Dammit, WPR, what are you doing?

[chanter1944]

I wasn't thrilled with the idea of WPR reorganizing its stations and changing both network names when first I heard about it, but now I find out that both As It Happens and Q are being deleted from the program lineup, and Kalihweyo’se is going away. Damn. it! There goes the main reason I tune in in the evenings. As for Kalihweyo’se, I've been listening to that show since I was in middle school, and I still tune in if I'm within range of Green Bay's stations. So much for diverse music getting airplay. Nope, we get more white European niche twiddling, carefully curated.

Ugh!

I am not a happy Chanter. I'll be civil about it, but I've got an invite to a webinar regarding all the changes tomorrow, and am I going to bring up my dismay twice over? You betcha!

No offense to either fans of classical music or the WPR hosts who present the same, but I've almost never understood the appeal. The fact that an entire network's worth of the ever-lauded genre can't make room for a First Nations music program with a two-decade history for two hours on one night a week really cheeses me off.

And why the frak are they deleting As It Happens? Thanks a lot! :(

Comments

It's a huge change

[jesse_the_k]

It’s a weird transitional moment for public radio. The classical music fans—who do provide fiscal support—are aging into hearing impairment. Younger classical fans most likely are using streaming services.

I’m sorry this is the first time I’ve heard of Kalihweyo’se, and it doesn’t seem to be archived or syndicated as a podcast. For all that WPR personnel shaped NPR structure, there are independent public radio stations in Wisconsin.

I’ve enjoyed listening to WOJB 88.9 from the Lac Courte Oreilles band in Hayward, WI. They livestream on the net. Their program guide is a Google Calendar (argh) and does show As It Happens from 6-7p weekdays.
https://www.wojb.org/programming.html

Oh! Their Spinitron (diary) offers more info: https://spinitron.com/WOJB/

As well as several programs that look like they could be on Ojibwa culture, but gotta use an old fashioned radio to hear them.

WXPR out of Rhinelander (with repeaters in Ironwood and Wausau) carries NPR news, curated music, and syndicated shows I enjoy https://www.wxpr.org/wxpr-radio-schedule#weekly

but just National Native News and Indegifi "modern indigenous music" -- last two weeks at https://play.wxpr.org/WXPR/show/215624/Indigefi

CBC does offer your fave shows as full podcasts As It Happens
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-2-as-it-happens Q.
https://www.cbc.ca/arts/q

Re: It's a huge change

[chanter1944]

Thank you very much for the excellent links! I tune in WXPR in Wausau when I'm up there, often for the World Radio Network overnight. I've only heard WOJB when traveling through or in northern Wisconsin, including on the way to Minnesota - that was the Manitoba/Sask trip this past September. I'll have to give their stream a listen. And yes, CBC podcasting is an option too, I just wish it didn't have to come to that.

Kalihweyo’se, as translated on-air by the host, is Good Messages Radio. It's specifically out of WPNE in Green Bay, and airs all sorts of indigenous music, traditional and otherwise. Picture a nerdy long-haired white girl in her early teens staying up late on Thursday nights, annoying/exasperating her family (who knew she'd be a zombie the next day at school), making recordings off the radio and later playing them back so many times it's a wonder the cassettes didn't wear out.

Re public radio and classical music: I love WPR, and always will, but the emphasis on European classical music is... puzzling at best, to me. Call me cynical, but is that all about financial supporters having an affinity for the genre? I hope not. Mind you, I'm the girl who's raised the question of expanded language offerings at previous WPR forums; it's probably not that surprising I'd be down for broadening people's classical horizons too.