Posts Categorized: News

WMPG host Don Kimball spoke with U.S. Senator Angus King on his weekly show Friendly Fire: A Voice for Veterans. They talked about legislation pertaining to veteran’s well-being. Listen to the interview

To celebrate Women’s History, from Thursday March 8-March 14, all DJs and Talk shows will feature women’s music and topics. Beginning on International Women’s day, we will present our signature eclectic music and talk by honoring women from all genres of music and women working in the commnuntity to make changes.

On Sunday February 11th, the Bates Gospelaires performed live during the Maine Gospel Train’s show. DJ Sister Milka asked the choir to perform as part of celebrating Black History month. Listen to The Gospelaires

WMPG celebrated Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. day with two special programs by WMPG volunteers Michael Cutting and DJ Zachariah. Michael played freedom music, speeches, and more. Listen to Michael’s show DJ Zachariah from Palm Wine Radio played musicians who have spoken out against injustice, inequality, prejudice, while advocating for civil rights in Africa. Listen to DJ Zachariah’s show

We are sad to report that longtime WMPG DJ Steve Hirshon passed away peacefully this past Friday night. During his 30 plus years at WMPG Steve wore many hats including DJ, public affairs producer, development director, sports director and serving on the WMPG Board of Directors. Until recently Steve could be heard every Thursday morning hosting his show “Hukkin’ a Chainek” – a Yiddish phrase that means making a big noise – which featured an…

Jim Ward presented his 15th annual Christmas music special that ran for 17.5 hours!!!!! You can listen again if you go to our programming page and click on any of the shows between Sunday 14th 5pm through Monday 25th 8:30am. 5-6PM – CELTIC/IRISH HOLIDAY MUSIC HOUR 6-7pm – RADIO SPECIAL – “A Celtic Christmas” 7-8pm – CHILDREN’S HOUR 8-9pm – OLD-TIME RADIO CLASSIC – Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” 9-10pm – MUSIC HOUR WITH GUEST…

Tune in this Sunday, Nov. 19 from 9-11pm to DJ Shaxx Presents for an ALL-REQUEST Monsters of Alt-Rock special. It’s a battle between alt-rock giants – Morrissey (The Smiths), U2 and the Pixies . The playlist will be voted on by listeners. Go to this fancy survey to collect the votes.

On Friday November 10th (observed Veterans Day) WMPG presented stories from Veterans and music iconic to war and conflicts throughout history. We featured USM student veterans , and a few local organizations: Vet to Vet and Veterans for Peace . There is a special feature from WMPG’s own Dick Dinman about Hollywood actor Jimmy Stewart and his experiences in WWII. Also featured from WMPG producer Lise Stamant, an interview with a local veteran who is working to end suicide amongst veterans. Thanks to Rachel…

Wow – Thanks to everyone who made the 22nd Annual Record Sale a huge success! The weather was perfect, the set-up and clean-up was the fastest ever. After deducting expenses, donations to WMPG from this event are over $10,000. Thanks to everyone who donated records and CDs or helped work the event. It couldn’t have happened without all your help. The Friday night load-in was amazing! We had more than 30 people here and had…

We are sad to have to report that WMPG’er Tanner Olin Smith has passed away. Tanner was a USM student and WMPG work-study student. If your band played on our Local Motives show in the last couple years you will likely remember Tanner. He helped engineer the show. The whole community was shocked and sad to hear of his passing and there was a memorial concert held at One Longfellow Square to celebrate Tanner’s life. The event was called AQUAMARINE:…

Blunt Youth Radio Project is hosting an Open House, on MONDAY, September 25th from 7:00-8:30 PM at WMPG – Southern Maine Community Radio on the USM Portland campus at 92 Bedford Street. Check out our live show and find out how you can join. This is a FREE radio training for teens. You get to do a weekly talk show on community radio. Learn to report for radio, host a live show, engineer a broadcast,…

The Late, Late Show aired on Friday September 1st, an interview with Daniel Rodriguez the former NYC Police Officer that sang the National Anthem and God Bless America at Yankee Stadium after the 9/11 tragedies. Then join Jim Ward at 11pm, on Sept 9th and 15th for his 9/11 tribute show.

If you love radio and especially if you love WMPG, we’d like to invite you to participate with us in National Radio Day on Sunday August 20th. Across the country stations will be celebrating radio – your source for great music and talk produced by members of your community. We are looking for testimonials and Facebook posts on why you love radio and what WMPG means to you. You can call and leave a recorded voice message at…

Ashley Kotzur and Mark Magee just broadcast their 150th show. A fan of the show made some award plaques to honor these goofy guys. The Portland Files airs every Wednesday night at 7:30pm. Tune in for some of the most outrageous and outlandish fun. Rounding out the team is Courtney Edmands. listen here

DJ Dale ended her long running and popular show “Wheeeedoggies” in June, but not everyone got a chance to hear her final show. So we offer it up complete with her traditional phone call to Mama. Listen to first hour Listen to second hour

WMPGer and recent USM graduate Alec Hirschberg, created a audio documentary for his last semester at USM. “And Then it Felt Like a Slum: The story of Franklin Arterial.” The story aired on May 23rd and 30th. Alec describes the documentary as looking into the urban renewal of the mid 1900s, and how it gave people the ability to zip from place to place in cars, traveling by land quickly and conveniently. But, for many…

WMPG’s Chris Darling interviewed award-winning journalist David Brancaccio host of American Public Media’s Marketplace Morning Reports who was at USM on Friday May 12th. He was here as part of the USM Corporate Partners series Examining Fake News. He focused on what reporting the news means in this remarkable time. David Brancaccio’s reporting focuses on the future of the economy, financial and labor markets, technology, the environment and social enterprises. David grew up in central Maine and…

In the Trump Administration’s initial budget the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is defunded. For nearly 50 years, the CPB has supported high quality programming across non-commercial radio, television and digital platforms. WMPG receives 25% ($70,000) of its annual operating funds from CPB, funds that provide for informative national syndicated programming and also help cover numerous expenses, from electricity to equipment to staffing. Learn about what you can do to defend community media at Protect My Public Media . What…

Alex Nahas from the Brooklyn NY band Bright Brown , was a guest on Peter Turner’s “Blind Hope Radio” this past Thursday and featured an awesome performance playing a Chapman Stick . (The Stick) is an electric musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s. A member of the guitar family, the Chapman Stick usually has ten or twelve individually tuned strings and has been used on music recordings to play bass lines, melody lines, chords, or textures. Mixing bittersweet…

The Free Press is the official student newspaper of the University of Southern Maine. The papers mission is to be the definitive source of news and commentary for the USM community. In September 2016, the Free Press started recording audio commentaries titled Press Perspectives that air on WMPG on Tuesdays at 7am, 8am and 4pm. The weekly features are spearheaded by editor-in-chief Krysteana Scribner. Listen here to a few of our Press Perspectives: Overworked Students Clinton/Trump Suicide Awareness Free Press USM President Cumming’s Installation Trump & Media Immigration Ban History Repeats Itself…