“Habla Español?”
Tuesday May 2, 2023
From the messy desk of Amanda Eichstaedt…
KWMR Airwaves
I realize that not everyone is as familiar with the KWMR schedule as I am, and even though I would categorize myself as pretty darn close to “intimately familiar” with the schedule, I still lose track of what is on which week, as can be witnessed by intermittent errors in the “Highlights” section in this very newsletter.
But I do pride myself in knowing in “name that tune style” who is on once I turn on the radio. I mean, you can tell the difference between “To Hell & Bach,” and “Midnight in Luxembourg” in three notes. How about four notes for the difference between “Running With Scissors” and “West County Prowl.” It could be hard to tell “Highway of Heartaches” from “Off the Cuff” since there is some cross over there. I could go on and on.
I just want to alert listeners that if you are in a KWMR listening rut, you may want to bust a move. There are lots of new, cool, fun to listen to programs of all types on the KWMR airwaves. While many of our programs have graced these airwaves for the entire 24 years of KWMR’s existence as an FM station (and many prior via Horizon Cable), a handful of new programmers have hit the airwaves. You can get our updated print schedule HERE, and it is updated every month.
I’ve taken the liberty to mark in red some of the new, or “newish” shows!
There are a few new shows to check out on Sunday evenings as well. “Sufferin’ Jukebox” hosted by Charlie V. is opposite “Between Rock & a Jazz Place” hosted by Grey Shepard at 6 PM. And immediately following at 8 PM you can catch “Clockwatchers” after “Sufferin’ Jukebox” and “Pick N Pull” after “Between Rock & a Jazz Place.”
Since last summer, KWMR’s Program Director, Jeff Manson has been pulling together a block of Spanish Language programming. “The Latin Alternative” kicks off the block at 7 AM with an hour of contemporary Latin music. “Linea Abierta” follows at 8 AM. “Linea Abierta” is from Radio Bilingua. “Voces en La Costa” follows and here is where you might come in! Does your organization, or do you know of local information that should be on KWMR in Spanish? If so, reach out to Jeff Manson. He wants to hear from you. We are collecting some great contributors for this block, but could use more. Whether Spanish is your first, or second language, we would love to increase the number of voices on the airwaves.
After “Voces en La Costa” we currently repeat the Wednesday broadcast of “Cuerpo Corazon Comunidad” from 10am to 11am. Help us spread the word about this new-ish block of programming.
Also, KWMR is working to produce all of our emergency broadcasts in both Spanish and English. We will continue to broadcast information like this at the top and bottom of each hour when necessary, and every 15 minutes from the top of the hour if more announcements are warranted.
My hat is off to Jeff Manson. He is doing a great job bringing new folks into the fold and getting them trained up to hit the airwaves.
So peruse that schedule, turn on your radio when you don’t usually do so, download the app and peruse the archives. Ask your “smart device” to play KWMR and it will do so via TuneIn. There are many ways to access KWMR content and the over 75 volunteer programmers are doing a great job of bringing you stories, poetry, music of many genres, all with West Marin homegrown spin on them.
Thank you for your reading this, listening to KWMR!
Amanda Eichstaedt
Station Manager and Executive Director