Many of you have been listening to Classical KUAT-FM 90.5 for the 35 years that it’s been on the air, so I’d like to share some history that may entertain you and give you some idea of how far we’ve come. Arizona Public Media’s first radio station, KUAT-AM (now KUAZ-AM) began offering Classical music in October, 1968 and the station became a charter member of the newly-formed National Public Radio (NPR) system in 1971. At that time phone lines connected public radio stations throughout the country to the program production center in Washington, D.C.
On May 19, 1975, KUAT-FM 90.5 began broadcasting as Tucson's first non-commercial FM station (the first selection to be played was Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man). Warren Clark was the welcoming announcer, and the format was primarily classical music with cultural programming, news and public affairs. The broadcast day was 6 a.m. to 12 midnight, seven days a week, from a transmitter on the KUAT-TV tower at Mount Bigelow.
In the years since the station’s first sign-on, we’ve added translators (remote auxiliary transmitters) to reach more of Southern Arizona, won awards for programs, added many broadcast series featuring the world’s greatest classical music performances including the Metropolitan Opera (in 1977), embraced talent like Bill McGlaughlin (who now hosts Exploring Music and Saint Paul Sunday), shared hundreds of local community concerts, and expanded into the new digital age with online streaming, classical blogs from James Reel, and iPhone compatibility.
If you’re passionate about classical music, you will love KUAT-FM no matter where you listen – in your car, on your computer, or on any number of portable hand-held devices. It has been our privilege to keep classical music on the air for your enjoyment, from Southern Arizona to Shanghai.
NPR is having a rather rocky newscast right now (7:01 a.m.), with a tiny, unauthorized blast of music in the first minute and an awkward pause between news items that somehow sounded a lot longer than the one second or so it really lasted. It's hard for listeners to tell whose fault it is when something like that goes wrong, but I insist those two incidents weren't my fault! But perhaps a more important issue is, do listeners even notice little things like that, or care? Somehow, I think not.
A viewer looks at PBS’s website and sees that Show XYZ is suppose to be on at 9PM. They tune in to PBS HD Channel 6 and it's not on. This doesn't always happen but when it does, I can see why a viewer would find this annoying. "Check local listings" is necessary when it comes to a local PBS schedule but why?
As many of you know, PBS doesn’t work like a network in the traditional sense. There are affiliates and for the most part, there’s a schedule that is followed. But a local station’s job is to address the needs and interests of their communities. When we aired a “wild west” marathon in February featuring documentaries about Wyatt Earp and Buffalo Bill, only Southern Arizonans were given such a treat. Why did we do that? Rodeo Days was coming up, and we knew rodeo fever would hit Tucson!
This Monday, we aren’t airing The Hurricane of ’38 at 9PM but at 10PM instead. What is airing at 9 PM this Monday is Passing Poston a film about an interesting piece of Arizona history. The headlines for this film in one paper read "When Being Japanese Meant Losing Freedom". When I worked on my May schedule months ago, I saw an opportunity with our sister PBS station in Phoenix, KAET, to do a statewide broadcast of a film that seemed important for Asian American Pacific Islander Month held in May. Our stations have been talking about AZ’s Centennial and our content options. While I was looking around for shows about Arizona that we’ve never aired, this documentary came to my attention and I felt it was important to air sooner than later. Hurricane of '38 has aired before so we agreed that we should both air Passing Poston instead.
Passing Poston is a touching and at times, difficult documentary to watch. The Poston Relocation center, built on the Colorado River Indian Tribes reservation, served as one of ten internment camps built in seven states.
More than ever, citizens want to know what’s going on in their state, including events of the past. It’s for this reason, that Hurricane moved and Passing Poston, an independent documentary by Joe Fox and James Nubile is airing on May 17th at 9 PM. I hope you have the time to watch it.
For more about the Poston War Relocation Center check out the Passing Poston website or review Wikipedia. Fascinating stuff!
We launched a revamped version of this website at the beginning of May and and there are some new additions we just added, as we continue to tweak the site:
Revamped "On Demand" page that now includes audio podcasts and more.
KUAT-FM music schedule is back online.
We also have cleaner archives, arranged by year and date, and the ability to share our stories on popular social networking sites. Take a look around if you haven't visited the site in awhile.
I haven't always loved Masterpiece Theater. It wasn't till a few summers ago, when I was at a national PBS meeting and Masterpiece hosted lunch. They were announcing their new plans for the series. Masterpiece Classic, Contemporary and Mystery were now their own series and MPT Classic was kicking things off with an all Jane Austen season. WOW. I have been hooked ever since.
In January, when MPT Classic announced that a new version of Emma was coming, I was excited. The finale however, was set for February 7th, Superbowl Sunday and figured a Jane fan would be watching the game. Myself and other PBS station programmers across the country feared that folks would miss the finale due to the game. I got special permission from Masterpiece and PBS to air the last two episodes back to back as a 2 hour special one week early so no one would miss a thing.
Recording devices were set but only for one hour so quite a few missed the crucial payoff to all Jane Austen stories--the end! When Superbowl Sunday came, the beers were set down, the dip was put away and our loyal fans tuned in to Masterpiece Theater. Emma was not there. The calls came in. It got ugly!
If you love Jane, then chances are, so do your friends! Folks, I beg you to tell all your friends:
This Friday we are repeating the last two episodes. The finale is here! Emma will air for two blissful hours starting at 9:30 PM, immediately following the new public affairs Need to Know.
Can't get enough of the bachelors of Highbury or the enchanting Emma, played by Romola Garai? Check out Masterpiece Theater's Emma website while watching the finale.
