This year at WAMC, like many years before, we start off the New Year on January 1st with a list of special programming. Starting at midnight, it’s Toast of the Nation. An NPR tradition every New Year's Eve since the 1970s, a festive jazz party, all night long. Spirited, improvised, and swinging, each segment stops in a Blue Note venue throughout the country and the world! We’ll hear sets from Buika, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Joshua Redman and Brad Meldau, pianist Fred Hersch, Ron Carter, and Dee Dee Bridgewater.
At 9 a.m. WAMC will broadcast Fire and Water: A Year of Climate Conversations. The special will focus on how the conversations over the past year have changed. From fire and flood to hurricanes and hot temperatures, 2018 put climate on the front page. But progress still seemed to be able to find a way.
Immediately after, a special from the BBC on Childish Gambino’s “This is America.” This is 2018 examines the global impact of the video and those who made their own versions of Gambino’s song/video and why certain issues resonate in their respective countries.
Before we rejoin for Midday Magazine at noon, we’ll hear from Paul Ingles in a special created to honor the musicians that died this past year. From Aretha Franklin and Dolores O’Riordan to Mac Miller and Avicii, Ingles dives into the impact these musicians made through their careers.
At 2 p.m. hear the Capitol Steps in a New Year’s edition of their political satire featuring songs from their latest album, Make America Grin Again. Now is the chance to finally enjoy the headlines you were too scared to read.
The Met Opera continues its Saturday matinee broadcasts during the winter month. We kick off the month with Verdi’s Otello on January 5th, we continue with a new production of Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur on January 12th, then on January 19th Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, and end the month with a Met Premiere of Muhly’s Marnie on January 26th. All broadcasts in January begin at 1 p.m.
