Communiqué
“Radio Free Athens” Full Line Up Returns This Saturday
< < Back to9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on WOUB 1340 AM
ATHENS, OH – Radio Free Athens (RFA) is returning to the WOUB 1340 AM airwaves this Saturday with its first full line up of volunteer programs for the first time in more than a year. RFA went on hiatus in March 2020 due to the COVID 19 pandemic.
“We are thrilled to have our volunteers back in the studio,” said WOUB Radio Director Rusty Smith. “It’s another sign that things are starting to return to normal.”
RFA runs from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays on WOUB 1340 AM and community volunteers and Ohio University students present music and interview content through a format-free, host-driven program.
Community Volunteer Host Michael Tedesco has been with RFA for more than a decade. He says the programs that are a part of RFA are important to the local music community.
“The internet has nebulae worth of content, from legacy radio stations now online, to podcasts to radio.garden. But what it has less and less of daily is live, non-commercial, playlist-free radio that can respond on the fly to current conditions. That’s what this is about,” said Tedesco.
Tedesco says social media has also given RFA reach beyond Athens.
“Thanks to social media and the international network of listeners cultivated by our RFA programmers, we have hundreds of regular RFA listeners in every time zone,” said Tedesco.
“I like to play the music that I would like to hear on the radio, namely most of the stuff I listen to,” said Volunteer Host Chris McKee. “I have a wide musical palate, and I also like to play stuff from bands I see in clubs. That to me is the importance of Radio Free Athens. It’s about turning people on to new sounds.”
Volunteer Host Art Cromwell will also return to RFA Saturday at noon with his program Out of the Afternoon. This weekend’s Jazz program will include segments focusing on a few new recordings; several Jazz birthday acknowledgments, including an archival interview with Grachan Moncur III (b .’37, raised in Newark N.J.), one of the first trombonist of the 1960 avant-garde period.
Radio Free Athens Saturday, June 5 Schedule:
9 a.m. to 12 p.m. – Ezra
12 p.m. to 3 p.m. – Out of the Afternoon with Dr. Art Cromwell
3 p.m. to 6 p.m. – Michael Tedesco
6 p.m. to 8 p.m. – Chris McKee