Posts Categorized: News

The Maine Association of Broadcasting Awards, otherwise knowm as ‘the MAB’s’, awarded WMPG ‘Best Website’ in their digital category.

We are thrilled to win this award for the hard work we put into maintaining and updating wmpg.org

WMPG Presents an Open Mic Night This Friday @ 7pm in USM’s McGoldrick Center in Portland. All are welcome, come check out the new building on Bedford Street. Bring your guitar, bass, iPhone, really any instrument. It all happens this Friday, September 8th. Pre-register if you are bringing a band so we can be prepared! Should be lots of fun. Hope to see you there. For more information send an email to Stationmanager@wmpg.org.

While holding a writing workshop here at USM with other colleagues, Philosopher Professor Joe Arel and friends wanted to talk about why music and certain songs are perfect to examine the philosophical meaning behind that song. Listen to their roundtable table discussion and hear their song picks.

WMPG turns 50!

WMPG Free Since ’73! On August 31, 1973 WMPG was born! Well kinda, there’s more to the story than that but that’s when we officially began broadcasting as a FCC licensed radio station.

USM English student hosts Passionate People, a talk show. This week, he chatted to Dr Jacqueline Edmonson, President of the University of Southern Maine.  This aired earlier today (6/26).

Catch the discussion here.

WMPG honors and celebrates Pride.  June will see special programming from our DJ’s and hosts. Pride Portland is on June 17th.

Wed, June 14th The Morning Beat’s Big Gay Disco with Annella 6.30am – 8.30am

What a cool article by our Public Affairs team here at USM about Rick Scala, USM alumni and co-host of the Night Train, who brought Tina Turner to the Gorham Campus of USM back in 1974

Read more >>> 

USM Student Shannon Craig speaks with USM Professor Jeff Beaudry about Juneteenth.

They discuss the history of Slavery and the Civil War. Learn more about Juneteenth, and the importance of it finally becoming a National Holiday.

Update to this post is there will be a memorial service for Michael Danahy this Friday, June 16th, at Novare Res, from 7-8pm.

We received some sad news yesterday that longtime WMPG volunteer, Michael Danahy, has passed away while visiting California.

We’ve partnered up with the fine folks of Congress Square Park to bring our eclectic mix of DJ’s to the park.  Every other Thursday, from 5pm-8pm, a few of our DJ’s will be playing music for you at the park.

The WMPG Bluegrass Spectacular returned for a night of, you guessed it, bluegrass.  Pejebscot Station kicked it off with their set, followed by Breakin’ Strings with the World Famous Grassholes headlining this event that was filled with great music, a silent auction, big energy, and a sense of community.

In celebration of International Jazz Day, WMPG’s Jazz At the Movies (JAM) will be showing the film “Blue Note Records- Beyond the Notes” on Saturday April 29th at the Portland Conservatory of Music.  This movie is about the Blue Note Record label, but it is more about the Blue Note founders and the chemistry between them and the great musicians that recorded on this label.  This is truly a case where the musicians made the record label what it became because the owners gave them the freedom to create.  It is proof that great things happen when creative people connect through music and freedom of expression.

Data Visualizations and Diversity in Maine-Evidence, Art, and Advocacy. An all-day symposium that takes an in-depth active learning approach to 40 data visualizations which first premiered at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900. USM’s Dr. Beaudry talks with us about the event that happens Wednesday April 12th.

WMPG volunteer DJ Geo spoke with Dr. Nicolas Dosman and Dr. Rollo Dilworth about the Maine Premiere of “Weather” a concert for climate change and social justice. The concert takes place on Sunday, April 23, at 5pm, the Alfred and D. Suzi Osher School of Music at USM.

Updated to show updated figure

First a shout-out to everyone who have made the Spring Begathon a success.

To  all who donated, answered  phones, put on fantastic radio shows, entered data, donated food and more we have a huge THANKS!  You all made it happen.

The University of Southern Maine’s Department of Theatre cordially invites you to Eurydice Rising, created in collaboration with the Osher School of Music.

Eurydice Rising reimagines one of Ancient Greece’s most iconic myths of Orpheus and Eurydice in theatre, opera, and dance. This beautiful, moving show is a feast for the eye and ears as it follows Orpheus’s journey into the underworld to be reunited with his young bride, Eurydice, after her death. It’s a story of love, loss, and creative expression that exceeds the bounds of life and death, presence and absence.

We continue our series were we get to know the varied and interesting people who make up USM. WMPG student intern Tash Schneiderat spoke with a few members of FASOC. You’ll hear from Kiva Wright-Berry, Keith Danner, Larissa Malone, and Michelle Vazquez-Jacobus.

There has been fun and drama at WMPG HQ during our Spring fundraising!

DJ Perky (Perky’s Auditory Canal) came up with a song for Begathon to the tune of Help! by the Beatles.  Have a watch!

DJ Perky singing Help!

We are excited to be a media sponsor for somewhere/elsewhere

• Commissioned Maine Artist by Portland Ovations
• Thursday, March 23, 2023, 7 PM
• Westbrook Performing Arts Center

somewhere/elsewhere is a one-night-only concert reading of a new pop-rock musical that immerses us in the migration, losses, and triumphs of a contemporary Turkish immigrant to the U.S. Weaving together Turkish poetry and legend with the original sounds of major label rock band Thanks to Gravity, somewhere/elsewhere is a story of discovering love, joy and belonging in the midst of turbulence, discrimination, and racism; of separation, loss and triumph over the cultural hurdles of ignorance and hate.
This performance includes mature language and will be ASL interpreted.

You may have noticed that we no longer have CPB underwriting announcements read after some of our programs. This is due to WMPG no longer receiving this funding. For more than 20 years WMPG has received this funding but last year we lost the funding due to no longer meeting their qualifications. Radio stations like ours need to meet certain criteria to be funded including the number of listeners as measured by a ratings agency, the number of paid staff, the amount of non-federal funds raised and financial reports. We had an issue with our financial reports which led to this. We are working hard to re-qualify and starting in July will move under a department at USM.  We are hoping this will lead to another 20 years of funding from this important source of support!