KBCS blossoms additional programs!

Spring brings with it fresh beginnings, and KBCS is thrilled to introducing a few new series of educational and cultural programs chosen to inform, educate, and offer a more structured forum for a debate of the prominent issues and topics of the day. 

Series One: began a few weeks ago adding programs to the 12 noon to 1pm schedule:

Mondays – Philosophy Talk, a program that challenges listeners to identify and question their assumptions and to think about things in new ways. 

Tuesday – The Commonwealth Club of California. For over 90 years, one of the largest and oldest public affairs forums in America, presenting distinguished speakers sharing their experiences and ideas in a nonpartisan forum that strives to bring more balanced viewpoints and a serious commitment to “stick to the facts.” 

Wednesday – The City Arts & Lectures Series, features leading figures in the world of arts and ideas in literature, criticism, science, and the performing arts. 

Thursday – Open to Debate, seeks to restore balance to the public square through expert moderation, good-faith arguments, and reasoned analysis on topics of science, technology, politics, culture, and global affairs. 

Fridays – rounds off the week with Travel with Rick Steves.  A cultural program hosted by Pacific Northwest’s Rick Steves, featuring great conversations with special guests and travel experts. 

Series Two: this week KBCS set 7am programs with a repositioning and reinvigorating these programs: 

Monday – Alternative Radio – established in 1986, this award-winning weekly one-hour public affairs program provides information, analyses, and views that are frequently ignored or distorted in corporate media. Hosted by David Barsamian.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday – Hard Knock Radio – a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show produced in the Bay Area hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

Friday – Yes! presents: Rising Up with Sonali – a weekly program, broadcasting an antidote to the doom and gloom of mainstream news, lifting up solutions that bring us closer to economic, racial, gender, and environmental justice.  Hosted by Sonali Kolhatkar.

 

Series Three: NEXT WEEK April 22nd – KBCS updates and introduces new programs for 5am and 4am!

Check this blog next week for the update! 

Thanks again for all of your support and involvement bringing KBCS into our world, sharing these programs and so much more with others in our community.   You can make a financial contribution at our DONATE page!  Thank you again for 50 years of listener supported community radio.

 

Questions and comments please send an email to: listenercomment@kbcs.fm 

Thank you again and take care.

Sincerely,  Gregory D’Elia – KBCS Operations & Traffic Manager and Assistant Program Director

Thank You! We Made Our Goal!

Thank you so much to everyone who contributed during our Spring Fund Drive and our many on-going sustaining donors! With your help, we reached our $110,000 Spring Fund Drive Goal. 

KBCS wouldn’t be possible without individual listeners like you stepping up to keep KBCS independent and free from commerical influence. You keep KBCS going strong for a new generation of listeners to discover, just as those before you did.

Thank you for being the most important part of KBCS through over 50 years of community radio, and we look forward to serving you and your neighbors for another 50 years and beyond!

With great appreciation,

Ben Brandow
KBCS Associate Development Director

Message from the GM – March 2024

Dear KBCS Listeners and Listener Supporters

In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, the ability to adapt and embrace change is not just beneficial—it is essential. As we navigate through these dynamic and tumultuous times, it is crucial to recognize that change is not merely a disruption but rather seizing an opportunity for sustained growth and innovation.

Here are a few reasons why embracing change is necessary in the workplace:

1. Stay Competitive and True to our Mission: Nonprofit, educational radio stations are evolving, driven, in large part, by rapid technological advancements and changing times. College radio stations like KBCS must be willing to adapt to new strategies and best practices made possible by advanced technology to further our educational commitment and stay true to our college’s community outreach mission.
2. Foster Innovation: Change encourages creativity and innovation. By embracing innovative ideas and novel approaches to broadcasting, we create an environment where innovation can thrive while increasing our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion by building the opportunity for a remote workplace infrastructure with fewer physical barriers to participation.
3. Enhance Sustainability: Change is inevitable, and radio stations like KBCS that can adapt quickly are better equipped to weather challenges and uncertainties. By fostering a pro-growth and innovative culture that embraces change, we cultivate resilience and agility, enabling us to overcome obstacles and emerge stronger than before.
4. Cultivate Learning and Development: Embracing change requires continuous learning and development. It encourages our staff, students, and community volunteers to acquire new skills, expand their knowledge base, and embrace lifelong learning. This not only benefits individuals but also strengthens the organization as a whole.
5. Increase our Operating Efficiencies: Staying abreast of new advances in automation and other time-saving broadcast software and hardware allows us to do more with less while providing a greater work-life balance for our small paid professional staff. Increased efficiencies mean that we can spend more time instructing and training more students and community volunteers. As we embark on the next phase of this critical journey of growth and transformation, our goal is to embrace change as an opportunity to innovate, evolve, and provide a model of greater inclusion. Let us embrace change not as a challenge, but as a catalyst for progress and expanding our educational outreach to our listeners and supporters across the greater Puget Sound and online everywhere.

Remember, technological change is not something to fear—it is something to embrace.

Best regards,

Dana Lee Buckingham
KBCS General Manager and Executive News Producer of World News Radio KBCS HD2
Heard online at www.worldnewsradiokbcs.com

KBCS Feature Programs: Women’s History

As Spring is upon us there are many changes and budding blossoms as the season shifts. KBCS also is going through some changes.  Please check out our KBCS Spring News post for more info and updates, programming changes and opportunities open to represent more communities and voices.

Celebrating Women’s History Month, KBCS scheduled some feature programs for broadcast during our 7am morning educational, information and news programming hour on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Our Body Politic stays scheduled on Mondays at 7am and Wednesdays at 5am until the end of the month.  Their poignant and professionally produced program is unfortunately going on hiatus. We hope Our Body Politic is back in production soon and we can add them to our schedule again.  Yes! Presents: Rising Up with Sonali remains scheduled on Fridays at 7am.  

Listener contributions assist KBCS in supporting many producers, studios and program resources. These resources provide more for our listeners.  Please tune in to some of these feature programs for this month or connect to the audio in our archives or links below. Links in this message go direct to the audio if you miss the live broadcast or access to the KBCS audio archives. Please support KBCS by making a financial contribution clicking the DONATE button at the top of our webpage.  Thank you so much for your support.

Below is the line-up for 7am, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays thru March.  Previous program dates are available on the 7am KBCS Features program page:  

 

Tuesday – March 12^th

7am – News Letters on the Air – Black Women Writers in History

7:30am – Modern Language Association – What’s the Word? Women Public Intellectuals

Wednesday – March 13^th

7am – The Kitchen Sisters – Buildings Speak: Stories of Pioneering Women Architects

Thursday – March 14^th

7am – Popaganda – A Brief History of Women in Comics

7:30am – Modern Language Association – What’s the Word? Women Warriors

 

KBCS Spring Fund drive Week!  – Please contribute with a financial donation –

Tuesday – March 19^th

7am – The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women

– HERO Training Africa’s New Female Leaders —

Wednesday – March 20^th

7am –  New Letters On Air – Isabel Wilkerson – Pulitzer Prize-winning Journalist

7:30am – Making Contact – Black Women in History

Thursday – March 21^st

7am- The Kitchen Sisters – House/Full of Black Women

 

Last week of the month –

Tuesday – March 26^th

7am – Camino Real Productions, LLC – Margaret Sanger – Woman Rebel

Wednesday – March 27^th

7am – I Spy: Real Life Spy Stories featuring Joanna Mendez, CIA’s Former Head of Disguise and Amaryllis Fox, former undercover agent

Thursday – March 28^th

7am – Let’s Talk About Race: International Women’s Day is Every Day

 

Additional segments during the day are from:

SLB Radio – Women’s History Month

WDSE – Women’s History Month series

 

I hope these featured programs add to the education of our collective history and the celebration of Women’s History Month.  Please continue to share beyond this month.  KBCS strives to do more to represent more communities. 

 

Thank you again for your support.

 

Sincerely – Gregory D’Elia, KBCS Operations Manager

 

KBCS Spring News

KBCS Spring News: Welcome to a Season of Renewal and Rebirth!

Dear KBCS Listeners and Supporters,

As the days grow longer and nature comes alive with vibrant colors, we welcome the arrival of spring with open arms. This is a time of renewal, growth, and endless possibilities. I hope this newsletter finds you all in good spirits and ready to embrace the wonders of this season of regrowth and new beginnings.

Here is what’s blooming at KBCS:

1. Exciting New Programming:

Spring brings with it fresh beginnings, and we are thrilled to introduce a new series of educational and cultural program offerings on KBCS that were chosen to inform, educate, and offer a more structured forum for a more balanced debate of the prominent issues and topics of the day. On Monday, tune in for Philosophy Talk, a program that challenges listeners to identify and question their assumptions, and to think about things in new ways. On Tuesday, you can listen to the largest and oldest public affairs forum in America, the Commonwealth Club of California, where for over 90 years distinguished speakers have shared their experiences and ideas in a nonpartisan forum that strives to bring a more balanced viewpoint on the issues and a serious commitment to “stick to the facts.” Wednesday at noon, features the City Arts & Lectures series with leading figures in the world of arts and ideas in literature, criticism, science, and the performing arts. On Thursday, KBCS presents Open to Debate, a new program that seeks to restore balance to the public square through expert moderation, good-faith arguments, and reasoned analysis on topics of science, technology, politics, culture, and global affairs. Finally, we will round out the week with a cultural program offering that features one of our region’s favorite sons, Rick Steves, who is also one of public broadcasting’s favorite personalities with his weekly radio series Travel with Rick Steves, a program that features great conversations with special guests and travel experts. Check it out, each weekday at noon on KBCS.

2. KBCS News Director, Yuko Kodama, has announced that she is leaving KBCS:

Our popular News Director, Yuko Kodama, has announced her resignation after serving for the past 7 years as the KBCS News Director. Yuko is an amazing journalist, a highly respected collaborator, and a compassionate human being. Her large body of work with its focus on stories of social justice will never be forgotten. I know that we will all miss her and offer Yuko our best wishes for wherever life’s journey takes her next. KBCS will now begin the search for our next News Director which will be conducted through the Bellevue College Department of Human Resources. A search team will be established shortly to begin the formal hiring process.

 

3. KBCS Annual Spring Fundraiser kicks off on Friday, March 15.

Our KBCS Membership/ Development Manager, Ben Brandow, has set the date for our annual Spring Fundraising campaign. The on-air portion of the campaign will begin on Friday, March 15^th, and run through Monday, March 25^th. Join us for a celebration of our over fifty-year tradition of community radio programming across the Puget Sound region. KBCS is a “self-support” educational nonprofit radio station that depends on the financial contributions and generosity of our listeners and supporters for over 80% of yearly operating funds.

4. World News Radio KBCS HD2 now streaming live online:

Some of you will be surprised to learn that there is more to KBCS than just our longtime flagship KBCS-FM-HD1 Community Radio format. KBCS also broadcasts and streams our World News Radio KBCS-HD2 News and Fine Arts radio programming around the clock. The base programming of World News Radio KBCS is a live satellite feed from London of the BBC World Service. The BBC World Service is one of the most respected and trusted news outlets in the world. This broadcast stream also features a variety of independent specialty news programs during the day. During the weekday evenings, sit back, relax, and enjoy beautiful symphonic concerts and chamber music from the world’s leading symphony and chamber music orchestras. On Sunday evenings you can listen to thought-provoking and highly imaginative radio dramas from the award-winning LA Theater Works. This program features contemporary actors from both stage and screen sharing their talents and creativity by performing in a “theater of the mind.” Our World News Radio KBCS HD2 programming can be heard over the air through our HD radio digital broadcast transmission, and now streaming online at www.worldnewsradiokbcs.com

5. Stay Connected: Do not miss any of our popular live in-station interviews with musicians, during Iaan Hughes, Roots, Rock, and Soul show now heard each weekday from 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. on KBCS-FM-HD1. Also join us during the evenings, overnight, and all through the weekend for an eclectic and diverse mix of amazing music programs produced and hosted by local community volunteers and students. Be sure to follow us on social media, subscribe to our KBCS newsletter, and visit our website regularly at kbcs.fm for the inside scoop on all things new this spring and much, much more.

As we embrace the new spring season’s spirit of renewal and growth, all of us here at KBCS are grateful for your continued moral and financial support as we embark on the next 50 years of great radio programming here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

Thank you for your time,

Dana Lee Buckingham, KBCS General Manager and Executive Producer of World News Radio KBCS-HD

KBCS Black History Month – 2024

Celebrating Black History Month, I am excited to schedule some feature programming for broadcast on Saturday mornings before Gospel Highway starting this weekend February 3rd.  Listener contributions assist KBCS in supporting many producers, studios and program resources.  Links in this message go direct to the audio if you miss the live broadcast or access to the audio archives. 

Thank you so much for your support.
Here is the line up of featured programs for Saturday’s this month:  

Griot Party Experience

Griot Party Experience is an evening of authentic and inspiring storytelling to heal the soul.   Long time KBCS contributor, Logic Amen directs this event which features griots such as IamChamel, Monique Franklin, Deaunte Damper, Halisi, Na’eem Shareef, Mecca Amen and many others.  

Griot Party Experience is January 13th, 8 pm at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute (104 17th Ave South, Seattle, Washington 98144)

Listen in on KBCS’s series of interviews with some of the griots from this event (more will be added as they’re produced):

Na’eem Shareef is a former Seattle Chapter, Black Panther Party member. Shareef describes his experiences of serving in the community as a teen Party member.

     

Halisi, mom of seven children, is a spoken word artist and coach. She describes how she navigates motherhood and her passions.  Halisi also shares tips on self care as a mother working in what she calls ‘the new earth’ 

Local music artist and rapper, IamChamel reflects on the journey into freestyling, and how rhyming has the power to build and heal and also to hurt within the community.  

Mecca Amen describes what it was like for him when his relationship with his father transformed from one of battling authority, to one of respect.

Joy Sparks is the founder of Hella Black Books aka the Black Book Fairy.  Sparks speaks with Griot Party Experience Director and KBCS Producer, Logic Amen about her background and why she started her business of selling Black centered books.

Producers: Yuko Kodama, Logic Amen and Widder Sessions

Photos: Logic Amen

Beats: Logic Amen

Fleeing Myanmar (aired August, 2023)

Mohamed Imran has been a student in Washington after having fled Burma years ago as an 12 years old. 

Imran describes his journey to the US and how he has stayed active in working for his community.

Producers: Laura Florez, Lucy Braginski and Yuko Kodama

Photo and drawing: Widder Sessions

Tribal Canoe Journey 2023 Protocol (aired August 2023)

The InterTribal Canoe Journey, otherwise referred to as “canoe journey” or “tribal journey” are a Coast Salish tribal event to bring back the ancestral cultural ways of using cedars canoes on the Salish Sea as a means to live in relation. Canoe journeys started in the 1980s and have grown over the years.   

Muckleshoot Tribe hosted Intertribal Canoe Journey 2023, welcoming 120 canoes to its shores.  Canoe families came from as far north as Juneau Alaska, British Columbia’s Campbell River and Ahousat areas, and as far south as Southern California. 

On August 6, the 2023 Intertribal Canoe Journey ended with protocol at Muckleshoot.  Listen to sounds and voices of the people there.

Producers: Yuko Kodama, Lucy Braginski and Widder Sessions – Special thanks to Maizy Brown Bear for help with this story

Photos: Widder Sessions and Maizy Brown Bear

Muckleshoot protocol

Line for dinner at Muckleshoot canoe journey protocol

Danny Stevenson – Muckleshoot tribal member

Jenel Hunter Muckleshoot tribal member

Stanley Jones Cowichan First Nations and Katrina “Alex” Johnson Ahousaht/Mowachaht First Nations (British Columbia)

A Sephardic Hanukkah

Today is the first day of Hanukkah. 

KBCS spoke with Dr. Devin Naar, University of Washington Sephardic Studies Program Chair and Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies about Hanukkah celebration rituals in Sephardic Jewish culture.

Listen to an interview about Sephardic Hanukkah delicacies like bunuelos, a Ladino song titled Ocho Kandelikas and other details about Hanukkah in the Sephardic style.

Flory Jacoda, composer of Ocho Kandelikas, performing the song

Ocho Kandelikas rendition sung by Idina Menzel.

Producers: Yuko Kodama and Lucy Braginski