Wednesday, December 12, 2018

GCR Welcomes New Partner Station in Southwest Virginia

Global Community Radio is pleased to welcome another partner station to our family of campus and community radio stations using our streams to provide unique programming to their local communities.

This time, we say welcome aboard to the folks at WROF-LP (Radio of Floyd) in Floyd, Virginia, in the Blue Ridge Mountain area of Southwest VA. WROF is heard locally at 95.7 FM, and online at www.wrof-floyd.com, where there is already a live stream. For now, listeners can hear GCR2 and its wide variety of music 24/7 on WROF. Eventually, WROF will start offering select programs from all three GCR streams, along with its own local programming.

Hats off to Scott and the rest of the crew at WROF for bringing community radio to their local area. We look forward to working with them for a long time to come!

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Update: GCR2 Back On Air

After being down for at least the past 24 hours, GCR2 is back. We were able to finally reconnect to our existing server using the old login credentials. Apologies for any inconvenience caused to our partner stations and listeners. We will be asking our streaming provider to please look into this matter to determine the exact cause, and to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Thanks, everyone, for your continued support!

GCR2 Down - Beyond My Control

To All GCR2 Partners and Listeners:

At some point (not sure just when) the Auto DJ feature of our streaming server hosted by Shoutca.st kicked in. This is normally only used when our "live" normal programming stream is down due to a power or internet outage at our Geneva, New York studio. But this time, there is no problem on my end. Our internet is working properly, and the software we use to stream c0ontent to the server says that it is streaming. But, for reasons as yet unknown, the Auto DJ will not "kick over" to the live stream. I have stopped and restarted the server several times hoping this will resolve the issue. No luck. I can't seem to get our programming out to the stream. I have sent a support ticket marked urgent to the tech teat at the server over in the UK. Unfortunately, until I hear from them, there is nothing I can do to restore normal programming. Needless to say, I am not happy! Up to now, I thought this company was a reliable, dependable streaming service. I am hoping they will help me to resolve this problem as soon as possible. In the mean time, feel free to switch to a different GCR stream if you do not want the "endless loop" of fill music and technical difficulties announcements. GCR1 and 3 are both functioning normally.

I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience to both my partner stations and their listeners. Rest assured I will not rest until this is fixed!

Jason Longwell
GCR Station Manager

Sunday, September 30, 2018

Several Changes to GCR Program Schedules

At Global Community Radio, we strive to bring our partner stations and their listeners the best mix of programming from around the world. We are constantly listening to the feedback of our partner stations and their listeners to determine the best programming strategies going forward. It is because of this feedback that we're making several changes to our program schedules.

There are two minor changes to the GCR1 schedule. Production of Truthdig Radio has become very sporadic. So we are replacing it with a new weekly series, Progressive Spirit, which discusses both spirituality and social justice. This program will now be heard Mondays at 9PM Eastern/6PM Pacific. On Fridays at 11AM Eastern/8AM Pacific, The Steve Pomeranz Show has been reduced from 59 minutes to 29 minutes weekly. We are adding a new financial advice show, Ask Peggy About Your Finances, with host Peggy Doviak, to fill the second half of the hour.

The bigger changes concern the two music streams.

GCR2 is adding a two hour block of novelty and comedy music Tuesdays at 11PM Eastern/8PM Pacific. Crazy College will move over to GCR2 from GCR3, followed by The Fun Zone with Byron Lee. The Deuce Radio Show and Independent Music Show will shift to 1 and 2 AM Eastern. Cat Beast Party shifts to Sundays at 5PM Eastern.

GCR3 is making big changes to its lineup. We will continue to offer Old Time Radio weeknights at 10PM Eastern. However, we are shifting our late night OTR programming from weekends to weeknights. Old Time Radio Classics, Same Time, Same Station, Upstate Radio Theatre and Treasures Old and New From ART will all be heard during the week. Tuned to Yesterday will continue to air, but will be cut back to airing Tuesday and Thursday evenings. We are adding several new Classical music programs, including two from KGNU community radio in Boulder, Colorado. On the Jazz front, we're making changes to our Saturday Jazz programming, including moving Down the Road, a weekly showcase of New Orleans music to GCR3, as well as adding new modern Jazz programs late into the night on Saturday.

In the days to come, all program schedules will be updated as we update and rebuild our automation logs. Again, these changes are all being made based on responses to questions posed to our partner stations and listeners. You, too, can submit your feedback about GCR any time by sending e-mail to globalcommunityradio@gmail.com.

Thanks for listening!

Jason Longwell
GCR Station Manager

Sunday, September 23, 2018

WLRI is now WTPA

WLRI 92.9 FM in Gap, Pennsylvania is now WTPA-LP. The station maintains its strong commitment to local news and community service to Lancaster and Chester counties, and will continue to suppliment its local programming with GCR1. Visit their new website at http://www.wtpafm.org

Thursday, August 23, 2018

Changes to GCR3 Schedule

GCR3 has made changes to its program schedule. First, we've received feedback stating that some listeners would like to hear Old Time Radio every weeknight, and the modern radio drama/science fiction was not as well received. To accommodate these requests, we are adding two hours of Tuned to Yesterday on Fridays from 10PM to Midnight Eastern. We may reinstate some of the modern radio drama at another time slot if one becomes available.

Also, changes coming to our Classical music programming. We were informed recently by WWFM in Trenton, New Jersey that Well-Tempered Baroque has ended its run, as the host has left the station to pursue other endeavors. We are replacing this program with Millennium of Music. The show will now air Thursdays at 7AM Eastern. Temporarily, it will continue to air in its original time slot of Sundays at 9AM Eastern. This will be changing soon, as we're in talks with some other programmers to add more Classical programming. Watch this space for further details.

As always, thanks for listening to and supporting Global Community Radio.

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

KLQS Back On Air

Global Community Radio is pleased to welcome back to its family of partner stations KLQS-LP (96.7) in Agua Dulce, California. The station had been off the air for many months due to equipment problems. Now, those issues have been resolved, and the station is again proudly serving the Agua Dulce community. Like before, KLQS is offering GCR1 programming for its listeners 24/7. We are pleased to have this station back on the air, and carrying GCR programming once again.

Monday, July 30, 2018

GCR Program Schedule Changes

Here are the latest schedule updates for Global Community Radio.

Last week, we began experiencing difficulties accessing the podcast files for VOA Border Crossings. To be perfectly honest, this show was added to GCR2 as an experiment to see if there was any interest in Top 40 music among our partner stations and their listeners. So far, the program has not received much feedback, and the feedback we did receive was not positive. This, paired with the sudden lack of accessibility has caused us to decide to drop the program from GCR2. In its place, we're trying another VOA music program which is still offered as a podcast. It's called African Beat, and offers listeners a daily mix of the latest in African music. We feel this will be a welcome addition to the World music programming already heard on GCR2. So, tune in weekdays at 6PM Eastern/3PM Pacific to hear this new addition to the schedule. Also, because of the similarities between African Beat and VOA's weekend program, Music Time in Africa, we are moving Music Time to Sundays at 1PM Eastern/10AM Pacific, swapping time slots with Journey Without Maps, which will now air on Monday evenings.at 9PM Eastern/6PM Pacific. Feedback is very much wanted.

On GCR1, we are discontinuing Voices and Views. There have not been any new episodes posted to their website in quite a while, and, the program is focusing more and more on local issues only relevant to Colorado. So, we are discontinuing the series for the time being. In its place, to compliment Positive Parenting, we are bringing back the series Parents Perspective. We had been airing this series while it was still in production. Even though there are no new episodes available, there were over 500 programs produced in the series. It is our belief that most of these episodes contain valuable insights into parenting which are still relevant today. If and when a new series on parenting, education, or other related topics becomes available, we will consider placing it into this time slot.

Thank you for listening to and supporting Global Community Radio.

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

RAE Argentina Cuts Foreign Language Broadcasts to 30 Minutes

RAE, the foreign service of Argentina's national public broadcaster, has reduced their weekday English broadcast from 60 minutes to 30 minutes. GCR1 will continue to present the daily English program from RAE weeknights at 11:02 PM Eastern/8:02 Pacific following the daily news bulletin from Radio Sweden. To fill out the second half of the hour, GCR is pleased to add the daily English broadcast from Radio Tirana Albania, giving our listeners a chance to hear news and perspectives from yet another country.

We hope you will enjoy the new lineup.

GCR Welcomes New Terrestrial and Internet Partner Stations

Global Community Radio is pleased to welcome more stations to our ever-growing network.

First, we'd like to welcome KBOG-LP in Bandon, Oregon. At the moment, while the station undergoes some needed maintenance and upgrades, KBOG will be offering its listeners a wide variety of programming from all three GCR streams. During this time, KBOG will be conducting surveys within the community to determine which programs their listeners enjoy, and would like to see become part of the permanent schedule. We look forward to working with KBOG and to serving the Bandon, Oregon community with high quality programming.

Also, a belated welcome to two internet radio stations using GCR programming. First, we welcome Troon Radio, a webcast from Raleigh, North Carolina. Troon exists as a voice for local artists to have a worldwide platform. As they develop their own local programming, Troon will primarily use GCR2 to fill its unused hours. Also, we welcome NoCo.fm, a web based community station from Fort Collins, Colorado. NoCo will be using GCR2 for some of its evening and overnight programming.

Global Community Radio is grateful to all of its partner stations for their continued support. A big THANK YOU to you all!

Friday, July 13, 2018

GCR Program Schedules Now Display Eastern and Pacific Time Zones

At the request of several of our listeners and partner stations on the West coast, GCR will now display program times on its schedule pages in both Eastern and Pacific. The Eastern time will appear first, followed by the Pacific time with a slash to separate them. Because I have other things to work on over the weekend, I will be updating the schedule displays over the coming days as time permits. I appreciate your patience.

We hope this will be much more convenient for our West coast listeners. Listeners and stations in all other time zones can still ask for converted program schedules by sending email to globalcommunityradio@gmail.com

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Changes to GCR3 Classical Programming

Recently, we were informed in writing by Tony Currie of Radio Six International iin Scotland that his long running Classical music series, Nothing But the Best, has come to an end. This is due to the fact that his wife is in poor health at this time, and Tony is her sole caregiver. While we are sorry to lose this outstanding radio series, which we've carried for many years, we can certainly understand the circumstances. Tony plans to continue producing his weekly show of pop instrumentals, The Lively Lounge, which airs over on GCR2 early Monday mornings.

In place of Nothing But the Best, GCR3 is pleased to welcome to its diverse Classical lineup Classical Music for Everyone. This weekly series originates at community radio station KYAQ in Toledo, Oregon. Each week, host Gib Bernhardt presents a wide variety of Classical music, and occasionally features interviews and in-studio performances with Classical musicians. Our thanks to Gib and KYAQ for graciously making this series available to GCR. We are the first outlet to offer the program outside of KYAQ, and we hope everyone will enjoy the new show.

Additionally, GCR has brought back to its schedule Center Stage From Wolf Trap. This series has returned for another season of great live performances from Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia. Center Stage From Wolf Trap airs Fridays at 8 AM Eastern through the remainder of the year.

As always, thank you for listening to GCR3: Your Connection to the Arts.

Monday, June 18, 2018

GCR Loses Harmonia, But Gains Millennium of Music

Dear GCR3 Listeners and Partner Stations:

Global Community Radio was recently notified in writing that WFIU/Indiana University would be changing the way in wich its longtime Early Music series, Harmonia, would be distributed. Beginning next month, the program will be exclusively distributed by Public Radio International (PRI). Unfortunately, PRI, and many other pubic radio distributors, charge exorbitant fees for the rights to carry the programs they distribute. GCR is of the opinion that these fees are deliberately marked up because it is assumed by said distributors that all non-commercial radio stations have access to Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) funding, arts grants, and a base of rich donors to help pay the ridiculous carriage fees they charge. As has been explained many times before, Global Community Radio has mo money to purchase programming. GCR relies on the generosity of program producers and distributors who make their content available gratis. At the same time, we realize that, in the radio business, as with most things in life, circumstances change. We deeply regret the loss of Harmonia, as we've carried the program as far back as the old Geneva Community Radio days, but, it's a situation we have no control over whatsoever. We wish the crew of Harmonia well in their new endeavor. Fortunately, we WILL be able to carry Indiana Public Media's other syndicated programming (Afterglow and Night Lights on GCR3, and A Moment of Science, Earth Eats, and Focus on Flowers on GCR1) as these shows will continue to be distributed in the same manner.

Beginning Sunday, July 2nd at 9 AM Eastern/6 AM Pacific, GCR3 is proud to offer its listeners and partner stations the long running series Millennium of Music. Each week, Millennium of Music features a wide array of musical styles from "the thousand years before the birth of Bach". Fortunately, this series is now available to Global Community Radio for free. Previously, we would have had to pay for the series under its previous distribution platform. GCR3 is excited to add this well kown and respected Public Radio series to its Classical music programming. We sincerely hope you will enjoy the program.

Economic Update Cuts Back to 29 Minutes Weekly

Dear GCR1 Listeners and Partner Stations:

Effective immediately, Economic Update With Richard Wolfe will be offered as a weekly 29 minute series, instead of the former length of 59 minutes. GCR1 will continue to air the program Fridays at Noon Eastern/9 Am Pacific. Immediately following Economic Update on Fridays will be a weekly series from ABC Radio National called The Money. Each week, The Money focuses on a particular aspect of the Australian and/or the global economy.

We hope you will enjoy the new Friday lineup of economic and money oriented programming.

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Seeking Help Identifying IP Connections to GCR Streams

Hello Everyone.

Recently, I've noticed some unidentified IP addresses which have been connecting to the GCR1 and GCR2 streams on a frequent basis. I am assuming that these IPs belong to radio stations which are retransmitting GCR programming.

While GCR is available to any noncommercial radio station absolutely free of charge, stations do need to contact GCR to indicate that they are using the service, along with their call letters, frequency, location, and the days/times they are using GCR programming.

Here is a list of the unknown IP addresses. If any of these belong to you or your radio station, please send an email to globalcommunityradio@gmail.com so we can start a dialogue.

IP Address: 67.174.120.129
Location: Ft. Collins, Colorado
Stream: GCR2

IP Address: 192.241.197.186
Location: New York, New York
Stream: GCR2

IP Address: 88.99.58.156
Location: United Kingdom
Stream: GCR1

Thank you in advance for getting in touch.

Jason Longwell
GCR Station Manager

Saturday, June 2, 2018

One More Change to GCR1 Sunday Night Schedule

Dear GCR1 Listeners and Partner Stations:

As I alluded to in my ;ast blog post, there's one further change to the GCR1 Sunday evening schedule. I did not want to make this announcement until I was absolutely certain that everything was ready in order for this change to take place.

Recently, PCJ Media announced that it would be discontinuing the weekly production of Media Network Plus. They did not give a specific date for the end of the series, only stating that it would end "sometime over the Summer". I had been wondering what to do when this occurred, and quite by chance, the answer came to me a few weeks ago.

GCR is going ahead and dropping MNP from our lineup effective this weekend. You will now hear Wavescan at 9:30 PM Eastern/6:30 Pacific. ARRL Audio News will follow at 10 PM/7 PM, and Skeptoid at 15 past the hour.

The biggest development in all of this is the new program that will air at 10:30 PM Eastern/7:30 Pacific.

Global Community Radio is pleased to announce to its listeners and partner stations that, once again, GCR has broken new, original ground with an exciting new series which, as of now, is exclusive to GCR1 and its partner stations.

GCR is proud to introduce "Intellectual Thoughts of a Teenage Girl". This new, weekly half hour program is hosted by Nykole "Nykki" Garland. Nykki is an aspiring 17 year old radio personality from Tucson, Arizona. I had the pleasure of meeting Nykki in an online forum recently, and she expressed a strong desire to be on the radio, as well as a passion for traditional terrestrial radio that is not often seen in today's younger generation.

I am proud to give Nykki her first "big break" in radio by giving her this time slot to showcase her auditory creativity. Each week, Nykki will discuss topics and issues which she feels are relevant to teens and young adults. She is not afraid to tackle controversial issues such as gun control, politics, religion, and other issues that shape our world. In addition, Nykki will share some personal stories and insights which will allow listeners to get to know her on a far more personal level. You will not want to miss a single episode of this new series, as you never know what she'll say next!

I sincerely hope that listeners and station managers will find this new series to be both informative and entertaining. I ask everyone to please keep in mind that this is Nykole's first attempt at a serious radio program. Please be patient and understand with her as she finds her way and strives to improve the quality of the show. I, and a few others, will be working with her in the coming days and week to help make this series the best it can possibly be.

I encourage everyone not only to listen to the new show, but, also, to send along your comments, questions and suggestions. You can email the program directly at intellectualthoughtsofateen@gmail.com and the new website for the show is http://intellectualthoughtsofateengirl.blogspot.com. Podcasts of the show will be available for on-demand listening and downloading soon.

Global Community Radio looks forward to working with Nykki Garland, and to helping her grow into a true radio professional. Welcome aboard, Nykki!

NOTE: This new series is available to any non-commercial radio station that wants to add it to their weekly schedule. You do not need to participate in Global Community Radio in order to air the series. GCR partner stations can air the series at another day and time that is more convenient for them if the Sunday airing on GCR1 is not convenient.

Any questions regarding the show can be emailed to the above address, or to globalcommunityradio@gmail.com

As always, thank you for your continued support, as GCR continues to strive to be a true innovator in community radio.

Jason Longwell
GCR Station Manager

Sunday, May 20, 2018

GCR Schedule Changes

A couple of changes have taken place to the schedules for GCR1 and GCR2.

On GCR1, we've added the daily 2-minute English news bulletin from Radio Sweden. This will air Monday to Friday at 11 PM Eastern/8 PM Pacific. Radio Sweden's in-depth weekly program remains Mondays at 2:30 AM Eastern/Sundays at 11:30 PM Pacific.

We've replaced The Adam Ritz Show on Sundays at 6:30 PM Eastern/3:30 PM Pacific with Global 3000, the audio of a weekly series from DW Television which we feel still translates well to radio. Global 3000 is "the Globalization program", presenting stories of interest from around the world. Listeners who enjoy DW Radio programs World Link and World in Progress should definitely check out Global 3000. We're sorry to drop The Adam Ritz Show, as it came highly recommended to us by one of our community radio colleagues. Unfortunately, it appears no new shows are forthcoming in the series, and most of the older episodes are time and date sensitive. At GCR, we prefer to air fresh, new content whenever possible.

There may be more changes coming to our Sunday evening schedule later this Summer. So please check back often for the latest schedule details.

On GCR3, we've had to drop our back catalog airings of Compact Discoveries. The host and producer of this excellent series, Fred Flaxman, passed away in 2015. His account on Box.com, where we had been getting the shows, was abruptly closed without notice to us. We have no other way to access these episodes, unfortunately. Consequently, we're also dropoing "The Concert", in order to make room for a new two hour live performance series. From here onward, we will present Music Mountain, a series of live chamber music performances from the Music Mountain festival which takes place each year in Falls Village, Connecticut. We will air be airing programs from past seasons of the festival when we are not running the current season of concerts.

As always, thank you for your understanding as GCR strives to bring new and interesting content to its partner stations and their listeners.

Friday, April 20, 2018

GCR3 Welcomes New Partner Station

Global Community Radio is pleased to announce the addition of a new partner station in one of America's most musically diverse cities.

GCR welcomes KJZX-LP "Jazz ATX" in Austin, Texas. Jazz ATX can be heard in Austin at 101.9 on the FM dial. This is Austin's first, and only, all-Jazz formatted radio station. It is also one of only three all-Jazz stations in the entire state of Texas.

Jazz ATX will present most of GCR3's daily Jazz schedule, in addition to programming from The WFMT Radio Network. Most importantly, the station will develop close relationships with the local Jazz community in Austin, and will be developing their own locally hosted content as the station grows.

Our thanks goes out to Eric Truax, and the rest of the staff at Jazz ATX for partnering with Global Community Radio. We look forward to a long, fruitful partnership.

Slight Changes to GCR1 Weekday "Shorts"

Thanks to some astute listeners, we've made some changes to the weekday "shorts" that air during the 9 AM and 5 PM (Eastern) hours.

The daily UN News in Brief segments are not always available in time for airing during the 5 PM hour. Because GCR strives to present the most current, up to date news programming, we're shifting UN News to the following morning at 9:25 Eastern, to ensure we get the latest audio every day.

This will in turn cause a few of the other "shorts" (short form features that we air in between or right after newscasts).

As always, the up to date schedule is right here on this website.

Thanks for your understanding, as GCR does its best to present accurate, up to date, current news and feature programming.

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

GCR3 Schedule Tweaking

We want to thank everyone for their positive feedback about the new GCR3. Though it's only been on the air for a few days, the positive feedback we have received thus far has been amazing. We're tweaking the schedule of the new service just a bit as we move forward, all in an effort to offer our partner stations and listeners the best service possible.

One significant change we've made from our original plans concerns the overnight/early morning hours during the week. We've decided to experiment with offering a relay of ABC Classic FM from Australia, Monday thru Friday from 1 to 6 AM Eastern. Listeners will be treated to several of their specialty Classical music offerings, including Music in Time, Passenger, and Game Show, along with Classic Drive, offering a lively, eclectic mix of Classical performances from around the world. Feedback about these relays is very much wanted, and appreciated. Please send e-mail to globalcommunityradio@gmail.com.

In addition, we're now offering three hours of the syndicated Old Time Radio show Tuned to Yesterday, Monday thru Thursday from 10 PM to 1 AM Eastern. Again, feedback would be appreciated.

Stay tuned as we strive to being you a fine arts radio service you can be proud of.

Jason Longwell, GCR Station Manager

Friday, April 13, 2018

GCR Welcomes New Partner Station

Global Community Radio is pleased to welcome the latest community radio station to join our network of local rebroadcasters. This time, we welcome KPDO, 89.3 FM in Pescadero, California. We have been in talks with KPDO management for quite a while, as they have worked tirelessly to build out their radio station. Now, KPDO is ready to start broadcasting, bringing diverse programming to Pescadero and surrounding communities in Northern California.

KPDO will rebroadcast programming from all three GCR streams, as well as programming from Radio Bilingue, a mostly Spanish language public radio service. Together, we will all strive to give this community a radio station it can be proud of.

We salute the staff of KPDO for their dedication to their community, and we look forward to a long lasting partnership between our two stations.

Monday, April 9, 2018

GCR Expands to Three Streams

Global Community Radio is pleased to announce that it is expanding its program offerings to three 24 hour streams. The new GCR3 will debut on Sunday, April 15th. GCR3 will focus on Classical music, Jazz, and other Fine Arts programming. The Classical and Jazz programming currently on GCR2 will all be shifted to the new GCR3. GCR2 will then be able to offer its listeners and partner stations more diverse music programming. There will be greatly expanded blocks of Folk and Acoustic music, Country, World, Oldies, Rock and Blues. We will also add Top 40 and Urban programming as well.

There will also be changes made to GCR1 as well. We will be offering more world news and lecture series' on GCR1, as it becomes more of a "thinking person's" radio station.

Please keep an eye on this blog for more details on the new, expanded GCR. In the coming days, we will be updating program schedules, and making all the necessary changes to our streams' automation systems, as we prepare for this exciting new chapter in Global Community Radio's legacy.

As always, thanks must go to all our listeners and partner stations for their continued support of Global Community Radio.

Saturday, February 17, 2018

Changes to Sunday Jazz Programming on GCR2

As listeners and partner stations know, at Global Community Radio, we strice to constantly improve our programming, and to offer fresh, new content to both listeners and partner stations. To that end, we're making changes to our Sunday Jazz programming.

Ted Hassiuk is not currently producing new episodes of his program, Cafe Jazz. We have been pleased to offer reruns of the show for some time now. However, we feel it is time to offer some fresh, new content for our Jazz fans. We are adding two new shows to our Sunday Jazz lineup, and changing things around a bit to help the programs "flow" more smoothly.

We are adding The Cool Jazz Countdown, produced at WEAA in Baltimore. This show counts down the week's top contemporary Jazz releases. We are also adding Jazz After Dark, a weekly straight ahead Jazz show from community radio station KDRT (K-Dirt) in Davis, California. The new schedule will look like this:

4:00 Cool Jazz Countdown
5:00 Jazz From the Left
7:00 Afterglow
8:00 Night Lights
9:00 Jazz After Dark
10:00 Full Moon Hacksaw
All times Eastern.

Feedback on these changes, as always, is more than welcome.

Thanks for listening to and supporting Global Community Radio

Jason Longwell
GCR Station Manager

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Changes at ABC RN Cause Changes to GCR1 Schedule

In 2018, The ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) has made several changes to its Radio National (RN) spoken word program service. RN has developed several new weekly series, many of them focusing on the arts. Some of these changes "down under" have caused program changes here at GCR1. It is hoped that both listeners and partner stations will enjoy the new programming added to our schedule.

GCR1 is pleased to announce the addition of an exciting new series from the ABC to our overnight lineup. Recently, the ABC reduced the number of airings of its documentary series, Earshot, from two airings per week to just one. GCR1 will continue to offer Earshot every Tuesday at 2:30 AM Eastern. Replacing Earshot on Wednesdays at 2:30 is a new series called The History Listen. Here is a description of the series from the ABC Radio National Website.

New and compelling stories from Australia and around the world, told by some of our most popular and trusted historians. Step inside a time machine for an immersive journey through history, where stories of people, places and events bring the past vividly into our present world.

The bigger changes come to our late Saturday night/early Sunday morning lineup.

The weekly film review program, The Final Cut, has been discontinued by the ABC. However, it has been replaced by a longer, better program called The Screen Hub. This show will air Saturdays at 10:05 PM Eastern/7:05 Pacific. At 11:05, we are pleased to add another in the ABC's new "Hub" series of arts oriented programs. The Art Hub focuses on various aspects of the visual arts with in depth conversations with artists, gallery and museum directors from Australia and around the world. Switzerland in Sound is being dropped from the schedule, as it is now a shorter podcast, and not a full length radio program. These changes will shift the hour containing Destinies and Radio Theater Project to Midnight Eastern/9 PM Pacific. Old Time Radio Classics will shift to 1 AM Eastern/10 PM Pacific. For the moment, we are dropping Same Time, Same Station from the schedule. This is only because we are not currently able to access the newest show each week, and we have been airing it on a delayed basis. We will be reaching out to the hosts to see if we can access the newest audio files each week, and we will seriously consider bringing the program back to GCR as part of an expanded offering of Old Time Radio. (That is a bit of a teaser for something we are working on that is much bigger, but which we can't go into detail about right now!). At 3 AM Eastern, we're seeking a new weekly hour long OTR series. We'll be trying out some series, and airing some OTR podcasts to see what fits. Upstate Radio Theatre, produced by our sister company, Quality Radio Productions, will remain in place at 4 AM, followed by Treasures Old and New From ART.

As always, feedback from listeners and partner stations is greatly appreciated. 

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Best of Brisith Unsigned Ends Production

We regret to inform our listeners and partner stations that Best of British Unsigned ended its long run at the end of this month. This was due to a lack of sponsorship for the program, and a desire by the host, Matt Graveling, to pursue other personal endeavors. We are sorry to lose this program as part of our independent music lineup. We wish Matt the very best!

In its place, we are pleased to announce the addition of The Independent Music Show. If you like such programs on GCR2 as The Deuce, IMP Indie Mania, and The Appetizer, you're sure to enjoy this new offering to the GCR2 schedule.

As always, your feedback regarding these changes is always welcome!

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

More Unexpected Changes on GCR1

Well, 2018 is turning out to be a year of programming changes beyond our control! Again, we had no say in the following change.

We were not notified in writing that United Nations Radio has chosen to discontinue its daily ten minute newscasts. UN Daily News has been on the air for many, many years, and we've been proud to carry it on GCR. We're sorry to see this newscast go away, but, we will continue to offer UN News in Brief on weekday afternoons.

In turn, this will force some changes during the weekday 9 AM Eastern/6 AM Pacific hour. We will continue to air Feature Story News at the top of the hour. At 9:05, we are adding a new daily program, VOA Asia. This is a 25 minute news magazine covering stories of interest from across the Asian continent. In all honesty, I was regretting that I did not have room for this program Monday to Friday, especially with the recent demise of Asia Calling. So, in my opinion, this has worked out quite nicely. The news bulletin from All India Radio will now air at the bottom of the hour. The fifteen minute newscast from DW will be dropped. We will continue to offer DW's full half hour newscast on weekdays at 5:30 PM Eastern/2:30 PM Pacific.


The weekly programs from UN Radio, "UN and Africa" and "UN Gender Focus" have also been discontinued. In their place, we will now present the weekly UN Radio Interview Podcast on Saturday afternoons at 12:30 PM Eastern.

Another change has taken place on Wednesday nights. The Monitor has ended its nearly 14 year run. There is a chance it will resume production later this year, and we would seriously consider reinstating the program if and when this occurs. We have replaced The Monitor with The Global Reserch News Hour. We think this program will appeal to those who like deeper, investigative reporting and analysis.

As always, sincere apologies for the sudden change. Again, it was out of our hands. Hopefully, everyone will enjoy the new lineup.

Jason Longwell
GCR Station Manager

Saturday, January 6, 2018

GCR2 Classical Programming Update

Those who follow this blog regularly know that the final episode of Keys to Music went out over GCR2 on January 3rd. After considering several options, I have decided to replace it with a series which, though no longer in production, remains an outstanding series in Classical music radio.

When GCR was still Geneva Community Radio, we aired the outstanding series Compact Discoveries With Fred Flaxman. Each program featured a variety of Classical recordings, tied together by one common theme.

Sadly, Fred Flaxman passed away on August 29th, 2015, at the age of 75. Here is a link to an obituary written by his daughter, Tana Flaxman Jencks, which appeared on Current.org.
https://current.org/2015/11/fred-flaxman-longtime-programmer-and-station-leader-dies-at-75/

It was Tana herself who notified me in writing of her father's passing. At that time, she told me that he would want me to continue to air his shows posthumously.

As a tribute to Fred's long legacy in Public Broadcasting, I am pleased to bring Compact Discoveries to Global Community Radio, and thus to a wider audience. With 253 episodes available, we will be able to present this series for some time to come, and are happy to do so. The show will air Wednesdays at 8 AM Eastern.

Classics for Kids, which aired immediately after Keys to Music, will move to Fridays at 8:59 AM, right before DW Concert Hour.

Speaking of Friday, there's another change to our Classical line up that day. We are airing a set of seasonal program series during the 8 o'clock hour on Fridays. Center Stage From Wolf Trap will be back with a new six month series starting in July. We are now airing a new series, Live From the Grand Teton Music Festival. This is a thirteen week series. When it concludes its run on March 30th, we will then present Concerts From the Library of Congress. which is another thirteen week series, running from April 6th thru June 29th, respectively.

I hope you all enjoy the new Classical offerings on GCR2. As always, your feedback is both welcomed and appreciated.

Jason Longwell
GCR Station Manager