Programming Notes

There is plenty of holiday and special programming coming in January!

Sunday, January 1st:

12AM-5AM-Toast of the Nation
An NPR tradition every New Year's Eve since the 1970s, Toast of the Nation is the perfect audio complement for the occasion. It's festive jazz you can party to, all night long. Spirited, improvised, and swinging, each segment stops in a Blue Note venue throughout the country and the world!

The Metropolitan Opera broadcasts return to WAMC starting December 3rd at 1PM! The Met Opera airs every Saturday at 1PM from December 3rd to May 13th, 2017.

Tuesday, November 8th is election night! Join the award-winning WAMC News team & NPR for extended special coverage from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. Wednesday morning. The program will feature speeches, newsmaker interviews, reports from candidate sites, and analysis from WAMC’s reporters and NPR's Political Team. Throughout the night, WAMC will cover the key races of the Northeast. Additionally, the NPR politics team will provide live updates on election returns and analysis of the results.

The month of October brings our annual fall fund drive starting Monday, October 17th at 6 a.m. Help us to make this the shortest fund drive in WAMC history. Your continuing support allows us to keep bringing you the programming you love. Call 1(800)323-9262 or pledge online at WAMC.org. We couldn’t do it without you!

As the last magical notes of this summer’s Tanglewood season resonate in our souls, we will return to our normal programming schedule this month. Don’t fret, we will still get to enjoy the Boston Symphony Orchestra on Sunday evenings 8 p.m. – 10 p.m. to hold us over until next year’s Tanglewood season.

Coming up this month at Tanglewood: Tuesday, August 2nd @ 8 p.m. A WAMC Special Broadcast of Tanglewood on Parade. Boston Symphony Orchestra Boston Pops Orchestra Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra Stefan Asbury, Stéphane Denève, Giancarlo Guerrero, Ken-David Masur, and John Williams, conductors Elizabeth Rowe, flute Jessica Zhou, harp 

Our broadcasts of The Boston Symphony Orchestra live from the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood begin Friday, July 8th at 8 p.m. ♫ We will be airing the concerts live on Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoons at 2 p.m. through August.

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.

Join us Saturday, May 7th at 1p.m. for the final live broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera's 2015/2016 season as they present Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Met Music Director James Levine returns to a work he has long cherished, Mozart’s delightful comic gem of wily captives in a harem. Coloratura soprano sensation Albina Shagimuratova stars in the bravura role of Konstanze. Rising tenor Paul Appleby is her lover, Belmonte, soprano Kathleen Kim is her shrewd maid, Blondchen, and bass Hans- Peter König delivers comic gravitas as the overseer of the harem.

The 2015/2016 Metropolitan Opera season is winding down and April will be the last full month of opera broadcasts. After the final Met opera of the season on May 7th, we will return to our normal programming. Some may be overjoyed by the return of Radio Deluxe to the Saturday 2 p.m.- 4p.m. airtime once the opera season is over but don’t lament opera fans, The Met will return in December!

March first marks the start of the spring solar outage week. A solar or sun transit outage is an electromagnetic phenomenon wherein a station downlink is temporarily unable to receive a satellite signal due to interference from the sun as it passes behind the satellite. This is a fancy way of saying that we will temporarily lose any live audio feed off of satellite for about 6 minutes around 2 p.m. in our region. Due to the outage, we have to make a slight change to our programming schedule. The outages in our region will take place during the NPR newscast that airs within Vox Pop. As a result, we will be skipping the 2:01 p.m-2:04 p.m. NPR Newscast and going right into our local regional newscast during the first week of March. We will return to our normal schedule the following week.

The month of February kicks off with our fund drive beginning February 1st at 6 a.m. Help us to make this the shortest fund drive in WAMC history! Your continuing support allows us to keep bringing you the programming you love. Call 1(800)323-9262 or pledge online at WAMC.org. We couldn’t do it without you!

This New Year’s Eve, WAMC invites you to six parties, from east to west, with musical fireworks for midnight in all four continental time zones on the Toast of the Nation! An NPR tradition every New Year's Eve since the 1970s, the party begins January 31st at 9PM and grooves all night long until 5AM on New Year’s Day. We will hear the energy infused live concert recordings of Wynton Marsalis, Snarky Puppy, Wycliffe Gordon, and more.

A time of endings and beginnings

Alright folks, it’s time to take out your twinkle lights, menorahs, and awful (yet hilarious) holiday sweaters, because do we have a month filled with specials to get you into the holiday spirit.

Stuffed, yet ready for more

Well, WAMC-land, I’ve already been working on my stuffing recipe (carb count be damned!), and I, for one, can’t wait to spend some long overdue time with my family, baking and catching up. Make sure you tune in on Thanksgiving and ‘ThanksFriday’ because we’ll have some great programs to listen to while you’re cooking your tofurky or turduken and heating up those leftovers.

A candid conversation about personal finance.

Well, the mums and foliage are giving us that last shock of color before we enter the winter doldrums and what better way to celebrate the turning of the seasons than getting out of our homes to enjoy it. And boy, do I have an event for you to come to – and the best part is that it’s FREE!

A celebration of Labor Day

I’m sad to say the summer has come to an end - the kids have tucked away their bikes and kick balls and gathered together their school supplies. Of course for us adults, it’s the same old routine. So, to break up the monotony and celebrate the people who have worked hard to make our world amazing, we have some great programming on Labor Day (September 7th, in case you were wondering.)

Music of the Berkshires

Well, WAMC’ers, even though the dog days of August are upon us, it doesn’t mean we can’t have some outdoor fun. We have nine more live Tanglewood broadcasts, and they are not to be missed.

Ahoy WAMC-land!

We’re finally getting the hot summers we’re used to and we have some great programming coming up this month that you can listen to while you’re on the road, gardening or barbequing, or just puttering around the house.

Summer is finally here! The sweet smell of lilacs is wafting through the neighborhoods, the cardinals and grackles are calling for their mates, and we are planning our vacations. Now, here’s the best part -- you can take us with you wherever you go! Technology is a grand thing… we’re no longer bound to having to lose our favorite station once we leave our homes. All you have to do is plug in your smart phones and bam! WAMC is right there with you.

Remembering Our Country’s Heroes

May is not only the month that leads us into summer, but a time to pay tribute to those who have fought valiantly for our country and freedom. Yes, we should remember these people every day, of course, but we make a special effort on Memorial Day. So on May 25th, Memorial Day, we’ll be bringing you stories of people who have served, and, in some cases, made the ultimate sacrifice for us. I hope their stories will stay with you and that you will share them with others.

Lives Lost & Saved

Okay, so maybe the weather didn’t get the memo that spring technically began on March 20th, but that hasn’t stopped April from coming, and hopefully some snow drops and crocus will follow. This month we have a sound-rich array of specials to celebrate Passover and commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Hear Me Roar!

Greetings and salutations, WAMC Land. It’s the time of year that we groan when we see the white stuff falling from the skies, the negative temperatures make us feel like 20° is a day in Hawai’i, and nothing is better than hunkering down in the house with a cup of tea. Well, we have a great month of specials and events to keep you company and warm you up.

A Celebration of America’s History

February is here and so is our winter Fund Drive. Now is the time to let us know which shows you love and which ones you’re not all that fond of. Whether you call in your pledge or make it on line, we do read every comment that you make as well as take note of your favorite programs. Your comments help us see what you’re most interested in so don’t be shy, take those extra seconds to help us better serve you!

Happy New Year!

Sadly, the twinkle lights are coming down and the menorah is being tucked away until next year, but there is a bright side… we’re back in Met Opera season! The winter season has opened the doors to The Metropolitan Opera in New York City, where we’ll be hearing their Saturday matinee broadcast at 1PM.

Twinkle lights aplenty!

So, we’ve made it to the final month of 2014. Are you surviving the crowded parking lots and the tug-o-war for the perfect gift? Or, like me, have you convinced your family that it’s a much better idea for everyone to donate to charity instead of giving and getting yet more stuff? Yes, selfish in the sense I don’t have to leave the house, but selfless because we’re helping other people and animals. Of course, if someone were to find a set of kitten mittens for Mr. Regis, I don’t think I’d turn them down. No matter what, I do love me some twinkle lights and time with the family. And do we have some amazing programming this month to cook to, sit by the fire with, or listen to as you’re traveling or working.

New Recipes for Flagship Shows

Well, folks, the frost has covered our windshields, the jack-o-lanterns are in the compost, and the great testing of recipes for Thanksgiving is underway. (This year I think I’m going to try adding some oyster mushrooms to my stuffing. And is it too decadent or heart attack inducing if I try to wrap the turkey in bacon? Thoughts?) Anyway, while we’ll be in the kitchen creating our dishes, the folks at NPR have done some testing of their own and this month we’ll sample their latest menu, as it were. Let me explain.

Trick or Treat!

It seems as though it’s been a short summer. The semi-warm weather has already transitioned to brisk nights and crisp days and the leaves have begun to turn. It’s a wonderful time to explore new places and WAMC will be with you all throughout the beautiful northeast.

It seems like it’s been a short summer. Labor Day is upon us, this first day of September, and to dedicate the day to the social and economic achievements of American workers, we have a bevy of specials lined up for your listening pleasure.

Deep in the heart of Tanglewood...

When I was about 9 years old my best friend’s family took me to Tanglewood for the first time. I remember Rachel’s mother showing us the echo bench, and how we would divulge our secrets on one end to have it heard on the other, throwing us into fits of giggles and solemn promises to keep them safe. We would then take off running, on the endless sprawling lawns, only to find our way back to the bench again. I remember how thrilled I was that the Pops knew the song that Looney Tunes used in their commercials. (Later I was to deduce, it wasn’t that they were so pop-culture savvy to know what Bugs Bunny knew, but Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik had been around much longer.)