Feedback encourages you to spend your money, thanks to the confluence of a cause and a couple of commercial ventures that, I would argue, are as important to the health of a local music scene as musicians and places for them to practice and play.

I’m talking about your independently owned and operated record stores — in Bend, that’s Ranch Records on Wall Street and Recycle Music at the corner of Bond Street and Arizona Avenue — and Bend’s nonprofit, commercial-free and volunteer-powered community radio station, KPOV, which you can find on your radio dial at 88.9 FM.

(Full disclosure: I have a show on KPOV on which I play music. But I have been writing “support KPOV” columns in this space for a lot longer than I’ve been a DJ there.)

Both the record-store landscape and the radio industry have evolved significantly in recent years, thanks largely to the Internet. Downloading has dented sales of physical records and CDs, while online stations and streaming music services have pulled listeners away from terrestrial radio.

That’s too bad, I say, but there’s not much we can do about it except try to support the locals who are trying to make a go of it in both arenas.

This weekend, you have an easy opportunity to do just that.

But why should you?

Look, I know you probably have places where you can get your records and CDs for cheaper than Ranch or Recycle. Or you may just prefer the cold, lifeless convenience of MP3s.

And I suspect there are places you can hear news, music and views more clearly than through KPOV’s sometimes sketchy signal.

But by supporting these three, you are supporting independent places to purchase and hear music, places that are stocked and programmed by Central Oregonians, not some suit at some far-flung corporate office whose primary concern is to sell advertising.

By shopping at Ranch and Recycle, you’re supporting places that provide our community not only with music you can’t find at a big-box store or online — both stores sell records and CDs by local artists, for example — but also a gathering spot for local music geeks, where people can hear unfamiliar sounds over the speakers and engage a knowledgeable clerk in conversation, or dig through stacks of dusty vinyl in search of a hidden gem, or simply cover art that looks cool.

You are supporting the magic of discovery, and of shared community. And you’re supporting your local music scene.

Same goes for KPOV, where real, live human beings from Central Oregon select and broadcast the majority of sounds and stories each day. On KPOV, you absolutely will hear songs and bands you would never hear on any other radio station in town, including music by your friends and neighbors on locally focused shows like Center Stage.

By supporting KPOV, you’re supporting an vital voice in our community, one largely unaffected by some bean-counter’s bottom line somewhere. And you’re supporting your local music scene.

More importantly, in both cases, you’re supporting local, independent voices of culture that regularly, eagerly bring new and different sounds into our town. Not songs someone has already deemed a hit. Not albums already proven as saleable. Unique stuff. Great stuff. The kind of stuff you want to permeate the town you call home.

So that’s all the feel-good reasoning behind why Ranch and Recycle and KPOV deserve your time and attention. Now let’s talk money.

Saturday is the seventh annual Record Store Day, a national celebration of independent record stores that has grown into a music-nerd’s nirvana. Record labels flood stores all over the country — Ranch and Recycle are the only local participating shops listed on www.recordstoreday.com — with scores of special releases, rare vinyl, interesting reissues and the like. The list is mind-boggling, and folks like me line up outside and then scramble in to try to get what we want.

Stores have smartly turned the day into an event, as both Ranch and Recycle will do Saturday. Ranch will open at 10 a.m. and offer live music plus a half-price bin of vinyl.

Recycle, meanwhile, will open at 8 a.m., with live music starting around 11 a.m. and local surf-punk band Shade 13 wrapping up the day at 5 p.m. Owner Keith Schuman said he will have special Record Store Day titles available, plus other new inventory, including a bunch of “good used stuff” he’s been holding back especially for Saturday.

Meanwhile, over at KPOV, it’s spring membership drive time. I hear lots of people complain when their favorite public radio station holds an on-air drive, but these places depend on listener donations. It’s how they stay alive. You love what the station offers? Endure the drives. Better yet, give.

KPOV’s drive runs through Saturday, and the fundraising goal is $21,000. As of Thursday morning, they were more than halfway there and gearing up for the final push, including a live, on-air performance by local band Los Ratones and duo Dave Ehle and Kim Kelley during the Center Stage show at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Visit www.kpov.org for more info or just to donate. Records, radio and a robust local music scene … opening your wallet never felt so good.

— Reporter: 541-383-0377, bsalmon@bendbulletin.com