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WKMS Offers New Programs Including Sounds Good with Tracy Ross and Friends

Starting Labor Day Weekend, Murray State’s NPR Station, 91.3 WKMS-FM, offers a new listening landscape with the addition of new shows and old favorites at new times.  Simultaneously the station is rebranding with the new logo for the first time in nearly two decades. 

Saturday, September 1, WKMS adds the NPR news quiz with a panel of humorists, Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me! at 9 a.m.  This program has grown a national audience in just a few years.  Former NPR newscaster Carl Kassell is the show announcer.  Peter Sagal is the host.  The program is produced by WBEZ, Chicago and NPR.  Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me! airs a second time Sundays at 5 p.m.

Saturday at 7 p.m. eTown premieres on WKMS, originating from Boulder, CO and concert venues across the nation.  Host Nick Forster leads a radio program of live performances from today's top musicians, and engages listeners with conversation and information about our communities and our environment. His warm on-air wit, stellar guitar playing and strong vocals are hallmarks of the show.  Forster was a founding member of the group Hot Rize.

Sunday morning from 5 to 7 a.m. WKMS presents Dr. Jack Dressler’s Classical Encore, which airs a second time Sundays from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.  On Sunday, September 2, WKMS pre-empts regular programs The JazzMan Show and American Routes from 1 to 4 p.m. for the three hour installment of its Labor Day Weekend special which continues Monday, September 3, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.  Pokey LaFarge and South City Three headline Sunday’s show.  Punch Brothers (including Chris Thile) headline Monday’s show.

Changes to Sunday evening’s line-up after Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me! at 5 p.m. include:  the week’s encore presentation of This American Life with Ira Glass at 6 p.m. (instead of noon Mondays); TED Radio Hour at 7 p.m.; Travel with Rick Steves at 8 p.m.; Imported at 9 p.m. and Music from the Hearts of Space at 10.

NPR’s new program TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) Radio Hour features 18 minute speeches by big thinkers of our times from TED.com, the website offering Ideas Worth Spreading.  

On Monday, September 3, Fresh Air with Terry Gross moves from 11 a.m. to its new airtime of 3 p.m. weekdays and the station discontinues its presentation of The World, from PRI.  The BBC World Service Overnight continues.

Tuesday, September 4, WKMS debuts Sounds Good with Tracy Ross and Friends, an eclectic contemporary music program featuring interviews with musicians, writers, newsmaker, and other community members with stories to tell and more.  It’s new to the station’s schedule weekdays 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.  and results in the discontinuation of the encore presentation of Splendid Table at noon Wednesdays and the program Living on Earth Fridays at noon.  Also on Tuesdays, KET’s Kentucky Tonight moves from noon to 2 p.m.   The rotating special features heard Thursdays at noon move to 2 p.m. as well.

Wednesday, September 5, Dr. Brian Clardy’s Café Jazz finds a new home at 9 p.m., switching from Thursdays, 9 to 11.  WKMS debuts another new program, The Jive House, Thursdays from 9 to 10 p.m., with hosts John McMillen and Brad Robertson, celebrates the African American FUNK movement’s impact on our nation’s roots music.  Café Jazz host George Eldred presents an hour of roots-based jazz from 10 to 11 p.m. Thursdays.

Another significant change to the weekly WKMS schedule is a new arrangement for concerts of our region’s premiere classical ensemble, The Paducah Symphony Orchestra.  In addition to multiple rebroadcasts on 91.3 WKMS-FM HD- 2, each PSO concert will air eight days after its live performance in the Carson Center  from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays, pre-empting A Prairie Home Companion’s encore presentation weekly on the seven Sundays involved.

WKMS broadcasts to over 20,000 listeners in western Kentucky, southernmost Illinois and northwestern Tennessee. The station's media services include 91.3 WKMS, Murray; WKMS HD-1 and All-Music HD-2; 90.9 WKMD and WKMD HD-1 and HD-2, Madisonville; 89.5 WKMT, Fulton; 99.5 Paris, Tenn., and All-Music 92.5 Paducah and 101.5 Madisonville. The station also offers both channels WKMS HD-1 and HD-2 at wkms.org, where weekly schedules of programs are available.

Jenni holds a degree in Music Education from Murray State University and a Masters degree in Arts Administration from Florida State University's College of Music. She's equipped with knowledge and enthusiasm for fundraising and the arts. She also serves as a Girl Scout Troop Leader and on the Murray Independent School District Foundation for Excellence Board of Directors.
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