Public Radio Music Day 2024 is taking place on Wednesday, October 23. Join WERU and other community and public radio stations, from coast to coast, as we celebrate how music connects people and bridges divides, and how our stations play a unique role in supporting access to music in rural communities. Help spread the word about community radio by telling a friend about the great diversity of music on WERU. From new discoveries to old favorites, curated by real people from your own community, to hearing performances and info from the local music scene, music on community radio is essential. More information about Public Radio Music Day 2024 can be found here. Enjoy all the great music – everyday!
Station News
New Program: We Are Queer
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!
Talk of the Towns: Housing Authorities in Maine
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!
Relationship Rewind: Maine Family Planning
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!
Maine Takes One Small Step 2024
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 will receive a News & Creative Award in the category of radio feature. Congratulations to us, especially our facilitators and producers Michele Christle and Chris Battaglia!
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!
NextWave Radio Hour: Maine Communities with WERU Intern Cecilia Ohanian
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.
Check out the Updates to WERU’s App!
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!
Featured Artist of the Week
“Morning Maine” Featured Artist of the Week: DAVID SINGLEY
David Singley 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 his most recent album. David is performing on Friday, November 1st from 7 – 9 PM at the Hill Arts Center (76 Congress Street) in Portland.
DJ Denis will interview David live via telephone Friday (October 25th) at 8:30 AM!
Wabanaki Land Acknowledgement
WERU Community Radio acknowledges that the radio station exists in the place we now call Maine, which is home to the sovereign Wabanaki people. We are very grateful to be here and honor the ancestral and contemporary Wabanaki peoples indigenous to these places in the Dawnland.