Once again, due to changes concerning some of our many syndicated programs, Global Community Radio is obliged to make changes to both its schedules.
First, several changes concerning GCR1, all due to the abrupt cancellation of one show. After 15 years in production, the weekly series Asia Calling will produce its last program on December 29th, and we will air that program on Saturday, the 30th. We are sad to see Asia calling go away, as it was an independent window on all things Asia. We have carried it as far back as when GCR stood for Geneva Community Radio. The program is ending due to lack of funds to be able to continue production.
GCR1 will continue to offer news and feature programming from several Asian broadcasters, including NHK World Radio Japan, KBS World Radio Korea, All India Radio, and Radio Taiwan International. See program schedule for details.
Starting Saturday, January 6th, we will move Global Journalist to Saturday mornings at 9 AM Eastern/6 AM Pacific. We will then shift Focus Asia Pacific to run immediately after. In turn, The hour on Sundays from 11 AM to Noon Eastern will now be occupied by two programs from the ABC (Australia). At 11 AM, we will now air The Minefield. This series currently airs Thursdays at 2:30 AM Eastern/11:30 PM Pacific Wednesday. From the show's website: In a world marked by wicked social problems, The Minefield helps you negotiate the ethical dilemmas, contradictory claims and unacknowledged complicities of modern life. This will be followed by the ABC's outstanding history series Rear Vision at 11:30 AM Eastern. On Thursdays where Minefield used to air, we're adding a new program from the ABC stable. It's called Science Friction. From the website: Science and culture...with extra spice added. Feel the heat. All species welcome.
On the GCR2 side of things, The Appetizer has cut back to one hour per week. So, on Wednesdays at 4 AM Eastern, we've added IMP Indie Mania. This is a weekly radio series from the folks at IMP, anoutfit promoting independent music in a variety of genres. Indie Mania features a wide variety of Indie music. IMP also offers two other radio shows focusing on Indie Blues and Indie Country. We will consider adding these programs to GCR2 in the future.
Another big change occurs later on Wednesday mornings. We recently learned, after it seems we just added this series to our schedule, that Keys to Music will cease production in January after 15 years and 654 episodes on ABC Classic FM. Had we known of the ABC's plans, we might not have picked up the series this Fall. In any case, the final Keys to Music will air on January 3rd at 8 AM Eastern. We do not yet know what we will do with this slot at present. If the ABC is developing a new series to replace Keys to Music, we will look into adding it to the schedule. We are looking at some other Classical offerings as well from other sources. Please stay tuned to this blog for further updates.
It is not our desire at GCR to constantly change things up to confuse or frustrate our listeners or our partner stations. But, like any other radio station, we are at the mercy of the producers and distributors of the programs we broadcast. If a program decides to end its run, we often times have no say in the decision whatsoever. When this happens, we try to make changes to ensure our schedules will continue to "flow" as they did previously, or, to try to improve the overall sound of the station. We appreciate the continued patience and understanding of our listeners and partner stations as changes become necessary.
Thank you for listening to and supporting Global Community Radio!
Jason Longwell
GCR Station Manager
