Advertise on podcast: WRFI Specials and Series

Join us for a special CREATIVES on WRFI episode with Ithaca DIY Poetry & Practice At Presents hosted by DJ Clara of Mind Meadow (Airs every Wednesday 6-7pm) Ithaca DIY Poetry and Practice At are joining forces for a massive Punk and Poetry Fest at Stone Bend Farm on May 23rd from noon to night. And just our luck, they’re giving us a sneak peek on WRFI! Join us in the Mind Meadow to hear readings from poet Ember Babiak, organizers Keegan Young and Alayna Hernandez, along with some tracks from promoter and musician Nick Scollard. Episode first aired Wednesday May 13 2026 at 6pm and again on Thursday May 21 at 5pm at 88.1 FM Ithaca, 89.7 FM Southern Finger Lakes, and 91.9 FM Watkins Glen, or stream online at WRFI.org/Listen.

Get to know the organizers behind the 'Ithaca Is...' album project. Hosted by DJ Dija of The Strangest Feeling (alternating Saturday evenings 7-9pm). The Ithaca Is… project is organized by a team of MBA students at Ithaca College with backgrounds in music, marketing, and media. Cierra May, a musician originally from Atlanta, Georgia, brings a foundation in music performance and a deep interest in the music industry, with a focus on building collaborative projects that uplift Black artists and community voices. Joey Stagliano is a marketing and branding professional based in Ithaca whose work centers on storytelling, design, and digital strategy across wellness, e-commerce, and service industries. Maxwell Doyle is an MBA candidate in Entertainment and Media with a background in music business and audio-visual production, combining technical experience in live sound and production with a passion for music creation. Together, the team brings complementary creative, technical, and strategic perspectives to Ithaca Is…, united by a shared commitment to access, collaboration, and community impact. Learn more about the project and order the album on CD or Vinyl here: ithacais.org/about First aired Wednesday April 29 2026 at 5pm at 88.1 FM Ithaca, 89.7 FM Southern Finger Lakes, and 91.9 FM Watkins Glen, or stream online at WRFI.org/Listen.

Get to know festival organizer Sylvie Froncek and discover the weird and mystical events on the the horizon. Hosted by DJ Gianni of Songbird.mp3 (alternating Sunday mornings from 10-11am). Old Greeny Fringe Fest is a week-long (April 27th-May 3rd), fringe festival in celebration of the weird, wacky, and whimsical, rooted in the legend of Old Greeny—the cryptid of Cayuga Lake. The festival activates traditional and  non-traditional venues along the waterfront trail through performances, installations, community activities, and storytelling, with a strong commitment to sustainability, accessibility, and local culture. First aired Wednesday April 22nd at 5pm and again on Sunday April 26th at 5pm at 88.1 FM Ithaca, 89.7 FM Southern Finger Lakes, and 91.9 FM Watkins Glen.

Tune into WRFI for an interview with Cornell Professor Sophie Pinkham about her new book, The Oak and the Larch: A Forest History of Russia! Learn about the rich, complex narrative woven through Russia’s beautiful forests and hear how it connects to the country’s complicated history. Pinkham is being interviewed by the student guides of Ithaca College’s New Voices Literary Festival, where you can hear more about The Oak and the Larch. Coordinated by DJ Jacob of Jamaican Clash (alternating Sundays from 7-9pm). Cornell professor Sophie Pinkham shares about her new book The Oak and the Larch: A Forest History of Russia, and also on the occasion of Ithaca College's New Voices Literary Festival, in which Pinkham will participate (April 22-24). From the Baltic to the Pacific, from the Arctic to the steppes of Central Asia, Russia’s forests account for nearly one-fifth of the world’s wooded lands. Sophie Pinkham's new book "The Oak and the Larch" is the first-ever English-language exploration of this vast expanse—a dazzling environmental history of Russia that offers an urgent new understanding of the nature of Russian power, and of Russia’s ideas of itself. Sophie Pinkham is a professor at Cornell University and a former NEH Public Scholar. Her writing on Russia and Ukraine has appeared in the New York Review of Books, New York Times, Guardian, New Yorker, and Harper’s. She lives in Ithaca, New York. First aired Sunday April 19th 2026 at 12pm and again on Thursday April 23rd at 5pm at 88.1 FM Ithaca, 89.7 FM Southern Finger Lakes, and 91.9 FM Watkins Glen, or stream online at WRFI.org/Listen.

From Carnegie Hall to Karnataka, Grammy-nominated violinist Ariana Kim, Associate Professor of Music at Cornell, discusses her journey into Carnatic music during her semester studying violin in India in 2025. Hosted by Daniel Bass of Monsoon Radio (alternating Tuesday nights 7-9pm) "Noted by The New York Times for giving “the proceedings an invaluable central thread of integrity and stylishness,” violinist Ariana Kim made her New York recital debut at Carnegie’s Weill Hall during her doctoral studies at Juilliard and is now a associate professor at Cornell University.  At 16, Ariana made her debut with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and at 24 was appointed acting concertmaster of the Louisiana Philharmonic in New Orleans; she has since become one of the most respected artists of her generation. As a violinist of the Aizuri Quartet she was awarded the 2017 Osaka International Competition Grand Prize, the 2018 M-Prize, and a 2019 GRAMMY® nomination for the album Blueprinting." First aired Tuesday 4/21/2026 at 7pm and on Saturday 4/25 at 5pm at 88.1 FM Ithaca, 89.7 FM Southern Finger Lakes, and 91.9 FM Watkins Glen, or stream online at WRFI.org/Listen.

DJ Felix talks to the organizers of the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF) about the 29th annual fest held this week at Ithaca College and Cinemapolis. The 2026 edition of FLEFF runs from March 27 – April 12. This year's special theme is Migrations. Events and screenings will be held on Ithaca College's campus and downtown at Cinemapolis. Learn more about FLEFF: www.ithaca.edu/finger-lakes-environmental-film-festival-fleff This interview aired live Thursday 4/2/2026 just after 1pm at 88.1 FM Ithaca, 89.7 FM Southern Finger Lakes, and 91.9 FM Watkins Glen.

DJ Cristina of Spinsters Rock (alternating Friday nights 7-9pm) talks to playwright Wendy Dann and Emily Jackson about the world premiere of MILKWEED opening at the Kitchen Theatre on February 25th. "Milkweed is an intimate, surprising piece that delves into the charged space between students and teachers, at the intersection of physics and theater, where knowledge and desire blur...This poetic, multilayered world premiere by Ithaca playwright Wendy Dann explores the complicated, tender acts of teaching and learning, and will exquisitely unravel your understanding of time and space." Learn more about the play and ticket details at: www.kitchentheatre.org/milkweed This interview aired live Thursday 2/26/2026 at 5pm and again Sunday 3/1/2026 at 3pm at 88.1 FM Ithaca, 89.7 FM Southern Finger Lakes, and 91.9 FM Watkins Glen.

Tune in for a interview with international Irish band Lúnasa hosted by DJ Nina. Only on WRFI Community Radio. "Lúnasa was formed in 1997 from members of some of the greatest Irish groups of the previous decade, an early review from Folk Roots magazine describing the band as an “Irish music dream team”. From the start, the band’s complex arrangements and unique sound reshaped the boundaries of traditional music and energized audiences the world over...Having since sold over a quarter of a million records and performed over 2,500 shows across 36 countries, Lunasa has won multiple awards and become one of the most influential bands in the history of traditional music." Lúnasa is performing in Ithaca at the Hangar Theatre for a one-night show, Friday February 27th. Explore their music on YouTube Originally aired Monday 2/23/2026 at 5pm at 88.1 FM Ithaca, 89.7 FM Southern Finger Lakes, and 91.9 FM Watkins Glen, or stream online at WRFI.org/Listen. Find the performance again at WRFI.org/archives, available for two weeks after its initial broadcast.

"In Conversation: imPERMANENCE and the Ithaca Experimental Film Festival (ITHEX)"  DJ Rob of Lake Snake Radio Show talks to the Ithaca Experimental Film Festival (ITHEX) and the creative voices behind the short film 'imPERMANENCE'. Tune in to hear from Grace DeGeorge (director of imPERMANENCE), Danielle Ahrens (producer), Chiara Giannontonio (director of photography), and Desiree Tolchin ITHEX co-founder. ABOUT THE FILMimPERMANENCE is a locally-produced short film about human feeling, and will be featured as part of the Ithaca Experimental Film Festival later this month. Tune in to Creatives and hear from the filmmakers themselves how they were able to pull together this intimate cinematic experience using antique cameras, nine different images on one screen, and more than a dozen creative collaborators. Learn more about the film at ithacaexperimentalfilmfestival.com This special interview first aired Sunday 2/22/2026 at 12pm and again Wednesday 2/25/2026 at 5pm at 88.1 FM Ithaca, 89.7 FM Southern Finger Lakes, and 91.9 FM Watkins Glen. Explore 'CREATIVES on WRFI' episodes at wrfi.org/creatives

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.