PROGRAM GUIDE
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Program Guide - Saturday
Whether revealing events in small-town America or overseas, or profiling notable personalities, Weekend Edition from NPR News appreciates the extraordinary details that make up every story. This two-hour morning newsmagazine covers hard news, a wide variety of newsmakers, and cultural stories with care, accuracy, and a wink of humor, courtesy of hosts Scott Simon and Liane Hansen.
On Saturdays, Simon’s award-winning commentaries sum up an idea or event related to the week’s news. Clever, information-packed exchanges with NPR senior news analyst Daniel Schorr, sports columnist Ron Rapoport, gardening guru Ketzel Levine, entertainment critic Elvis Mitchell, and other commentators contribute to the unique feel and personality of the show.
On Sundays, Weekend Edition combines the news with colorful arts and human-interest features, appealing to the curious and eclectic. With a nod to traditional Sunday habits, the program offers a fix for diehard crossword addicts-word games and brainteasers with The Puzzlemaster, a.k.a. Will Shortz, puzzle editor of The New York Times. With Hansen on the sidelines, a caller plays the latest word game on the air while listeners compete silently at home. The NPR mailbag is proof that the competition to go head-to-head with Shortz is rather … vigorous.
Another trademark of Sunday’s program is Voices in the News, a montage of sound bites from the past week, poignant in its simplicity. Hansen also engages listeners in her discussions with regular contributors, including Daniel Schorr and special correspondent Juan Williams, who cover a wide range of national and international issues.
From Wikipedia, the Online Dictionary:
Weekend Edition is the name given to a set of American radio news magazines produced and distributed by National Public Radio (NPR). It is the weekend counterpart to Morning Edition. It consists of Weekend Edition Saturday (WESat for short) and Weekend Edition Sunday (WESun), each of which airs for two hours. As of 2007, those programs are hosted by Scott Simon and Liane Hansen, respectively.
The programs feature longer stories than most NPR newsmagazines and more arts and culture stories. On Saturdays the program has a discussion of the week’s events with commentator Daniel Schorr. On Sundays the show broadcasts “Voices in the News”, an audio montage of sound clips from the week’s events, and has the “Puzzle” game with New York Times crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz.
Weekday sibling Morning Edition breaks up each hour into five segments, none more than nine minutes long; Weekend Edition uses only three segments per hour, allowing longer stories than could be allowed on Morning Edition.
Weekend Edition begins with a sixty-second billboard. WESat’s Scott Simon uses the billboard to talk about an interesting event on that date in history; WESun’s Liane Hansen uses the billboard as a general discussion about what’s coming up in the hour. A standard five-minute NPR newscast follows, until six past the hour. A thirty-second music bed follows the newscast, allowing local stations an opportunity to promote programming or local news/weather/traffic.
Segment A begins at 6:30 past the hour (duration 11:29). It’s here that the most important news of the day is placed. Regular features such as Daniel Schorr’s weekly news wrap-up and WESun’s “Voices in the News” appear in this segment. At eighteen minutes past the hour, a two-minute station break starts. The first minute is a music bed solely for use of the member stations. The second minute, from nineteen to twenty past, is a “headlines” segment in which the NPR newscaster on staff that morning recaps the major stories of the hour. Some stations decide to use the entire two minutes for local purposes, taking the opportunity to deliver their own headlines, underwriting or events calendars.
At twenty past the hour, Segment B begins, running 14:19 in length. NPR offers local stations a cutaway from the national feed at 34:20 past the hour. The cutaway is identified by the host when he or she says, “This is Weekend Edition, from NPR News,” or some variation thereon. For stations that opt to stay with the national feed, a short interview or commentary piece is delivered, running 2:59 in length. Another two-minute station break, following the same music bed/headlines format as the first, ensues.
Segment C, the longest segment of the hour, starts at 40:00 after the hour and runs for seventeen minutes, forty-nine seconds. WESat usually slots musical performances, arts stories or interviews in Segment C. WESun uses the time for its weekly puzzle segment with Will Shortz, as well as interviews and light features. At the end of the segment, Simon or Hansen will read the credits and sign off for the hour. Segment C is followed by a forty-second funding credit announcement, and then ninety seconds of music.
Car Talk is a hilarious, fast-paced call-in program in which hosts Tom and Ray Magliozzi take the fear out of car repair and find the fun in engine failure. Every week, these uninhibited Boston brothers dispense automotive first aid and roadside philosophy to more than 4.1 million listeners on 588 public radio stations—and the audience is still growing!
Winner of the Peabody, broadcasting's most prestigious award, Car Talk has been lauded by the media since its national premiere in 1987. Segments about Car Talk have appeared on 60 Minutes, 20/20, The Tonight Show, Late Night with David Letterman, The Today Show, and Martha Stewart Living, along with print features in the New York Time, Newsweek, Time, Smithsonian, USA Today, People, and Rolling Stone.
Car Talk is distributed by NPR via satellite and airs in every major market in the country. Car Talk also produces “Click and Clack Talk Cars,” a nationally syndicated, twice-weekly newspaper column, distributed by King Features Syndicate and carried by 335 papers.
Car Talk’s website, the Car Talk section of cars.com, receives more than 400,000 unique visitors each week and has been hailed by Hotwired, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, PC Week, Wired, USA Today, and Yahoo!
Tom and Ray's most recent books are In Our Humble Opinion and A Haircut in Horsetown and Other Great Car Talk Puzzlers, both published by Penguin Putnam. Their most recent audio collections are Born Not to Run: More Disrespectful Car Songs, The Hatchback of Notre Dame: More Car Talk Classics, and Car Talk Car Tunes: The Car Talk Compendium of Disrespectful Car Songs, Volume 1.
From Wikipedia:
As a call-in radio show, listeners call with questions related to motor vehicles maintenance and repair. Most of the the advice sought is diagnostic with callers describing symptoms and demonstrating sounds of an ailing vehicle, while the Magliozzis make an attempt at identifying the malfunction. While the hosts pepper their call-in sessions with jokes directed at both the caller and at themselves, the depth and breath of ther knowledge of automobiles is extensive and they are usually able to arrive at a diagnosis and give helpful advice. Also, if a caller does not have a common name, they will inquire about the spelling, pronunciation, and/or origin of their name.
Throught the program, listeners are encouraged to dial the toll-free number, 1-888-CAR-TALK (1-888-227-8255), giving the impression that real-time calls are being taken. The 800 number actually connects to a 24-hour answering service which is screened by Car Talk staff. The service receives approximately 2,000 queries weekly from across North America for various motor vehicle types and problems. However, the questions are unknown to the Magliozzis in advance as, "That would entail researching the right answer, which is what? ...Work." The producers select and contact the callers a few days ahead of the show's Wednesday taping to arrange the segment. The caller speaks briefly to a producer before being connected “live” with the hosts, and given little coaching other than being told to prepared to talk and to "have fun." The segments are edited, mostly for time, before broadcast.
Car Talk was first broadcast on WBUR in Boston, Massachusetts in 1977. It was picked up nationally by NPR ten years later. For most of its national run, Car Talk has been the highest-rated and most financially successful program on public radio in the US. NPR reports that it is heard on more than 370 stations by an audience of more than two million weekly listeners.
The Car Talk theme song is "Dawggy Mountain Breakdown" by David Grisman.
Car Talk hosts, brothers Ray and Tom Magliozzi are long-time car mechanics. Ray Magliozzi has a degree in general science from MIT, while Tom has an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from MIT, an MBA, and a DBA from the Boston University Graduate School of Management.
The duo, usually led by Ray, are known for rants on the evils of the internal combustion engine, people who talk on cell phones while driving, Peugeots, women named Donna (who always seem to drive Camaros), the use (or misuse) of the English language, and just about anything else, including themselves. They have a laid-back humorous approach to cars, car repair, cup holders, pets, lawyers, car repair mechanics, SUVs, and most everything else. They often cast a critical insider's eye (jaundiced, mostly) toward the auto industry. Tom and Ray are committed to the values of defensive driving and environmentalism. In the late 1990s they pioneered an effort to rid the world of French pronunciations of words, intentionally pronouncing many words phonetically such as "Chev-ro-let" for Chevrolet.
The Magliozzis operate the Good News Garage in Cambridge, Massachusetts just a few blocks north of the MIT campus. Their offices are located nearby at the corner of JFK St. and Brattle St. in Harvard Square, marked as "Dewey, Cheetham and Howe", the imaginary law firm they reference on-air.
The two were commencement speakers at MIT in 1999.
In 2006, the Magliozzis voiced Rusty and Dusty Rust-Eze (previous names were Clink and Clunk), a 1963 Dodge Dart V1.0 and a 1963 Dodge A100 van respectively, in the film Cars. Tommy notoriously once owned a green Dodge Dart, known as the "Dartre".
A recurring feature is "Stump the Chumps", in which the revisit a caller from a previous show to determine the effect, if any, of their advice. A similar feature began in May 2001, "Where Are They Now, Tommy?" Like "Stump the Chumps", a previous caller was revisited with the difference being, as described by Tom Magliozzi, "an excuse to talk to some of the previous wack jobs we've had on the show."[citation needed] The feature was short-lived, lasting only a few months.
Celebrities have been callers as well. Examples include Geena Davis, Morley Safer, Ashley Judd, Gordon Elliott, and astronaut John Grunsfeld from the Space Shuttle. There have been numerous appearances from NPR personalities, including Bob Edwards, Susan Stamberg, Scott Simon, Ray Suarez, Will Shortz, Sylvia Poggioli, and commentator/author Daniel Pinkwater. On one occasion, the show featured Martha Stewart as an in-studio guest, whom the Magliozzis twice during the segment referred to as "Margaret".
During the show, the Magliozzis would take a break at approximately the half-hour mark of the show. More recently, two breaks divide the show into approximately 20-minute segments referred to as the "three halves" of the show.
The show opens with a comedic monologue, followed by eight call-in sessions. During the winter shows, they run a contest called the "Puzzler", in which a general knowledge word puzzle is presented. The answer to the previous week's "Puzzler" is given during the second half of the show, and a new puzzler is given during the third half. The hosts give instructions to listeners to write answers addressed to "Puzzler Tower" on some non-existent or expensive object, such as a 26-dollar bill or an advanced SLR digital camera. This gag initially started as having the answers "on the back of a twenty dollar bill." In reality, they have received answers on objects as unlikely as a dead fish.
The humor of Car Talk also extends into the end credits. The show is produced under the Magliozzi corporate banner, Dewey, Cheetham, and Howe, a common lawyer joke. After listing (and lampooning) the actual staff of Car Talk (including their producer, Doug "The Subway Fugitive", "Not a Slave to Fashion", "Bongo Boy", "Frogman" Berman), the brothers list a long series of unusual names. "Paul Murky of Murky Research", assisted by statistician "Marge Innovera" and their Russian chauffeur Picov Andropov are only a few of a long series of perennial "staffers" in the Car Talk credits.
At the end of almost every show, Ray warns the audience not to drive like his brother, who in turn warns them not to drive like his brother. There have been variations—such as "Don't drive like my sister"..."and don't drive like my sister." Click and Clack used this signature phrase in a cameo for the Pixar film Cars, in which Tom and Ray voiced anthropomorphized vehicles with personalities similar to their own on-air personae.
Cash, dough, loot, moolah, bread, bank, bucks. Whatever you call it, money is important to us. Very important. For better or for worse, it's a factor in every major decision we make—marriage/divorce; renting/buying; birth/adoption; sickness/health; education/work; vacation/retirement.
What else is personal finance but a fancy term for your money? How you make it. Make more of it. How and where you spend it. Whether you save it. Why you love it. Hate it. Argue about it with your spouse or kids or parents. Control it. Give it away. Or understand it. Really understand it.
That's where the new Marketplace Money from Marketplace Productions comes in. We'll add Marketplace's style, accessible delivery and talented reporters and editors. We'll bring Marketplace's expertise in business and economics coverage home to listeners on the weekend by looking at the way the week's major national and international stories will hit your wallet. We'll maintain Marketplace Money's legacy of smart topics, expert advice, and current information. The new Marketplace Money will still help you figure out how to pay for your kid's college; explain what the mutual fund scandals mean to you; and help you decide whether to buy or lease a car. But we'll also try to plumb more elusive subjects—the myriad ways money affects us, not just financially but emotionally.
We won't nag. We won't make you feel guilty. We will offer essential, current, and credible information in a way that's compelling, conversational and accessible. And we'll have fun. It's money, after all, that lets us snorkel in the Cayman Islands, drink a good bottle of wine, or spoil the ones we love.
The result? A personal finance program that takes an intelligent, interesting and informed look at the effect money has on us, and in turn—what affects our money. And in the process, educates listeners about money to help them take control of their financial lives.
Kai Ryssdal took over in August 2005, replacing David Brown. Before hosting Marketplace, he was host of the Marketplace Morning Report, a 10-minute business roundup.
Before joining Marketplace, Ryssdal was a reporter and substitute host for The California Report, a news and information program distributed to public radio stations throughout California by KQED-FM in San Francisco.
The Radio and Television News Directors Association and the national Public Radio News Directors Association have honored him with first place awards for his radio work.
Ryssdal graduated from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, followed by spending eight years in the United States Navy, first flying from the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, and then as a Pentagon staff officer. Before moving to public radio, Kai was a member of the United States Foreign Service and served in Ottawa, Canada, and Beijing, China.
Ryssdal is married and has three children.
Tess Vigeland has spent the majority of her career in public radio. Since September 2001 she’s rousted herself from bed in the wee hours to host the Marketplace Morning Report. She also reports for and serves as a back-up host of Marketplace and Marketplace Money. Prior to coming to Marketplace, Tess reported and anchored for OPB radio and television in Portland and WBUR radio in Boston. She's covered numerous national and international stories, including the Northern Ireland peace talks in Belfast, the New England mob trials, the separate but tandem scandals around former U.S. Senator Bob Packwood and figure skater Tonya Harding, and the 200th birthday of Old Ironsides. At WBUR Tess also spent two years in the "toy department" as a reporter and back-up host for NPR's weekly sports program, Only A Game. There she met her now-husband, Dan, a native Bostonian who promptly turned her into a rabid Red Sox fan. Tess garnered numerous awards in her reporting career, including five Associated Press awards and three from the Society of Professional Journalists. She won an Ohio State Achievement of Merit Award for a documentary about the US chemical weapons arsenal, and received first place in hard news features from the Public Radio News Directors Association for her story about the prison suicide of abortion clinic shooter John Salvi. For her coverage of the Packwood scandal, she received a Corporation for Public Broadcasting Silver Award. Tess is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She and Dan live in Pasadena with their dog, two cats, 85 rose bushes, and of course, the little old lady.
"In the history of American radio, no series has come close to Nick Spitzer's American Routes in exploring the many streams of this nation's music."
-- Nat Hentoff, Wall Street Journal
American Routes is a weekly two-hour public radio 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. Now celebrating in our 9th year on the air, American Routes explores the shared musicall and cultural threads in these American styles and genresof music—and how they are distinguished.
The program also presents documentary features and artist interviews. Our conversations include Willie Nelson, Tom Waits, B.B. King, Dr. John, Dave Brubeck, Abbey Lincoln, Elvis Costello, Ray Charles, Randy Newman, McCoy Tyner, Lucinda Williams, Rufus Thomas, Jerry Lee Lewis and many others. Join us as we ride legendary trains, or visit street parades, instrument-makers, roadside attractions, and juke joints, and meet tap dancers, fishermen, fortunetellers and more.
The songs and stories on American Routes describe both the community origins of our music, musicians and cultures — the "roots"— and the many directions they take over time — the "routes."
There are stops along the way from rural crossroads to crosstown, from coast-to-coast, departing each week from our studio at Basin Street Station, a historic, renovated railroad station. Programs sometimes examine a topic, such as Mardi Gras, Musical Families, or Jews and Blues — the later in which we plumb the historic relationships between Jewish music makers and African-Americans in popular and sacred music. We pay tribute to historic heroes like Johnny Cash, Ray Charles and George Gershwin through a special "Routes to Genius" series. It's a musical romp and road map to the cultures, people, places and sounds of America. Visit our audio archive to stream features and interviews, and take a look at what's playing this week on American Routes. Then check out Deep Routes to find out even more.
American Routes has been hailed in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Billboard, and on ABC's Nightline and In Search of America with Peter Jennings. See our online press pack for more. Since its beginning in April 1998 on seven stations, the program has grown to reach nearly a million listeners on over 225 outlets from New York to Seattle; from Honolulu, Hawaii to Homer, Alaska; Mississippi to Michigan. The program additionally broadcasts on XM Satellite Radio. American Routes is distributed nationwide by Public Radio International.
Much more than a program of recorded music, "American Routes" showcases the nation's music makers with interviews and profiles of many of the featured artists.
American Routes host and producer, Nick Spitzer is a folklorist specializing in American music and cultures of the Gulf South, with a long history of involvement in radio. Host, artistic director, and producer of the award-winning program Folk Masters (now on Smithsonian Folkways CDs), Spitzer is also a contributor of features on American music and culture to NPR's All Things Considered. In 1993, he initiated an annual American Roots 4th of July concert, broadcast live from the National Mall on NPR. Spitzer's radio experience goes back to the 1970s, when he served first as program director of WXPN-FM the college radio station at Penn in Philadelphia, where he majored in anthropology. After graduation, he was afternoon drive host on the popular "underground" rock station WMMR-FM in Philadelphia. Spitzer later worked as a deejay on the legendary progressive country station, KOKE-FM during the early boom days of the Austin music scene. As Louisiana State Folklorist (1978-85), he created films, festivals, exhibits and recordings of regional music, and co-produced a 90-minute Folk Festival USA special on Louisiana music for NPR, helping to bring Cajun music and zydeco to national visibility. His work continued at the Smithsonian Institution, where he curated folk festival programs and directed or served as commentator in films about American music including Great Performances, broadcast on PBS and the Discovery Channel. In 1995 for his work with Creole cultures, he was named as a fellow at the School of American Research in Santa Fe. He has also served on the boards of the American Folklore Society, Fund for Folk Culture, and National Council for the Traditional Arts. Spitzer holds a doctorate in anthropology from the University of Texas, having done his research with African-French Louisiana Creoles and zydeco music. He is currently professor of folklore and cultural conservation at the University of New Orleans.
Since 1991, World Café, has emerged as the premier public radio showcase for contemporary music serving up an eclectic blend that includes blues, rock, world, folk, and alternative country. This two-hour daily program is nationally syndicated to more than 165 markets including New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
The show is hosted by long-time Philadelphia radio personality David Dye. A passionate music enthusiast, Dye takes listeners on a unique journey of musical discovery as he presents a mix of music from both new and legendary artists. Live performances and intimate interviews with Dye’s musical guests highlight each day’s show. The show’s guest roster has included Joni Mitchell, David Bowie, Dave Matthews, Elvis Costello, Robert Plant, Dolly Parton, The Shins, Lucinda Williams, Paul McCartney, Ani Difranco, Damien Rice, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, REM, Rachael Yamagata, David Byrne, Yo Yo Ma, Billy Joel, Lyle Lovett, Béla Fleck, Moby, Taj Mahal, and Coldplay, among hundreds of others.
World Café, also serves ups segments on music as pop culture and periodically features interviews with authors, critics, playwrights, historians, and television and movie personalities.
Conversations from the World Café is a weekly one-hour radio magazine that presents some interview and performances elements of the daily show while exploring issues and rends in contemporary music & culture.
The rising popularity of World Café, has inspired the recent creation of a state-of-the-art performance venue and restaurant that is independently-owned and operated in the same restored historic site where World Cafe is produced.
World Café, and Conversations from the World Café are produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania and distributed nationally by National Public Radio (NPR).
David Dye is a longtime Philadelphia radio personality whose music enthusiasm has captivated listeners of World Cafe; since 1991. World Café; is produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania.
Dye launched his distinguished broadcasting career as host of a progressive music show on WMMR 93.3FM, a pioneering progressive rock station in Philadelphia. During his four-year tenure, Dye won accolades for his taste and laid back presentation. After a five-year stint programming radio stations in Maine, he returned to Philadelphia where he gained public radio experience at WHYY before being recruited in 1981 by alternative rock station WIOQ 102.1 FM where he made his mark on the music scene for nearly a decade.
In 1989, Dye took his musical quest to WXPNApril 25, 2008ow radio program. Two years later, Dye was asked to spearhead research on the viability of a new public radio program. The research revealed an audience need for a new kind of musical format—one that was intelligent, diverse and would give musical guests a showcase for their artistic expression. Based on the findings, Dye went to work to create a unique program of musical discovery where listeners would be introduced to an eclectic blend of contemporary sounds from legendary and up-and-coming artists. World Café was born.
Since launching World Café; in 1991, Dye has served as the host of this nationally acclaimed show, now syndicated on more than 185 public radio stations across the United States. Every week, Dye brings out the best in interviews with internationally known artists such as Yo-Yo Ma and Joni Mitchell. He introduces a half-million listeners each week to newcomers like Damien Rice, My Morning Jacket, and Coldplay.
World Café and Dye have received numerous awards including: two NFCB Gold Reel Awards, Album Network’s Best Triple A Air Talent, four Philadelphia Magazine’s Best of Philly Awards, the Philadelphia Chapter of NARA Hero Award and numerous radio industry trade magazine citations.
Dye is a resident of Philadelphia, Penn., where he lives with his wife, a newspaper columnist, and their two children.
In today's fast-moving society, the media can easily slip through our awareness and blend together to create a near constant whir of white noise. We often fail to fully realize how broadcasters and print professionals filter our political process and shape a sense of national culture. On The Media invites us to turn on, tune in, and wise up!
Hosted by veteran journalists Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield, On The Media decodes what we hear, read, and see in the media every day and arms us with critical tools necessary to survive the information age. With compelling reporting and uncommon insight, the program breaks through the white noise to uncover significant issues of the day and carefully expose the relationship of the media to culture and society.
On the Media Co-Host Bob Garfield is a columnist, critic, essayist, pundit, international lecturer, and inveterate broadcaster. In print, Garfield's "Ad Review" TV-commercial criticism feature in Advertising Age has made him among the more pitifully groveled-before figures in trade-magazine history.
He has been a columnist for USA Today and contributing editor for Civilization and the Washington Post Magazine. He has also written for The New York Times, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, and many other publications. A collection of his work, titled Waking Up Screaming from the American Dream, was published by Scribner in 1997. Garfield co-wrote "Tag, You're It," a snappy country song performed by Willie Nelson, and wrote an episode of the short-lived NBC sitcom Sweet Surrender.
In broadcast, before becoming co-host of On The Media, he was a longtime commentator/ correspondent for NPR's All Things Considered. On television, he is the advertising analyst for ABC News. Previously, he has been an analyst or correspondent for CBS News, CNBC, PBS, and the defunct Financial News Network. He also created and produced KnowItAll!, a retro-60s quiz show which four networks rejected, but which is still available, call any time, operators are standing by.
Since 1995, Brooke Gladstone has worked what still is a rare beat in broadcast journalism: she reports on the media. As NPR's first media correspondent, she's examined the coverage of race, science, and politics, and reported on the battle between Hollywood and the many guardians of American culture; media mergers; advertising trends; and journalism's evolving ethics. She has often been a guest host and contributor to On the Media, and now joins as co-host and managing editor of the revamped On the Media.
Brooke Gladstone started her journalism career as a reporter for Current, the newspaper of public broadcasting, before moving to Cablevision and The Washington Weekly. Her freelance articles have appeared in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The London Observer, The American Journalism Review, and In These Times, among others. She joined NPR in 1987, as senior editor of Weekend Edition Saturday with Scott Simon, and later assumed the same role for NPR's daily newsmagazine, All Things Considered. During this time she edited several award-winning reports and was the recipient of a Peabody Award, an Overseas Press Club Award, and an Ohio State Award, among other honors.
In 1991, Brooke Gladstone received a Knight Journalism Fellowship to Stanford University, to study Russian language and culture. From 1992-1995 — just prior to taking up the media beat — she reported for NPR from Moscow, covering the tumultuous early days of post-Communist Russia, including the bloody uprising of the Russian Parliament.
Since its debut in 1971, this afternoon radio newsmagazine has delivered in-depth reporting and transformed the way listeners understand current events and view the world. Heard by more than 11 million people on over 600 radio stations each week, All Things Considered is one of the most popular programs in America. Every weekday, hosts Melissa Block, Michele Norris, and Robert Siegel present two hours of breaking news mixed with compelling analysis, insightful commentaries, interviews, and special - sometimes quirky - features. Debbie Elliott hosts a one-hour edition of the program on Saturday and Sunday.
In September 2005, correspondent Debbie Elliott became the new host of NPR's Weekend All Things Considered.
As a correspondent for NPR News, Elliott covered the Gulf Shore region. Elliott traveled around the deep South, reporting on a variety of issues and events.
Since joining NPR in 1995, Elliott has covered the re-opening of civil-rights-era murder cases, the legal battle over the Ten Commandments at the Alabama Supreme Court, the Elián Gonzáles custody dispute from Miami, local homeland security initiatives, the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and a number of hurricanes. She was a part of NPR series on girls and the juvenile justice system, the 50th anniversary of Brown versus the Board of Education, science and the courts, and homework.
In addition to covering news from around the Southeast, Elliott was NPR's specialist on tobacco litigation. She has covered landmark smoker lawsuits, the tobacco settlement with states, tobacco-control policy, and the latest trends in youth smoking.
Elliott also contributed to NPR's ongoing, in-depth coverage of Southern politics. Elliott was stationed in Tallahassee, Florida, for election night in 2000, and was one of the first national reporters on the scene for the contentious presidential election contest that followed. During the 1998 elections, she traveled up Interstate 65 from Mobile to Indiana for a series of conversations with voters.
For more than 20 years, Elliott has been reporting from her native South, a region rich in cultural and historical significance and teeming with colorful characters. In addition to her work with NPR, Debbie has filed reports internationally for the BBC, the CBC, and the former Monitor Radio. She is an occasional contributor to Alabama Public Television. Her experience includes three years in Montgomery, Alabama, covering state government for the Alabama Radio Network, and several years as a sports reporter and producer at commercial radio stations and networks.
A cum laude graduate of the University of Alabama College of Communication, Elliott first worked in public radio during college. She hosted local news breaks during NPR's Morning Edition at WUAL in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where she eventually became news director. She served on the national Board of Public Radio News Directors, Incorporated, and helped coordinate the 1994 Public Radio Journalism Conference that led to publication of Independence and Integrity: A Guidebook for Public Radio Journalism. She was recognized as the 2000 Outstanding Alumna in Telecommunication and Film from the University of Alabama College of Communication.
Elliott was born in Atlanta, grew up in the Memphis area, and now lives with her husband and two children in Washington, DC.
Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective. It is a production partnership of KUT Radio and the Center for Mexican American Studies at The University of Texas at Austin.
Latino USA was launched in 1993 with the following mission:
-Provide diverse audiences with multiple perspectives on issues affecting Latinos.
-Foster cross-cultural understanding.
-Enhance relationships among Latino communities.
-Illuminate the richness of Latino cultural and artistic expression.
In its first five years, Latino USA has made significant strides toward these goals. Our weekly, half-hour broadcast of news, cultural programs, and public affairs features has generated a loyal audience and won 15 prestigious national awards from the communications industry for journalistic and production excellence.
Latino USA is distributed by National Public Radio and the Longhorn Radio Network to 172 stations in 31 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Latino USA’s distribution by Radio Bilingüe and the Armed Forces Radio service, expand the program’s reach to other listeners and worldwide audiences
Award-winning journalist and author Maria Hinojosa is managing editor and host of Latino USA. In addition to hosting each week’s show, Hinojosa is the senior correspondent for the Emmy Award -winning PBS newsmagazine NOW.
Before joining NOW, Hinojosa was the urban affairs correspondent for CNN. Prior to joining CNN, Hinojosa spent six years as a National Public Radio New York–based correspondent. During this time, she also hosted Visiones, a public affairs talk show on WNBC-TV in New York.
In 1991, Hinojosa worked for WNYC-TV as the host of New York Hotline, a live, primetime call-in public affairs show, and in 1990 worked for WNYC Radio as a general assignment correspondent.
From 1988 to 1989, Hinojosa served as a producer and researcher for CBS This Morning, and in 1987 worked for CBS Radio as a producer. Among the shows she produced for CBS Radio: Where We Stand with Walter Cronkite, The Osgood File and Newsbreak. Throughout her career, Hinojosa has garnered several awards and honors. Three times since 1995, Hispanic Business Magazine has named her one of the 100 most influential Latinos in the United States. In 1995, Hinojosa received the Robert F. Kennedy award for Manhood Behind Bars, a story for NPR, which documented how jail has become a right of passage for men of all races. In 1993, she received both the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Radio Award and the New York Society of Professional Journalists Deadline Award for her NPR report, Kids and Guns. In 1991, she won a Unity Award and the Top Story of the Year Award from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists for her NPR story on gang members entitled Crews. Also in 1991, Hinojosa won an Associated Press award for her coverage of Mandela for WNYC Radio.
In addition, Hinojosa authored the book Crews-Gang Members Talk with Maria Hinojosa (1995), which was based on her award-winning NPR report. Her second book, Raising Raul - Adventures Raising Myself and My Son a motherhood memoir about raising a Latino child in a multicultural society, was published by Viking-Penguin in 2000. In 1999, Working Mothers Magazine named Hinojosa one of the 25 “Most Influential Working Mothers.”
Hinojosa has also been a contributing essayist in the 2004 book, “Borderline Personalities: A New Generation of Latinas dish on Sex, Sass and Cultural Shifting,” edited by Robyn Moreno and Michelle Herrera Mulligan. And most recently, she has contributed an essay to the 2006 book, “Why I Stay Married.”
Born in Mexico City, Hinojosa is a magna cum laude graduate of Barnard College, where she majored in Latin American studies, political economy and women’s studies. Hinojosa resides in New York City with her husband and their son and daughter.
Maria Hinojosa’s Awards include:
NAMME Catalyst Award from the National Association of Minority Media Executives (2005)
NAHJ top television award for CNN documentary, “Immigrant Nation: Divided Country” (2005)
Emmy Recognition for coverage of the September 11th attacks (2002)
Latino Heritage Award by the Latino Alumni Association of Columbia University (2002)
Minerva Mirabal Award in communications by the Dominican Women's Caucus (2002)
HOLA Award—lifetime achievement from Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (2005)
Ruben Salazar Communications Award, National Council of La Raza (1999)
Hispanic Business Magazine 100 Most Influential Latinos (1995)
Robert F. Kennedy Award for Manhood Behind Bars (1995)
National Association of Hispanic Journalists Radio Award Kids and Guns (1993)
New York Society of Professional Journalists Deadline Award Kids and Guns. (1993)
Images is a locally produced program with Carrie Hamblen, which looks at the arts, the flavor, the people, and the uniqueness of Southern New Mexico and West Texas. Images began as a bi-monthly program on October 26th, 1997 with the goal of sharing with KRWG listeners insights into the people and events of our state.
Throughout the years, the types of people interviewed on Images have varied from artists, authors, engineers, activists, academics and the like. Guests have included Denise Chaves, local author, Ruben Smith, Mayor of Las Cruces, Gary Esslinger of EBID, NMSU President Jay Gogue, NMSU basketball coach Lou Henson, Author Michael McGarrity and many more.
Overall, Images has seen over 180 programs ranging from a variety of topics including environmental issues, local cultural events, causes, educational programs, entertainment and the arts.
In addition to the interviews, every week, Images features a local commentator discussing or reviewing speciality events. Bill Vuroala is the Theater and Film commentator and can often be seen at the Black Box Theater on the Downtown Mall, the Las Cruces Community Theater, the American Southwest Theater Company or the Fountain Theater. Jackye Meinecke is the Images Gardening expert and every installment features some helpful hints for planting in the southwest, non-harmful insecticides, water-tolerant planting and the like. Sunny Conley is the Food Commentator for Images. Every month, Sunny braves out into the restaurant world to sample the latest and standard New Mexican Fare and reports back to KRWG listeners her findings. Leora Zeitlin is the Book Commentator for Images and also the host of Intermezzo. Leora Zietlin pours through books of New Mexico interest and relays her findings and comments on Images. Images has won Best Interview/Talk Show for the past four years from the Southern New Mexico Press Club and is heard every Saturday at 5:30pm on KRWG 90.7fm.
Carrie Hamblen is our Morning Edition host on KRWG-FM. Carrie came to KRWG in 1992 when she began her Graduate Studies in the Communication Studies Department. She received her Bachelor's degree in Broadcasting from the University of Texas at El Paso in May of 1992. While there, she volunteered at KTEP, the public radio station for El Paso, and was the Executive Producer of a student run program called BorderLines. While pursuing her Masters' degree at NMSU, Carrie was a "Jill" of all trades, hosting Performance Today and classical music on the weekends, jazz programs in the evenings, Fresh Air and All Things Considered. In 1995, the Morning Edition local host position was available and Carrie jumped on it, eager to get into the news portion of the station. Since then, Carrie has produced Visión, a bi-monthly Hispanic public affairs program, hosts her own program, Images, winning awards for both, and performs many "behind the scenes" duties for the radio station. Carrie plans on staying in the community because of the people, the weather and of course, the public radio station. Carrie is a member of the Spay and Neuter Awareness Program (SNAP) Board of Directors and the Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) Board. She also helps out with various organizations in the community. Carrie has taught for several years, teaching Public Speaking (COMM 253) for 8 years and Radio Production (J313) for a year and a half. In her spare time, Carrie loves working with wood, building furniture, cooking, and remodeling her mother's home. You can contact Carrie via email at: chamblen@nmsu.edu.
Garrison Keillor went to work for Minnesota Public Radio in 1969 on the 6 to 9 am morning program called A Prairie Home Companion—named after the Prairie Home cemetery in Moorhead, Minnesota. It was after he began work on an article for the New Yorker magazine about the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville that he developed an idea for a radio show with musical guests and commercials for imaginary products. And on July 6, 1974, Keillor hosted the first live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion at the Janet Wallace Auditorium at Macalester College, Saint Paul. Producer Margaret Moos sold tickets for $1 for adults (50 cents for children), and the audience of 12 produced a total gate of something less than $8.
During its first 10 years, A Prairie Home Companion produced 477 live shows. On March 4, 1978, the show moved to The World Theater in Saint Paul, which at the time was boarded-up and expected to be demolished. The former World Theater, now the renovated Fitzgerald Theater, has been the program's home base ever since. The show ended for a time on Saturday, June 13, 1987, leaving the airwaves after a run of 13 years in Minnesota. Keillor said, "The decision to close is mine—the sort of simple, painful decision that our parents taught us to make cheerfully. It is simply time to go."
However, two short years later after some time abroad, Keillor set up shop again in 1989 in New York at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as The American Radio Company. The show gathered momentum and stations (over 200 public radio stations carried the program), and on March 28, 1992, Keillor announced that the program would return to Minnesota. In 1993 the show resumed the name A Prairie Home Companion.
Today, A Prairie Home Companion is heard by over 4 million listeners each week on over 580 public radio stations, and is heard abroad on America One and the Armed Forces Networks In Europe and the Far East. Keillor remembers, "When the show started, it was something funny to do with my friends, and then it became an achievement that I hoped would be successful, and now it's a good way of life."
A Prairie Home Companion is produced by Prairie Home Productions, and distributed nationwide by American Public Media. The program is underwritten by Toyota and Select Comfort.
From Wikipedia
The earliest radio program to have this name bears little resemblance to what is currently heard on Saturday evenings. A Prairie Home Companion was originally a morning show running from 6 to 9 a.m. on Minnesota Public Radio.
After researching the Grand Ole Opry for an article, Keillor became interested in doing a variety show on the radio. On July 6, 1974, the first live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion took place. That show was broadcast from St. Paul in the Janet Wallace Auditorium of Macalester College. Twelve audience members turned out, mostly children. The second episode featured the first performance on the show by Butch Thompson, who became house pianist. Thompson stayed with the program until 1986, and still frequently performs on the show.
In 1978, the show moved into the World Theater in St. Paul, which was renovated in 1986 and renamed the Fitzgerald Theater in 1994. This is the same location that the program uses today.
The show went off the air in 1987, and Keillor married and spent some time abroad during the following two years. He returned to radio from New York City in 1989 with The American Radio Company of the Air (renamed Garrison Keillor's American Radio Company in its second season.) In 1993, this show moved to Minnesota and was renamed A Prairie Home Companion. While most of the episodes originate from St. Paul, the show often travels to other cities around the U.S. and overseas to do the weekly broadcast.
The show was originally distributed nationally by Minnesota Public Radio in association with Public Radio International. Its current distributor is MPR's distribution unit, American Public Media.
Each show opens with the Spencer Williams composition "Tishomingo Blues" as the theme song, but with lyrics written especially for A Prairie Home Companion. Before 1987, the show's theme was Keillor's singing of the Hank Snow hit "Hello Love".
Each show features a story-telling monologue from Keillor, claiming to be a report from Keillor's fictitious hometown of Lake Wobegon, "the little town that time forgot and the decades cannot improve ... where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average." The opening words of the monologue usually do not change: "Well, it's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, my hometown, out on the edge of the prairie." The News from Lake Wobegon does not have a set structure per se, but often features recurring characters and places, such as the Chatterbox Cafe, the Sidetrack Tap, Pastor Inqvist of the Lake Wobegon Lutheran Church, Father Wilmar of Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility Roman Catholic Church, the Lake Wobegon Whippets sports teams, various members of the Bunsen and Krebsbach families, and an assortment of nearby "Norwegian bachelor farmers". The lengthy monologue is generally delivered without reference to notes.
The show is "sponsored" by the fictitious product "Powdermilk Biscuits," whose slogan is "Made from whole wheat raised in the rich bottomlands of the Lake Wobegon river valley by Norwegian bachelor farmers; so you know they're not only good for you, but pure ... mostly. Buy them ready-made in the big blue box with the picture of the biscuit on the cover, or in the brown bag with the dark stains that indicate freshness. Whole wheat that gives shy persons the strength to get up and do what needs to be done. Heavens they're tasty, and expeditious!" Powdermilk Biscuits has its own theme song, sung by Keillor every week.
Each week, "Riverwalk Jazz" presents captivating shows that tell the story of jazz in America, covering the genre's early years — from turn-of-the-century blues and cakewalks to the small swing ensembles of the 1920s and '30s. "Riverwalk Jazz" features The Jim Cullum Jazz Band with special guest artists, and is hosted by bandleader Jim Cullum and the award-winning storyteller David Holt. Each high-energy episode presents music and narratives, and spotlights renowned artists such as Joe Williams, Lionel Hampton, Dick Hyman, Nicholas Payton, Nina Ferro, and Carol Woods.
From Wikipedia
Riverwalk Jazz is a popular weekly public radio series distributed by Public Radio International. The series began broadcasting in 1989 and is produced by PVPMedia. The principle performing band on Riverwalk Jazz is the Jim Cullum Jazz Band. The series co-hosts are bandleader Jim Cullum Jr. and folklorist and storyteller David Holt. Jim Cullum's Landing Jazz Club on the Paseo Del Rio (San Antonio River Walk) in San Antonio, Texas serves as the venue where most of the hour-long shows are produced.
Through the use of live music performance, narration, autobiographies, historical recordings and musical demonstations, the series focuses on jazz from before World War II as played by the great pioneers such as Jelly Roll Morton, Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Sidney Bechet, Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson and many more. Also featured are the lives and music of the great interwar pop composers such as George and Ira Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart, Harry Warren, Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern and many others.
Frequent guests include playwright and actor Vernel Bagneris, pianist Dick Hyman, vocalists Topsy Chapman and Nina Ferro, cornetist Bob Barnard, as well as guest bands such as the Hot Club of San Francisco. Other notable musical guests in past years have included Benny Carter, Linda Hopkins, Bob Wilber, Bob Haggart, Yank Lawson, Kenny Davern, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Clark Terry, Bucky and John Pizzarelli, Rebecca Kilgore, Ralph Sutton, Ken Peplowski, Doc Cheatham, Savion Glover, Milt Hinton, Jay McShann, Joe Williams and William Warfield.
The Riverwalk Jazz website provides weekly streaming of the radio broadcasts as well as JazzNotes about each week's show, as well as enabling registered users to receive monthly and weekly email newsletters.
The current personnel of the Jim Cullum Jazz Band includes Jim Cullum, Jr., leader and cornet; Ron Hockett, clarinet and saxophone; Kenny Rupp, trombone; Jim Turner, piano; Howard Elkins, banjo and guitar; Don Mopsick, bass; Mike Waskiewicz, drums. Past personnel heard in encore performances on the radio series include John Sheridan, piano; Allan Vaché, clarinet; Mike Pittsley, trombone; Brian Ogilvie, clarinet and saxophone; Evan Christopher, clarinet; Ed Torres, drums and Kevin Dorn, drums.
KRWG FM is a public service of New Mexico State University. © 2006, Regents of New Mexico State University. P.O. Box 3000, Las Cruces, New Mexico 88003. (575) 646-2222. Contact information. Legal information. Last updated on
April 25, 2008.