The month kicks off with our fund drive, beginning June 6th at 6 a.m. You can help us make this the shortest fund drive in WAMC history. Your continuing support allows us to keep bringing you the programming you love. Call 800.323.9262 or pledge online at WAMC.org. We couldn’t do it without you.
In addition to our award winning Roundtable show, local news programming and National Production Shows, we have an outstanding line up of musical programming throughout the week. Let’s get in the mood for the Spring/ Summer music festival season by highlighting the great music programs we carry on WAMC.
Mountain Stage features performances from seasoned legends and emerging stars in genres ranging from folk, blues, and country to indie rock, synth pop, world music, alternative, and beyond. Mountain Stage airs Monday nights at 8 p.m.
American Routes is a weekly two-hour program produced in New Orleans, presenting a broad range of American music — blues and jazz, gospel and soul, old-time country and rockabilly, Cajun and zydeco, Tejano and Latin, roots rock and pop, avant-garde and classical. The show explores the shared musical and cultural threads in these American styles and genres of music and how they are distinguished. American Routes airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. On Wednesday nights at 8 p.m., we feature musical acts recorded live in front of a studio audience at our very own performing arts venue, The Linda. Hosts Graeme McKenna and Carl Blackwood have some great shows to share with you this month starting out with Michael Eck and Peter on June 1st. On June 8th with a 9 p.m. start due to our fund drive we have Antje Duvekot and Chuck Canon. June 15th brings us Charlie Mars and Olivia Quillio, Bobby Long, and Brian Dunne are our guests on June 22nd. We end the month with The Songwriting with Soldiers project on June 29th.
On Jazz After Hours, new releases are featured each week, along with classic recordings from jazz’s greats. Host Jeff Hanley covers the jazz scene across America and connects the music and the musicians on the show to the club gigs, festivals, and concerts that keep jazz alive. Jazz After Hours airs overnights on Saturdays from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. and Sundays between midnight and 5 a.m.
Radio Deluxe features two hours of great jazz and smart, sassy repartee from husband and wife duo John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey. Occasionally, a special guest drops by the deluxe living room to join in on the fun. Radio Deluxe airs Saturdays at 2 p.m.
Long time public radio staple, A Prairie Home Companion, is a two-hour weekly variety show broadcast live from the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota and other locations in the U.S. and around the world. A Prairie Home Companion airs Saturdays at 6 p.m. and repeats Sundays at 2 p.m.
Saturday nights between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. we feature the very best in folk music with WAMC’s Hudson River Sampler. Our beloved Wanda Fischer began as the program’s host on September 18, 1982 and the program continues to be a listener favorite today.
Saturdays at 10 p.m., WAMC Bluegrass Time with Nick Barr brings listeners the best in bluegrass music, from the current chart-toppers to the cherished classics. Nick started at WAMC in January 2001.
WAMC’s Tim Coakley has hosted the Tim Coakley Jazz Show since 1987. Over the years, he has presented a broad range of jazz styles with an emphasis on swing and melody. Many of the programs have a theme, such as performers on a specific instrument, a birthday salute to a famous player or songs associated with changing seasons. Join us for the Tim Coakley Jazz Show Saturday nights at 11 p.m. Afropop Worldwide is a weekly, hourlong program dedicated to presenting the music cultures of Africa and the African diaspora. Hosted by veteran Cameroonean broadcaster Georges Collinet, the show blends great music, interviews with artists and experts, rich sound gathered in the field, and extensive research by our team of producers and consulting scholars. Afropop airs Sundays at 4 p.m..
From this Celtic heartland, The Thistle & Shamrock connects musical communities on both sides of the Atlantic through an engaging and entertaining current. The most listened to Celtic music program in the world is also the perfect vehicle for award-winning host Fiona Ritchie to explore her musical passions. These are both contemporary and rooted, concentrating on evolving traditions in Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, England, Wales, North America, and beyond. The Thistle & Shamrock airs Sundays at 7 p.m.. Sunday nights at 8 p.m. we feature concerts by the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops, direct from the fabled acoustics of Boston's Symphony Hall. Due to the Tanglewood Summer Season in July and August, the Boston Symphony Orchestra pauses production of their Sunday night shows in order to focus on their live concert broadcasts from the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood. During the hiatus, we will fill the Sunday night 8 p.m. slot with our Live at the Linda series. The BSO Classical New England show returns when the orchestra arrives home from their summer season.
Grateful Dead Hour host David Gans takes us on the "Long Strange Trip" of the music of the Grateful Dead every Sunday at 10 p.m.. Slow down from the busy weekend hustle with Music from the Hearts of Space on Sunday nights at 11 p.m.. The uninterrupted format weaves together quiet contemporary electronics, classical adagios, soft jazz,
space-creating sounds from many world music traditions, and the very best of the new age genre. Producer Stephen Hill billboards it as "slow music for fast times."
Coming up, WAMC will continue the summer tradition of carrying the Friday and Saturday night 8 p.m. broadcasts as well as the Sunday 2 p.m. Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts live from the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood in July and August. Our July Program guide will feature the season broadcast schedule.
The Metropolitan Opera Saturday 1 p.m. broadcasts will return when their 2016/2017 season begins in December.