WRFI Specials and Series

WRFI Community Radio
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Arts interviews, reporting series, and more from WRFI, Community Radio from the heart of the Finger Lakes.

  1. CREATIVES: 'Remaining Native' a Conversation with Indigenous Filmmaker Paige Bethmann

    12/02/2025

    CREATIVES: 'Remaining Native' a Conversation with Indigenous Filmmaker Paige Bethmann

    Tune in for two special broadcasts of CREATIVES on WRFI an interview with Indigenous filmmaker Paige Bethmann on her new documentary 'Remaining Native' Zoë Van Nostrand interviews Paige Bethmann (Mohawk & Oneida) on her recent documentary Remaining Native which will be showing at Cinemapolis with a filmmaker talkback on December 7th at 2:30pm in collaboration with the Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀLearning Project. This screening of "Remaining Native" is made possible in full with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, administered by the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County. Paige Bethmann is a Haudenosaunee from the Mohawk and Oneida communities, and has worked in non-fiction television for various digital and broadcast networks such as ESPN, PBS, Vox Media, Youtube Originals, USA, and NBC. She is a graduate of Ithaca College, with a bachelor’s degree in Film, Television, and Radio from the Park School of Communications. Remaining Native is her first feature film. The interview explores Paige's role and identity as a storyteller in her community, and the responsibility she feels as a descendant of a boarding school survivor in telling the story of Ku and his relationship with his grandfather who ran away from his residential boarding school through the Nevada desert three separate times as a child. The interview explores the role of the sacred in the film, and Ku's athleticism as a teenage track star aiming to run at University of Oregon. Trigger Warning(s): The interview discusses the impact of residential boarding schools on Indigenous communities ABOUT THE FILM 'Remaining Native' a documentary told from the perspective of Ku Stevens (Yerington Paiute), a 17-year-old Native American runner, struggling to navigate his dream of becoming a collegiate athlete as the memory of his great-grandfather's escape from an Indian boarding school begins to connect past, present, and future. Learn more about the film at remainingnativedocumentary.com This special interview with Paige Bethmann is scheduled to air on Monday December 1st from 5-6pm and on Saturday December 6th from 10-11am hosted by Zoë Van Nostrand. Tune in at 88.1 Ithaca, 89.7 Southern Finger Lakes, 91.9 Watkins Glen or stream from anywhere at WRFI.org/listen

    54 min
  2. SPECIAL - Part II - The Media Democracy Blues feat. Victor Pickard

    10/07/2025

    SPECIAL - Part II - The Media Democracy Blues feat. Victor Pickard

    PART II Tune in for 'The Media Democracy Blues' hosted by Roger Smith during Crazy Words, Crazy Tune on WRFI Community Radio. This special two-hour interview with the eloquent media scholar and historian Victor Pickard originally aired on Friday, October 3, from 12-2pm in the regular time slot of “⁠Crazy Words, Crazy Tune⁠.” ⁠Victor Pickard⁠ teaches mass communication and political economy at the Annenberg School at U Penn. His first major book, ⁠America’s Battle for Media Democracy⁠ (2015), concentrates on the key decisions made in the 1940s that set in stone the foundations of the commercial, corporate-dominated media system that continues to bedevil us today. Pickard is also the current board chair of the media policy reform group Free Press, which was co-founded by his mentor, Robert W. McChesney. ⁠America’s Battle for Media Democracy⁠ makes a great bookend to ⁠McChesney’s first book⁠, which covers the spirited radio reform movement of the 1920s and ‘30s that tried and failed to secure a non-commercial space for labor and civic groups on the airwaves. Because the ⁠Crazy Words, Crazy Tune⁠ weekly show is devoted to the popular culture of that period of history—and because the politics of media has been a lifelong obsession of show host Roger Smith, he was especially excited and proud to interview Victor and delve into this narrative as well as its present-day ramifications.

    1h 1m
  3. CREATIVES: 20 Years after Katrina: New Orleans Second Line Music Before and After the Storm: Field Recordings & Interview with Musicologist Nelson Eubanks

    09/05/2025

    CREATIVES: 20 Years after Katrina: New Orleans Second Line Music Before and After the Storm: Field Recordings & Interview with Musicologist Nelson Eubanks

    Tune in for '20 Years after Katrina: New Orleans Second Line Music Before and After the Storm: Field Recordings and Interview with Musicologist Nelson Eubanks' hosted with Jacob. ABOUT NELSON EUBANKS Born in New York City, Nelson Eubanks grew up in New York and New Jersey. He received a B.A. from Columbia University in 1994, an M.A. in creative writing from the university of San Francisco in 1998 and an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University in 2003. Eubanks published his first book 'The First Thing Smoking' in 2003, he is a 2023 recipient of the Jazz Road Creative Residencies Grant and founder of Melodius Thunk Productions. Melodious Thunk began before Hurricane Katrina as a community project in the Crescent City by a small group of New Orleans artists hoping to record the Sunday 2nd Line Parades. Over the years we’ve grown as we’ve ventured round the world into other sonic communities filled with like minded folks enamored by the exhilarating sounds of music in the street. We go out and find the music alive in its element in the streets of the musician’s homes where folks feel comfortable enough to do what they wanna, let go, sing along, have a time. Then we ask the musicians about their sound so they can tell us in their own words what makes their rhythms so magnificent. Our mission is to be a bridge between the music of the street and your eyes and ears by fully documenting both rising artists and master musicians playing authentic, unfiltered rhythms in juke joints, at music festivals, in their homes, their corners, their bars, on their porches and then too, the very much under-documented great moving parades and processions of our time. This CREATIVES interview with Nelson Eubanks hosted with Jacob aired onWednesday September 3 at 5pm. Tune in at 88.1 Ithaca, 89.7 Southern Finger Lakes, or stream from anywhere at WRFI.org/listen

    1 hr
  4. SPECIAL - PART II: How Deep Is the Ocean: Larry Schnell on A Sailor’s Song

    08/14/2025

    SPECIAL - PART II: How Deep Is the Ocean: Larry Schnell on A Sailor’s Song

    PART II: How Deep Is the Ocean: Larry Schnell on A Sailor’s Song FEATURED ON WRFI WRFI’s Roger Kimmel Smith interviews author and professor ⁠⁠Larry Schnell⁠⁠ about his book ⁠⁠A Sailor's Song: Lost Love Letters of World War II⁠⁠, on a special edition of “⁠⁠Crazy Words, Crazy Tune⁠⁠.” The newly released book portrays the U.S. Coast Guard U.S.S. General A.W. Greely, the war’s most musical ship, as it transports troops to and from the war in Asia. This two-hour broadcast features Smith’s extended interview with Schnell, along with 1940s music, news clips, and other historic audio with narration. The roles played by music and musicians during wartime is the central theme of this radio documentary, which aired August 8, 2025, in observance of the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, toward the end of World War II. ⁠⁠Larry Schnell⁠⁠’s father, Arthur Schnell, was a Coast Guard Musician Third Class who described his wartime experiences in letters to his wife, Flo Schnell, a civilian musician and music teacher. Before shipping out aboard the Greely in 1945, he served at the Manhattan Beach Coast Guard Training Station in Brooklyn, New York. Arthur Schnell played trombone in the Manhattan Beach Coast Guard Band, alongside a dozen or so other musicians profiled in ⁠⁠A Sailor’s Song⁠⁠. The group made several recordings which were released at the time on V-Discs. These performances are in the public domain and, as Roger discovered while doing research for the interview, remain available today through the ⁠⁠Internet Archive⁠⁠. Author Schnell was thus able to listen for the first time to the music his father and comrades had made—and WRFI listeners will have this opportunity as well. This audio documentary with Larry Schnell aired on August 8th 2025 from 12-2pm EST, hosted by WRFI DJ Roger Smith during his regular '⁠⁠Crazy Words, Crazy Tune⁠⁠' Friday show.

    58 min
  5. SPECIAL - PART I: How Deep Is the Ocean: Larry Schnell on A Sailor’s Song

    08/14/2025

    SPECIAL - PART I: How Deep Is the Ocean: Larry Schnell on A Sailor’s Song

    PART I: How Deep Is the Ocean: Larry Schnell on A Sailor’s Song FEATURED ON WRFI WRFI’s Roger Kimmel Smith interviews author and professor ⁠Larry Schnell⁠ about his book ⁠A Sailor's Song: Lost Love Letters of World War II⁠, on a special edition of “⁠Crazy Words, Crazy Tune⁠.” The newly released book portrays the U.S. Coast Guard U.S.S. General A.W. Greely, the war’s most musical ship, as it transports troops to and from the war in Asia. This two-hour broadcast features Smith’s extended interview with Schnell, along with 1940s music, news clips, and other historic audio with narration. The roles played by music and musicians during wartime is the central theme of this radio documentary, which aired August 8, 2025, in observance of the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, toward the end of World War II. ⁠Larry Schnell⁠’s father, Arthur Schnell, was a Coast Guard Musician Third Class who described his wartime experiences in letters to his wife, Flo Schnell, a civilian musician and music teacher. Before shipping out aboard the Greely in 1945, he served at the Manhattan Beach Coast Guard Training Station in Brooklyn, New York. Arthur Schnell played trombone in the Manhattan Beach Coast Guard Band, alongside a dozen or so other musicians profiled in ⁠A Sailor’s Song⁠. The group made several recordings which were released at the time on V-Discs. These performances are in the public domain and, as Roger discovered while doing research for the interview, remain available today through the ⁠Internet Archive⁠. Author Schnell was thus able to listen for the first time to the music his father and comrades had made—and WRFI listeners will have this opportunity as well. This audio documentary with Larry Schnell aired on August 8th 2025 from 12-2pm EST, hosted by WRFI DJ Roger Smith during his regular '⁠Crazy Words, Crazy Tune⁠' Friday show.

    55 min
  6. The Undiscovered Country: Ketu Oladuwa

    08/10/2025

    The Undiscovered Country: Ketu Oladuwa

    Host Michael Rhynes continues to explore the role of poetry and literature in the lives of people affected by the carceral state. In this episode, we hear Michael's interview with Ketu Oladuwa an octogenarian poet who was wrongfully locked up for 5 years on death row in the 1960s. This program is funded by a 2025 Humanities New York grant and by WRFI's listeners. It's produced in collaboration with Civic Ensemble, Prisoner Express, and the Cornell Prison Education Program.

    30 min
  7. CREATIVES: 'The Firesign Theatre' with Jeremy Braddock

    06/23/2025

    CREATIVES: 'The Firesign Theatre' with Jeremy Braddock

    WRFI talks to author and Cornell Associate Professor of Literature, Jeremy Braddock, about the history and culture of the 60’s-70’s era (and beyond) surrealist comedy troupe Firesign Theater. Jeremy recently published the book “Firesign: The Electromagnetic History of Everything as Told on Nine Comedy Albums” (University of California Press). Jeremy discusses Firesign Theater with Peter B (of WRFI’s Burning Airlines) about the background, methods, and connections to the troupe. Topics includes their use of the audio technology of the time, responses to historical events, and long standing cultural impact. Classic albums such as Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers and I Think We Are All Bozos On This Bus are explored. This interview with Jeremy Braddock aired on May 18th 2025, hosted by WRFI DJ Peter B..

    36 min
  8. Alcance Latino: Interview with Human Rights Organizer Aly Wane

    02/07/2025

    Alcance Latino: Interview with Human Rights Organizer Aly Wane

    WRFI Specials and Series

    1h 11m
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About

Arts interviews, reporting series, and more from WRFI, Community Radio from the heart of the Finger Lakes.

Information

  • Creator
    WRFI Community Radio
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2025
  • Episodes
    54
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © WRFI Community Radio
  • Show Website
    WRFI Specials and Series