WERU Community Radio 89.9 FM - diverse and grassroots radio serving Midcoast, Downeast & Bangor, a voice of many voices!
Serving Midcoast,
Downeast & Central Maine
A Voice of Many Voices
Broadcasting from Solar Powered Studios
WERU’s Fall Membership Drive begins on Saturday, November 9th! We rely on the support of our listeners, volunteers, and business supporters to bring the best community radio experience to Maine and beyond! Support what you believe in and consider becoming a member, a sustaining member, or giving an additional gift. Thank you!
WERU’s One Small Step Project (undertaken in partnership with StoryCorps) has been recognized by the Maine Association of Broadcasters for excellence, and at the annual MAB Awards Gala on October 26, we received First Place in the “Radio Feature” category. Congratulations to WERU, and especially to our facilitators and producers Michele Christle and Chris Battaglia! Wonderful work!
More good news: WERU has been accepted by StoryCorps as an alumni hub station for another round of One Small Step this fall! More information is available by emailing onesmallstep@weru.org, as well as at https://weru.org/one-small-step-2024.
Back in June 2023, we put out a call. We were looking for people who were willing to come together for an hour-long facilitated conversation with a stranger with different viewpoints, during which they would be invited to get to know each other as people, through listening to each other’s stories. As you can imagine, the response was mixed. But by the end of 2023, over a hundred people had signed up to participate…
Check out this New York Times article about this StoryCorps One Small Step project, and this Bangor Daily News article about WERU and One Small Step!
Interview by Katy Green, Member Board of Directors
DJ Coco is the host of Golden Hour, Saturdays 5-6pm.
Tell me about your path leading up to you volunteering at WERU.
I’ve been a musician for many years now and I have typically made friends and found community through playing music. Since moving to Maine, it’s been harder for me to find folks to play music with so I thought community radio might be a good way to meet fellow music lovers and I was right.
The 2024 Word Literary Festival in Blue Hill, October 25-27, was a big success and WERU was there to record it. Listen here for fascinating conversations with authors Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Lev Grossman, as well as moving readings at Poets Aloud! with Kathleen Ellis, Dave Morrison, and Maya Williams. Thanks to Word for providing WERU will the opportunity to record and present this content!
Listen to a Democracy Forum Special on the voting system in Maine, discussed on September 28, at the Moore Center in Ellsworth, hosted by the League of Women Voters–Downeast (and aired on WERU on October 23). Moderated by Ann Luther of the League of Women Voters of Maine, and produced by Linda Washburn and Amy Browne. Democracy Forum is all about participatory democracy, and encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics. In this special program: questions about the many ways in which Maine has excellent pro-voter election laws that are well administered and free from fraud, etc. Program guests: Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows; Joann Bautista, Deputy Secretary of State – Policy Advisor; and Bangor City Clerk, Lisa Goodwin
Bonus election edition of Democracy Forum: What’s on your ballot?
To learn more about these topics visit LWVME.org
We Are Queer, hosted by Olivia Paruk, is a monthly half hour show discussing being LGBTQ+ in Maine and beyond! In the first episode of We Are Queer, Olivia interviews Pepin Mittelhauser about their experience of self discovery and reflections on their queer identity. Their conversations cover Pepin’s queer beginnings, straight passing, and continual reflections on self.
You can listen to the first episode in the WERU Archives, or wherever you get podcasts!
In the most recent episode of Talk of the Towns, hosted by Ron Beard and Liz Graves, they discuss housing in Maine with guests Weston Brehm, Executive Director of MDI – Ellsworth Housing Authorities, and Michael Myhatt, Executive Director of Bangor Housing.
Topics include a bit of history of public housing in the US, recent trends that led to Maine’s current picture, a review of available public housing in Bangor and Mount Desert Island and Ellsworth, voucher programs and ancillary support, who is served by local housing authorities and by Maine State Housing, and where is the “cutting edge” in housing, what are some of the challenges?
Listen to the episode in the WERU Archives, or wherever you get your podcasts!
In the most recent episode of Relationship Rewind, hosted by Carrie Clark, she discusses family planning in Maine with guest Maddy, Prevention Coordinator at Maine Family Planning.
Topics include services and resources offered by Maine Family Planning, the topic of Family Planning in the media and how it is/isn’t depicted, and the impacts of these conversations or lack thereof.
Listen to the episode in the WERU Archives, or wherever you get your podcasts!
WERU’s own summer intern Cecilia Ohanian took over NWRH’s August show, featuring two conversations with young Maine community members: Averi Varney, the Executive Director of the Hancock County Planning Commission, and Jack Sullivan, photographer and multimedia storyteller for the Island Institute.
NextWave Radio Hour is a program focused on and featuring folks around their 20s and 30s from all across Maine. In this program, regular host Pepin Mittelhauser talks with young people who trailblaze their own paths in our modern political, economic, and social climate, and provide unique perspectives and stories of life from the next generation working to create the future they hope to see.
Listen to the archives of this show here, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Have you heard about the recent updates to the WERU app? We’re always trying to improve this service, and two new features under the menu icon are pretty cool. One is called “station news,” which you can select to get articles about the latest goings on at WERU. The other is labelled “your voice,” which gives you the ability to record a station identification or tell us why you listen to WERU, both of which could be broadcast on the station. So, if you want to add your voice to the “Voice of Many Voices,” use this feature and we’ll give it a listen, and you never know, you might hear yourself over the airwaves or on the internet. That’s the every-improving WERU app for your phone or other mobile device, available for free at your favorite app store. Check it out!
American Authors is our “Featured Artist of the Week”! Tune in each weekday morning at 7:45 AM (ET) to hear our volunteer disc jockey play at least one cut from their albums and then give you a chance to win a FREE pair of guest list passes to see them perform on Friday, November 15th at 7:30 PM at Gracie Theatre (One College Circle in Bangor).