Support Community Radio - 8 days to go

$4k match in effect - Double the impact of your donation to WESU Radio today!!

With the end of WESU’s 75th anniversary year and their annual winter holiday pledge drive in sight, Wesleyan University’s Office of Academic Affairs is currently offering a dollar for dollar match of donations up to a total of $4,000. With your help, WESU can take full advantage of this opportunity and thrust their pledge drive into the end zone! 

General Manager Ben Michael says “The matching gift from Wesleyan’s Office of academic affairs is unprecedented for WESU, and is a huge help as we bring our most challenging fundraising effort, ever, to a successful end.” “Meeting our goal for this year’s winter pledge drive will enable WESU to replace the 17 year old audio mixing console in our air studio, after nearly half a million hours of continuous service.” said Michael, the station’s only full time employee. 

 Community support is essential to covering daily operations at WESU. Donations can be made online at www.wesufm.org/pledge where you can also view examples of limited edition WESU 75th anniversary thank you gifts. Donations can also be sent directly to: WESU Radio 45 Broad St 2nd floor Middletown, CT 06457.

Established in 1939, WESU is the second oldest student owned and operated college radio station in the US and operates as a community service of Wesleyan University. With one full time employee and a staff of over 150 student and community volunteers, WESU broadcasts 6,000 watts at the frequency 88.1FM throughout central CT and southern MA. The station streams live audio and offers audio archives from their website, www.wesufm.org where you also can find historical articles, photos, and audio including interviews with past station staff, going back to 1939.

Find Music! Cheap!

New Radio Show Seeking Writers

Wesleyan student Claire Maguire has started a new radio show about writing on 88.1 FM WESU and she is looking for unpublished writers of short fiction, creative non-fiction or poetry to come read one or several pieces on the air and talk about their creative process. Pieces sent in could also be read if the writer can't be there in person, though they are strongly encouraged to, as the interview would be informal and fun! The show is every 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month at midnight starting February 19th, but the show can be prerecorded to accommodate guests. For more information or if you are interested in being a guest on the show please contact Claire via email: cmaguire@wesleyan.edu

Do you like listening? Prove it.

Do you like music? Do you like listening to NPR news? Do you like having one place to go to every weekday at 5pm to hear about things happening around town, more events than one could possibly attend? Do you like listening to the radio all day long and not hearing the same 8 songs played multiple times each? Do you like listening to the radio and not hearing advertisements, or DJs testimonials about products and services that are obviously veiled advertisements? Do you like the ability to get connected into the local community by listening to the radio? Do you like the idea of being able to tune the radio into shows that are created by your neighbors and have names like "600 Pounds of Sin", "Maelstrom of the Weird," "Life is a Killer with Johnny Analog," "Hour of the Slack from SubGenious Radio," and too many other catchy titles to list here?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should consider making a donation to 88.1 WESU FM in any amount that you feel this programming is worth to you.

Some additional information from WESU regarding just one of the recent accomplishments as well as how to give:

The Generation Public Radio Exchange (PRX) Bullying Stories Project panel has selected WESU’s Middletown Youth Radio Project’s pitch as one of its finalists in this national competition. The Middletown Youth Radio Project (MYRP) is a program on WESU in which youth from the Middletown community create audio projects including songs and stories and play them on the air. The committee was impressed by the creative approach to talking about bullying, and the balance of both a social structure perspective and personal stories. As thanks for the pitch, the youth radio group will receive: an audio storytelling kit that includes a digital recorder and audio editing software, training webinars on producing, refining, and distributing stories, story advising from a professional producer, and likely inclusion in a youth radio special to be broadcast nationwide via PRX.

Financial support during this pledge drive will help ensure that WESU continues to grow and operate as a creative vehicle for partnership between the Wesleyan University community, the people of the greater Connecticut River Valley, and beyond. Donations will directly benefit WESU and help to ensure local, community-based programs and alternative news and music continue to have a home on the radio dial.

To show your support for WESU, please donate now at www.wesufm.org, or call 860-685-7700 during the drive 12/05-12/12 and make a pledge. Online pledges are conveniently processed immediately, prevent clerical errors, and are more eco-friendly since there is no paper involved. For more information on how you can support WESU contact Ben Michael, General Manager – generalmanager@wesufm.org 860-658-7707.

Record Store Day is 4/16 - local happenings

submitted by 88.1 FM WESU:

WESU is pleased to announce that on Sunday, April 17th at 4:00 PM we will be hosting a screening of the film 'I Need That Record' a documentary by local filmmaker Brendan Toller. The screening will be followed with discussion led by Malcolm Tent, former owner of Trash American Style records of Danbury which is featured in the film.
The documentary addresses the closing of thousands of record stores in recent years and the viability of the record store in the age of digital music and illegal downloads. The documentary includes insights from Noam Chomsky, Thurston Moore, Ian MacKaye, Glenn Branca and many others and was filmed right here in good ole' Connecticut.

The film also captures interviews with former WESU DJ Ian LaForce (aka Philo Bedo) during the final days of Middletown’s Record Express as well as the closing of the legendary Trash American Style store in Danbury. Wallingford’s Redscroll Records (co owned by WESU stalwart Rick Sinkiewicz) is also spotlighted and provides a glimmer of hope for the future of the business.

Admission is free, but donations will benefit the film maker and WESU and are strongly encouraged. Come join us!

When: Sunday, April 17th at 4:00 PM
Where: Shanklin room 107, Wesleyan campus, Church Street

For more information call 860-685-7703 or email board@wesufm.org

88.1 FM WESU to Broadcast Al Jazeera English

WESU 88.1FM, is proud to announce they will begin broadcasting Al Jazeera English, on Monday February 14th as part of their Spring Program schedule. Al Jazeera English is a daily 60 minute award winning world headline radio news magazine recently made available to WESU through their affiliation with the Pacifica Radio Network. WESU will broadcast Al Jazeera English weekdays at 11 am right before Democracy Now.
WESU is committed to offering listeners an array of perspectives that are underrepresented or difficult to find elsewhere on the airwaves. WESU anticipates that carrying Al Jazeera English will spark some mixed responses from listeners and other media outlets and encourages anyone with serious concerns about the newscast to listen to it before passing final judgment.
Al Jazeera English has received numerous international awards for news coverage and WESU is pleased to include it as a complement to their diverse mix of public news and Public affairs programming from NPR, Pacifica, and other independent and local sources. Al Jazeera English nominations and awards include: The International Emmy Awards, the London-based Foreign Press Association, YouTube, The Association of International Broadcasters, Amnesty International, Britain's Royal Television Society, and the Monte Carlo Film Festival. For more information on Al Jazeera English visit http://english.aljazeera.net/
The mission of the Pacifica Radio Network, is to promote peace and justice through communication between all races, nationalities and cultures. Pacifica takes pride in bringing voices to the airwaves that normally may get shut out, and in providing news from under-reported areas. In this time of globalized change, it is particularly important to hear and understand divergent viewpoints from around the world. To learn more about Pacifica visit http://pacificanetwork.org.
WESU’s spring schedule also features many long standing music and public affairs programs in addition to a few new student and community volunteer programs. WESU's spring schedule can be found online at http://www.wesufm.org and a print program guide will be distributed at select locations around the area in the coming weeks.

ABOUT WESU 88.1FM
Established in 1939 as a community service of Wesleyan University, WESU is one of the oldest non-commercial radio stations in the United States. WESU currently broadcasts at the frequency of 88.1 FM from its 6,000-watt transmitter located atop the Wesleyan University science tower in Middletown, CT with a potential to reach over one million listeners throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts. WESU also streams audio, online through their website www.wesufm.org.
By day, Monday through Friday, WESU offers a diverse mix of news and public affairs from NPR, Pacifica, and independent and local media sources. Week nights and weekends WESU student and community volunteer broadcasters provide a freeform mix of creative music programming featuring everything from rock, and hip hop, to jazz, electronic dance music, soul, funk, and blues, alongside a wide variety of ethnic forms of music not readily available elsewhere on the radio.
WESU is funded by the Wesleyan Student Budget committee, Wesleyan University, and generous listener and community support.
To learn more about WESU, visit the station's website www.wesufm.org where you can, learn about the stations colorful history, listen to a live audio stream, find contact information, see DJ playlists, and check out the Spring 2011 program guide.

Record Fair!

DJ Lord Lewis the Velvet Knight says..... Don’t miss The WESU Fall Community Record Fair

Free and open to the public!
Saturday, November 13
11 AM – 4 PM
Beckham Hall, Wyllys Ave, Wesleyan University

Featuring lot’s of vendors selling music in all formats, great food, raffles, WESU merchandise, and WESU DJs spinning vinyl live all day!

There is still vendor Space Available @ $35 per table. Email Lberman@wesleyan.edu for information and reservations

Donations of music for the WESU table are also still needed and can be dropped off at WESU 45 broad Street 2nd Floor 10am-5pm M-F. Call 860-685-7707, first to arrange for a hand unloading.

Radio Drama Tonight

Oddfellows Playhouse and WESU 88.1FM will haunt your Halloween with a LIVE performance and RADIO broadcast of Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater's War of the Worlds tonight @ 8:30 p.m.

On stage at:
Oddfellows Playhouse
128 Washington Street
Middletown, CT

On air at:
88.1 FM
or listen on-line at www.wesufm.org

Directed by Oddfellows’ Producing Artistic Director Jeffrey Allen and featuring the voices of popular talent Richard Kamins, Virginia Wolf, Daniel Nischan and John Whalen, with the Sound Foley of Mick Bolduc, Oddfellows Playhouse and WESU 88.1 FM will provide listeners with a classic Halloween experience.

New Show on WESU Debuts Today, Produced by Anarchist Radio Collective

Press release from Anarchist Radio Collective

------------------------------

A new radio show, “The Horizontal Power Hour,” will debut on WESU, Middletown, CT (88.1), on Tuesday, September 14, 2010 from 4-4:55pm. The program will regularly feature interviews, news and commentary about anarchist politics and culture. The show is produced by an anarchist radio collective calling itself The Dream Committee (after a May 1968 graffiti tag “Form Dream Committees!”).

Each episode will be hosted and produced by self-selected members of the collective on a rotating basis, with new shows going on air on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month. The Dream Committee includes: Diego Glusberg, Mica Taliaferro, Paul Blasenheim, Meggie McGuire, Dan Schniedewind, Zak Kirwood, Michelle García Gutiérrez, Jacob Dinklage, Kevin Hayes, Nick Petrie, Henry Thornhill, and J. Kehaulani Kauanui.

The first episode includes interviews with: Greg Tate and Julia Rosenblatt, founding members and co-artistic directors of Hartbeat Ensemble, an activist-based theater for social change; and Kevin Lamkins who is both a collective member of the Hartford Independent Media Collective—a not-for-profit, volunteer organization that seeks to promote alternative perspectives to mainstream, corporate media—and co-producer of RadioActive, a radio project that seeks to democratize radio as a tool for social justice. Two members of The Dream Committee—Henry Thornhill and Jacob Dinklage—will serve as hosts of the first episode and Mica Taliaferro will serve as its producer.

The rich political tradition of social anarchism deserves air time and the program will explore a diverse spectrum of anarchist thought and political practice in relation to other political struggles. It seems especially fitting that the show emerges and broadcasts from WESU given the roots of the station. In 1939, two Wesleyan students hooked a small transmitter up to a phonograph, broke into Wesleyan University ’s maintenance tunnels through a dorm basement, and hooked the transmitter up to the water pipes. That dorm became an antenna for their broadcast with a very limited transmission range, but the station quickly became more popular, and they met the demand by illicitly running wires to more sections of the maintenance tunnels.

WESU is at 88.1 on the dial. Shows on WESU can also be streamed online.

Record Fair!

Call for Support - 88.1 FM WESU

submitted by WESU FM Radio:

88.1 FM WESU CALLS ON LISTENERS TO GIVE THE GIFT OF WESU THIS HOLIDAY SEASON MARKING 70th YEAR OF SERVICE

Wesleyan University's non-commercial college and community

radio station, 88.1FM WESU, the same station that broadcasts EYE ON THE AIR, the companion radio show to this news blog, calls on listeners to give the gift of WESU this holiday season during The Fifth Annual WESU Holiday Pledge Drive. This year's drive will take place November 30th through the end of live programming on December 13th.

The goal for this year's 2 week drive is to raise $20,000 in listener support to sustain operating expenses throughout the coming year. As Wesleyan university struggles to close a budget gap this fiscal year, WESU faces more pressure than ever to become a self sustaining community service.

With our 70th Anniversary year coming to a close, WESU is in the final stages of fulfilling a construction permit from the FCC to increase our power from 1,500 to 6,000 watts (ERP). This upgrade will nearly double our potential listening audience from approximately 500,000 to 1,000,000 people. Our antenna has been delivered and the installation is poised to begin upon completion of our pledge drive, weather pending.

Financial support during this pledge drive will help ensure that WESU continues to grow and operate as a creative vehicle for partnership between the Wesleyan University community, the people of the greater Connecticut River Valley, and beyond. Donations will directly benefit WESU and help to ensure local, community-based programs and alternative news and music continue to have a home on the radio dial.

WESU boasts a diverse schedule offering a wide variety of free form creative musical programming including Jazz, Soul, Blues, Rock, Caribbean, Hip Hop, Experimental, Electronic, Gospel, Oldies, Latin music, and much more.

In addition to the plethora of music programming, WESU also offers a robust public affairs line-up including programs from National Public Radio, Pacifica, and other independent and local alternative news consortiums.

To show your support for WESU, please donate now at www.wesufm.org, or call 860-685-7700 during the drive and make a pledge. Online pledges are conveniently processed immediately, they prevent clerical errors, and they are more eco-friendly since there is no paper involved. All donations are tax deductible.

Around Middletown in 80 Days: Day 71

WESU!

Established in 1939, WESU is one of the oldest non-commercial radio stations in the United States. WESU broadcasts at the frequency of 88.1 megahertz from it's 1500-watt transmitter located atop the Wesleyan Science Tower. WESU offers an interesting mix of Public affairs and free-form music programming to discerning listeners at throughout the Connecticut River Valley. Phileas is hoping to get in on the action and drop some beats today, so make sure you tune in! Check out the program listing at www.wesufm.org

Conversations on Health Care, October 21

On WESU, 88.1 FM, 4:30-5:00 PM.

Eye on the Air, October 16

Originally aired, October 16, 1-2 PM, WESU 88.1 FM.

Hosts: Ed McKeon and Karen Swartz
Guests: Brendan Toller, documentary director of I Need That Record and Jesse Allen former employee of Middletown's Record Express and California's Amoeba Records.

Conversations on Health Care: Dr. Mark Murray

Today on WESU, 88.1 FM at 4:30 PM. Listen live here.

Eye on the Air, October 9

Eye on the Air, live on WESU, 88.1 FM, from 1-2 PM. Hosts Ed McKeon and Richard Kamins, guests Wesleyan professor of government Elvin Lim and jazz and modern music master Taylor Ho Bynum.

Eye on the Air, Oct 2

Eye on the Air, WESU 88.1 FM, (on the web) live from 1-2 PM.

GUESTS: Elizabeth Conklin, attorney representing Food Not Bombs in hearings with the State Department of Health, and in a free-speech lawsuit against Middletown, and Middletown Eye culture correspondent Richard Kamins talks to jazz musician Steve Lehman.

New Health Show on WESU

Today a new show, Conversations on Health Care debuts on WESU, 88.1 FM at 4:30 PM. Today's show features an interview with Nancy Pelosi and Dr. Mitch Katz, health director for San Francisco.

Eye on the Air, September 4

Eye on the Air, Live 1-2 PM, WESU 88.1 FM (wesu.org)

Guests: Barry Chernoff, professor of marine biology at Wesleyan University and expert on the Coginchaug-Mattabassett estuary, and Earle Roberts, member of the Middletown Common Council and independent candidate for the council.

Eye on the Air August 28

Eye on the Air, Friday 1-2 PM, WESU 881.FM (wesu.org).

Guest: Planning and Zoning Commissioner Catherine Johnson talking about smart growth planning. This show will be truncated due to vacation.