Posts Categorized: News

Our University of Southern Maine (USM) students and DJ’s are honoring Black History Month at WMPG. This year’s theme is Black Resistance.

You will hear specially curated playlists from DJ’s.  Our students are producing audio which will highlight achievements and contributions, including pre-colonial history plus profiles of contemporary figures recognizing people from politics, education, pop culture, sports and other areas.

WMPG’s annual Fat Tuesday Mardi Gras Cajun Cookin’ Contest takes place on Tuesday February 21st from 11am – 2pm in the USM Abromson building on the Portland campus. All are welcome to come and taste the foods of New Orleans and vote for your favorite. Come taste gumbo, jambalaya and more! Be ready for a King Cake, Beads and party favors supplied by WMPG! Stay tuned for more details. If you are a restaurant and want to participate send an email to stationmanager@wmpg.org for more details.

Beginning Tuesday January 17th, you will hear new shows alongside your favorites – some have moved into different times and days.

Why are we mixing things up?

WMPG is turning 50 this year, and we wanted to return to our roots, offering radio that is surprising, eclectic, and truly local. We are radio made by community and University of Southern Maine members.  Thanks for being the world’s best listeners!  Take a peek at our new schedule.

Monday January 16^th is Dr. Martin Luther King Day.

WMPG will offer special programming to honor Reverend King’s work on civil rights and equity. Tune in from 10am-noon to hear volunteer Michael Cuttings extensive collection of music and speeches. At 1:30-3pm, USM student Shannon Craig will present his take on civil rights and the ongoing struggle. Then at 4pm, we will play King’s complete speech from 1957 titled “Birth of a New Nation.”

WMPG Wrapped 2022

by Caroline Davis (USM Theatre Student and Work Study)

As 2022 comes to a close, we here at WMPG would like to thank our volunteers, business supporters, listeners, and the community of the University of Southern Maine (USM) for their support. It’s been a very successful year for us, and we could not have achieved everything we have without your support.

Thanks to the hard working CMP crews WMPG power is back on at the transmitter site! Missed a couple of your favorite shows yesterday, just check out our archives where they are available on-demand. Hope you are all warm and safe.

During this fundraising drive, we want to celebrate Mainers who are doing great things in the community

FRIEND-RAISING

Who are the change-makers in Southern Maine? 
Join WMPG to celebrate, and to connect to, Mainers who are transforming our world.

WMPG featured a live remote broadcast of the Dr. Alfred and D. Suzi Osher school of Music’s Joyous Sounds for a Festive Season. The concert took place on Tuesday November 29th at the Cathedral of St Luke in Portland. Directed by Dr. Nicolas Dosman and featuring the Osher School of Music Choral Union singers

Hi my name is Jon McKenney with the latest version of Beyond The Hook. A hook is: a musical or lyrical passage, or a riff, that is repeated and designed to catch the ears of listeners
and reel them in, and this song has a world class hook. I chose today’s song because it is a perfect example of what a hook is. I guarantee that once I tell you what it is you’ll say, “OMG of course I know that phrase, I’ve heard it a hundred times.” I toss superlatives around like confetti but this hook and the singer who is best known for the song are icons in the world of popular music. I am not exaggerating when I say that this ballad has been covered by hundreds of artists and here are just a few: Dolly Parton who wrote it, Beyonce, Linda Ronstadt, LeAnn Rimes, Gloria Gaynor, Melissa Etheridge, and Celine Dion, who puts the most into it. But the woman who is best known for performing Dolly’s musical masterpiece is Whitney Houston. You guessed it; the song is I Will Always Love You and if that phrase — which we all know, “I will always love you” — doesn’t stir some emotion in you; you need help.

UPDATE:  THANKS SO MUCH – WE HIT OUR GOAL OF $60,000!

Thank you for donating during our fall fundraising.  Mail is still trickling in from the post office so we don’t have a final figure yet but we are currently sitting at $63,000!  Big shout out to all of you donors including our sustaining donors. Hip hip hooray! (repeat 3 times)

Hi my name is Jon McKenney and welcome to the first installment of “Beyond The Hook.”

A hook, sometimes called a riff, is a repeatable phrase or melody that draws you in and hooks you. I am an English major, and I am working as an intern, here at WMPG, that requires a writing component and my first assignment is to hit the ground running and produce a colucast or a (column /podcast). The beauty of the job is: I can write about a topic that I am passionate about so I will be forcing you to listen to my opinion. If you don’t like it or disagree or on the off chance that you do agree let me know.

It’s Day 5 of Begathon and we need your help to reach our target of $60,000.  We are slightly over halfway there and need your help.

WMPG programs shows like Rosita’s Latinos where she plays Latin music and gives information for Hispanic Mainers. Rosita was recently featured on News Center Maine’s Hispanic Month features.

Today, we kicked off our fall fundraiser!

Every day our volunteer DJ’s and radio hosts bring passion and knowledge to WMPG. Our DJ’S curate fabulous playlists and bring you the best music that you don’t tend to hear on commercial stations. We deliver independent news and bring you great talk and public affairs shows. We train the next generation of audio producers, both from the University of Southern Maine and from our Southern Maine community.

WMPG’S Advisory Board is seeking WMPG listeners from the Southern Maine Community to act as a representation of WMPG’s audience. Listener Representatives are full board members and as such participate in formulating station policy and long range planning. These are two-year positions with meetings held the 2nd Wednesday of each month from 7-9pm on the USM Portland campus.

The month of September is National Recovery Month. Chris Corson, the Director os USM’s Recovery Oriented Campus Center (ROCCA) states: “individuals I believe, we are all recovering from something: relationships with people, food, Covid 19, the stress of being away from home the first time, the passing of a loved one, substance use, and anxiety just to name a few.”

DJ Jon was featured in the Portland Press Herald at the weekend where he discussed his love of K-Pop. DJ Jon hosts K-Pop Mega Mix on Tuesdays at 4pm on 90.9FM. We are proud to have him here at WMPG.

“It seems that most of the music for kids that age are songs about frogs and baby sharks, then it goes straight into hip-hop songs about heroin or violence,” said Hawkins, 51, of Portland. “There aren’t a lot of American pop songs that are fun for kids to dance to and are just about love.”  DJ Jon.

Stay connected to WMPG anywhere with our WMPG app for your mobile device!

The WMPG Community Radio app is now available to download for IOS & Android

Use the mobile app to listen live, check out our recent programs and podcasts.

After taking a break on the WMPG Record Sale due to the pandemic, we are doing one this summer! Not the big one scheduled for November 2022 but a smaller, scaled version right at WMPG!

On Saturday, July 9th from 10am to 3pm we are setting up in the WMPG driveway! Crazy huh! Should be fun and with tables full of LPs and CDs just waiting for you! Come find the usual hidden treasures and support WMPG! WMPG is located at 92 Bedford Street in Portland.

WMPG has partnered with Portland Ovations to be a media sponsor of a great evening of dance. 

Hour Wolf in the Lighthouse is a collaborative dance work between Portland, Maine choreographers Riley Watts and Heather Stewart, and is the debut performance of the little house dance company.

Our monthly news program Amjambo Time didn’t air in full due to a computer problem. Big apologies – so we present the entire 30 minute program here. We will also rebroadcast the entire program next Friday May 20th at 7pm. Many thanks to reporter Jean Damascene and everyone at the newspaper Amjambo Africa and our sponsor Ocean View at Falmouth