Programs A-Z
With about 85 volunteer hosts, our programming reflects the wide variety of interests these programmers bring, and reflects the character and nature of the people and places of West Marin. All hosts, whether of music or talk shows, regularly bring on guests, principally from our West Marin villages, and also from around the Bay Area and the world.
While Americana/bluegrass music is a big part of our schedule, KWMR airs music of almost all genres: Celtic, Reggae, Latin, Jazz & Swing, Blues, Alt Rock, World, Happy Hour music. We even have a show highlighting just the new releases in our music library. Bringing live performances on-air is part of the fun for music hosts and listeners!
Between roughly 8 am and midnight, KWMR airs about two hours of music to every one hour of talk. Our interview hosts cover culture, politics, environment and ecology, agriculture, literature, spirituality and psychology, health and science, the performing arts, parenting issues... with about 6 hours a week of Spanish-language and bi-lingual music and talk shows.
KWMR has a process for training new programmers in the technical skills and interview/host skills needed for the live shows. Programmers who become competent in these areas can then go on to learn audio recording and editing in the production studio, field recording, news production, and remote broadcasts using phone lines and RPU gear. If you are interested in volunteering as a programmer click here to find out more.
Hosted by Davd Holt & Jim Cullum, Jr.
New in 2013, you can hear Riverwalk Jazz archives at Stanford University here.
Read Ted Gioia's article in Stanford Magazine on this new way to hear "Riverwalk Jazz."
With your host:
Host Lance Walker is away getting a Masters degree. We hope he will return to KWMR!
Culture and politics from the little red traveling trailer.....
With your hosts: Marc Matheson, Mark Potts, Jeffry Wikinson
Saturday Night Function, the name of an early Duke Ellington tune, is a locally created and produced KWMR music program featuring a rich and nourishing gumbo of the blues, rhythm and blues, soul, jazz, zydeco, reggae, funk and contemporary dance music.
KWMR volunteer programmer soul brothers Marc Matheson and Mark Potts created the show, and Jeffry Wilkinson now co-hosts with Marc a classic juke joint atmosphere for late Saturday nights from 10 pm to midnight every week.
Juke (or jook) joints were informal establishments operated by African Americans in the rural South that offered a safe and hospitable place for music, dancing, food and drink, and gambling. Mos' definitely not sanctified by the church establishment, juke joints served as community centers and night clubs for hard working country folk. Well known jazz bands as well as up and coming stars of jazz and blues performed at juke joints throughout the Southern United States.
The term "juke" is believed to derive from the Gullah word joog, meaning rowdy or disorderly. A juke joint is also known a "barrelhouse."
Although gambling, collard greens and alcohol aren't served at Saturday Night Function, discerning listeners may find themselves kicking off their shoes and grooving to our considered and elegantly sophisticated assortment of mellow, lively, funky and hoppin' tunes.
So stick around after Rick's Jazz Café or Greg's Groove for the Saturday Night Function after party. You won't regret it, and you may well want to return - you're always welcome!
Saturday Night Function airs live every Saturday night at 10:00, for two hours. Archived recordings of the show are available for sharing within a few hours. (Scroll down for the archives, which are posted for a week to ten days only.)
Listen live to the program at www.kwmr.org!
Visit and like the Facebook page, Saturday Night Function!
Support Community Radio KWMR by becoming a member or giving a gift in appreciation for this show by clicking here - for as little as $30 a year or $10 a month, you can make Community Radio a part of your life!
Jitterbugs (II) circa 1941 by African American painter William Henry Johnson (1901-1970) courtesy of Smithsonian American Art Museum. Click here to learn about the artist.
For more on jook joints, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juke_joint.
With your host: Lil' Shorty
Shorty spins great Americana, Folk and Bluegrass tunes every other Thursday on KWMR.
With your host: Peter Martinelli
"Spinning 45 rpm records — vintage music the way it was meant to be heard."