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Producer/Hosts: Ron Beard and Liz Graves College of the Atlantic provides help with production. Engineering by Joel Mann of WERU Community Radio. Theme music for Talk of the Towns Theme is a medley from Coronach, on a Balnain House Highland Music recording. Talk of the Towns: Local Community concerns and opportunities This month: How did Ken Curtis’s early life on a Maine farm influence his path to serve as governor? What were his major accomplishments? What were his disappointments? How did he balance the need for environmental protection with economic development? What were his qualities as a leader? How did Curtis, elected as a Democrat, with Ed Muskie as a mentor, work with Republicans to improve the way state government works? Guest/s: Doug Rooks, author of Transformational, the biography of Governor Ken Curtis. Peter Bradford, former Chair, Maine Public Utilities Commission. Lloyd Irland, former director Maine Bureau of Public Lands and State Economist. FMI: douglasrookswrites.com www.maine.gov/msl/maine/writdisplay.shtml? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_A._Bradford About the hosts: Ron Beard is producer and host of Talk of the Towns, which first aired on WERU in 1993 as part of his community building work as an Extension professor with University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Sea Grant. He took all the journalism courses he could fit in while an undergraduate student in wildlife management and served as an intern with Maine Public Television nightly newscast in the early 1970s. Ron is an adjunct faculty member at College of the Atlantic, teaching courses on community development. Ron served on the Bar Harbor Town Council for six years and is currently board chair for the Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor, where he has lived since 1975. Look for him on the Allagash River in June, and whenever he can get away, in the highlands of Scotland where he was fortunate to spend two sabbaticals. Liz Graves joined Talk of the Towns as co-producer and co-host in July 2022, having long admired public affairs programming on WERU and dreamed of getting involved in community radio. She works as the Town Clerk for the Town of Bar Harbor, and is a former editor of the Mount Desert Islander weekly newspaper. Liz grew up in California and came to Maine as a schooner sailor. The post Talk of the Towns 11/11/26: Ken Curtis, Maine’s Reform Governor 1967-75 first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host/Producer: Amy Browne An Armistice Day message from Veterans for Peace About the host: Amy Browne, WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager, is a 9th generation Mainer with roots in Hancock County and Portland, Maine. After dabbling in ‘zines and IndyMedia in the 1990s, Amy started in radio as a volunteer producer/host at WERU-FM in 2000, cohosting RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined WERU’s team of Voices producers a few years later, and began serving as News & Public Affairs Manager in January 2006. WERU productions have included: RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents, Maine: The Way Life Could Be, the WERU News Report, WERU’s Multi-partisan Election Panel, and Around Town. She has covered protest movements from cities across the US, and El Salvador, most recently covering the No Kings! Movement for WERU and the Pacifica Radio Network. Her freelance work over the years has included segments for Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and the WBAI News Report Amy received an Excellence in Environmental Journalism award from the Sierra Club of Maine in 2014, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for segments on immigration and hate groups in Maine, in 2017 and 2021. BA in Anthropology and Sociology, Rollins College, and MSW in Clinical Social Work, Boston College Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License The post Around Town 11/11/26: Local News, Culture and Events first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Larry Dansinger About the host: Larry Dansinger (no pronouns) of Bangor came to Maine in 1974 and has been here ever since. Some of Larry’s activities since then: Done community organizing on numerous issues through INVERT and then Resources for Organizing and Social Change (ROSC), committed civil disobedience several times, grown a garden yearly since 1977, joined various food cooperatives and two men’s groups, refused to pay federal income taxes for war, lived on a community land trust for 23 years, and met a wonderful partner whom Larry has loved for over 40 years. Larry has produced Outside the Box features on WERU since 2007 and continues to look for unique ways of seeing almost any problem or situation. The post Outside the Box 11/10/26: “Adventures with Surveys” first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host/Producer: Amy Browne MoveOn’s brief survey of political priorities for the new congress Making Sense of Medicare Changes with Vince Murray, a licensed insurance agent with expertise in Medicare plans Thursday, 3pm, Witherle Memorial Library in Castine. The talk is co-sponsored by Healthy Acadia And a look at the news from Maine, 100 years ago today About the host: Amy Browne, WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager, is a 9th generation Mainer with roots in Hancock County and Portland, Maine. After dabbling in ‘zines and IndyMedia in the 1990s, Amy started in radio as a volunteer producer/host at WERU-FM in 2000, cohosting RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined WERU’s team of Voices producers a few years later, and began serving as News & Public Affairs Manager in January 2006. WERU productions have included: RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents, Maine: The Way Life Could Be, the WERU News Report, WERU’s Multi-partisan Election Panel, and Around Town. She has covered protest movements from cities across the US, and El Salvador, most recently covering the No Kings! Movement for WERU and the Pacifica Radio Network. Her freelance work over the years has included segments for Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and the WBAI News Report Amy received an Excellence in Environmental Journalism award from the Sierra Club of Maine in 2014, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for segments on immigration and hate groups in Maine, in 2017 and 2021. BA in Anthropology and Sociology, Rollins College, and MSW in Clinical Social Work, Boston College Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License The post Around Town 11/9/26: Local News, Culture and Events first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: R.W. Estela Hi, I’m RW Estela: Since 1991, I’ve been presenting A Word in Edgewise, WERU’s longest-running short feature, a veritable almanac of worldly and heavenly happenings, a confluence of 21st-century life in its myriad manifestations, international and domestic, cosmopolitan and rural, often revealing, as the French say, the more things change, the more they stay the same — though not always! Sometimes in addressing issues affecting our day-to-day lives, in this age of vagary and ambiguity, when chronological time is punctuated elliptically, things can quickly turn edgy and controversial, as we search for understanding amid our dialectic. Tune in Monday mornings at 7:30 a.m. for an exciting journey through space and time with a few notable birthdays thrown in for good measure during A Word in Edgewise . . . About the host: RW Estela was raised as a first-generation American in Colorado by a German mother and a Corsican-Basque father who would become a three-war veteran for the US Army, so RW was naturally a military brat and later engaged in various Vietnam-era civil-service adventures before paying his way through college by skiing for the University of Colorado, playing Boulder coffeehouses, and teaching. He has climbed all of Colorado’s Fourteeners; found work as an FAA-certificated commercial pilot, a California-licensed building contractor, a publishing editor, a practitioner of Aikido, and a college professor of English; among his many interdisciplinary pursuits are the design and building of Terrell Residence Library (recently renamed the Terrell House Permaculture Living & Learning Center at the University of Maine), writing Building It In Two Languages (a bilingual dictionary of construction terminology), aerial photo documentation of two dam removals (Great Works and Veazie) on the Penobscot River, and once a week since 1991 drafting an installment of A Word In Edgewise, his essay series addressing issues affecting our day-to-day lives — and WERU’s oldest continuous short feature. When pandemics do not interfere, he does the Triple Crown of Maine open-water ocean swims (Peaks to Portland, Islesboro Crossing, and Nubble Light Challenge) and the Whitewater Downriver Point Series of the Maine Canoe and Kayak Racing Organization. RW is the father of two and the grandfather of three and lives with his partner Kathleen of 37 years and their two Maine Coons in Orono. The post A Word in Edgewise 11/9/26: Veterans Day, Henry Reed, & the Sling Swivel . . . first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Glen Mittelhauser Producers: Glen Mittelhauser and Daaby Tingle Glen talks with Maine Guide and naturalist Matt Haviland about conducting bird surveys in the alpine areas of Maine for the Maine Bird Atlas. Matt describes the challenges and rewards of surveying birds on Katahdin and other high peaks. More information about Maine Natural History Observatory can be found at mainenaturalhistory.org/. About the hosts: Glen Mittelhauser founded Maine Natural History Observatory (MNHO) in 2003 to fill the need for an organization that specializes in collecting, interpreting, and maintaining datasets for understanding changes in Maine’s plant and wildlife populations.  Glen received his Bachelor’s in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic in 1989 with a focus in the biological sciences and received his Master of Science degree in Zoology (with a focus on ornithology and statistics) from the University of Maine in 2000. Glen was the Managing Editor for Northeastern Naturalist and Southeastern Naturalist for 18 years and has served as external graduate faculty for 3 graduate student committees at the University of Maine.  Glen currently serves on the Baxter State Park Research Committee. Logan Parker is an Ecologist residing in Waldo County, Maine. Logan started the Maine Nightjar Monitoring Project in 2017 and brought the project (and his passion for bird conservation) to MNHO when he joined the team in 2018. Logan is heavily involved in the ongoing Maine Bird Atlas where he both coordinates and participates in the project’s special species surveys. When “off the clock”, Logan enjoys birding, writing, gardening, and working alongside his wife, Hallee, on their off-grid home in the Maine woods. Logan is also a wildlife photographer and shares photos and field notes through his project, Here In The Wild. The post Nature Notes: A Maine Naturalist Afield 11/08/26: Maine Bird Atlas in the Alpine, Part 1 first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

CJ Kenna | Producer & Writer/Reader The post Esoterica 11/08/26: Clams & Chardonay first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

What’s the Word on Maine Street?, hosted by Sarah Pebworth, is a weekly short feature Saturdays at 9:30am looking at local literary and visual arts events and offerings! FMI: About the host: Sarah Pebworth leads the steering committee for Word—a Blue Hill Literary Arts Festival, founded in 2017 and held each October. She serves on the boards of the Cultural Alliance of Maine and Lawrence Family Fitness Center YMCA. Since February 2023 Sarah has written “Shared Seas and Common Grounds,” a column published in the Penobscot Bay Press’s Weekly Packet. She and her wife Julie Jo Fehrle live in Blue Hill. Theme music: Ross Gallagher is a bassist who grew up in East Blue Hill, ME, and currently lives between Bath, ME and Brooklyn, NY, where he works with a wide variety of musical artists. Infinite Blues is a cut from his recently released neon night, an excursion into an ambient/electronic musical world built around rhythmic bass ostinatos, clouds of processed looping electronic atmospheres, and melody. By turns both subtle and unapologetically noisy, the songs are a collection of luminous constellations, roved between by a band of texturally minded instrumental improvisers. The post What’s the Word on Maine Street? 11/7/26 first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Anu Dudley About the host: Rev. Dr. Anu Dudley is an ordained Pagan minister and a retired history professor. She continues to teach classes, including the three-year ordination curriculum at the Temple of the Feminine Divine, and others such as History of the Goddess, Paganism 101, Ethical Magic, and Introduction to the Runes. Currently she is writing a book about how to cast the runes using their original Goddess meanings. She lives in the woods off-grid in a small homesteading community in Central Maine. The post Earthwise 11/7/26: The Chipmunk first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host/Producer: Amy Browne Ed Rudnicki stops by to invite listeners to PICA’s Annual Auction on Saturday from 3 to 5:30pm at the UU Church in Bangor. More info on the PICA Maine facebook page Fifty Years of Common Ground: Curator’s Talk with Maeve O’Regan, today from 5-6pm at the Jesup Memorial Library and on zoom. About the host: Amy Browne, WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager, is a 9th generation Mainer with roots in Hancock County and Portland, Maine. After dabbling in ‘zines and IndyMedia in the 1990s, Amy started in radio as a volunteer producer/host at WERU-FM in 2000, cohosting RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined WERU’s team of Voices producers a few years later, and began serving as News & Public Affairs Manager in January 2006. WERU productions have included: RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents, Maine: The Way Life Could Be, the WERU News Report, WERU’s Multi-partisan Election Panel, and Around Town. She has covered protest movements from cities across the US, and El Salvador, most recently covering the No Kings! Movement for WERU and the Pacifica Radio Network. Her freelance work over the years has included segments for Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and the WBAI News Report Amy received an Excellence in Environmental Journalism award from the Sierra Club of Maine in 2014, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for segments on immigration and hate groups in Maine, in 2017 and 2021. BA in Anthropology and Sociology, Rollins College, and MSW in Clinical Social Work, Boston College Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License The post Around Town 11/6/26: Local News, Culture and Events first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Caitlin Andrews The Maine Monitor Radio Hour is a collaboration between WERU-FM and the Maine Monitor, the nonpartisan, independent publication of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting. This month: On this episode of The Maine Monitor Radio Hour, we bring you a Monitor Talks event moderated by Caitlin Andrews hosted at the Belfast Free Library examining Maine’s housing challenge through a building lens, particularly what the state’s new building permit data does, and does not, tell us about the efforts to fix it. FMI: themainemonitor.org/events/ The post The Maine Monitor Radio Hour 11/5/26 first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host/Producer: Amy Browne “Maine’s Labor Movement Propels First Rank and File Union Member Elected to the U.S. Senate”, Maine AFL-CIO Uniformed Service and Overseas Voters (UOCAVA) results for November 3, 2026 federal and governor races from Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ office Efficiency Maine DIY Winter Prep rebates Sardine Snacks Workshop at the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, 11/7/ 1-3pm Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License The post Around Town 11/5/26: Local News, Culture and Events first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Peter Neill Producer: Trisha Badger We are seeing examples every day of the cause-and-effect of climate change on ecosystems: temperature and species, rainfall and agriculture, drought and community, air quality and health, warming ocean water and migration of people and animals. What’s it going to take to motivate change? Let’s move beyond inadequate responses to inventive solutions, positive change, and embrace of new systems to provide unexpected outcomes to common problems. World Ocean Radio: 5-minute weekly insights dive into ocean science, advocacy and education hosted by Peter Neill, lifelong ocean advocate and maritime expert. A catalog of more than 730 episodes offering perspectives on global ocean issues and solutions, and celebrating exemplary projects. Available for RSS feed and broadcast by college and community radio stations worldwide via Exchange.prx.org and Audioport.org. Visit WorldOceanObservatory.org for the full catalog, searchable by theme. The post World Ocean Radio 11/4/26: Climate Social Ecosystem first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Larry Dansinger About the host: Larry Dansinger (no pronouns) of Bangor came to Maine in 1974 and has been here ever since. Some of Larry’s activities since then: Done community organizing on numerous issues through INVERT and then Resources for Organizing and Social Change (ROSC), committed civil disobedience several times, grown a garden yearly since 1977, joined various food cooperatives and two men’s groups, refused to pay federal income taxes for war, lived on a community land trust for 23 years, and met a wonderful partner whom Larry has loved for over 40 years. Larry has produced Outside the Box features on WERU since 2007 and continues to look for unique ways of seeing almost any problem or situation. The post Outside the Box 11/3/26: “Socialism” first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host/Producer: Amy Browne Maine Secretary of State’s Office Voter Information Elections Division of the Secretary of State’s Office can be reacjed at [email protected] or 207-624-7650 ACLU Maine Voter Information Center ACLU Election Protection Hotline (call or text): 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683) League of Women Voters of Maine – Voting Guide, Report Election Misinformation Call or text voter hotline: (207) 558-3333 How did things go at the polls in your town today? Email [email protected] (and let us know if we can mention your name if we read your comment tonight on our live election night coverage Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License The post Around Town 11/3/26: Local News, Culture and Events first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.