Just like baking cookies, wrapping gifts and hanging lights, holiday programming on KSKA is a time honored tradition. All of your favorites from NPR, PRI and American Public Media will be sprinkled throughout the KSKA schedule beginning on second night of Hannukah through New Years day.
Here’s the full holiday line up:
Sunday, Dec. 9
- 1:00 pm Chanukah in Story and Song – narrated by Leonard Nimoy and sung by the acclaimed vocal sextet The Western Wind Vocal Ensemble, “Chanukah in Story and Song” is a unique holiday program created especially for public radio listeners.
Tuesday, Dec. 11
- 2:00 pm & 7:00 pm Hanukkah Lights – this perennial NPR favorite, Hanukkah stories and memoirs, written by acclaimed authors expressly for Hanukkah Lights, are read by NPR’s Susan Stamberg and Murray Horwitz. [NPR]
Thursday, Dec. 13
- 3:00 pm Candles Burning Brightly – Mindy Ratner and Bill Morelock offer a one-hour program which explores the customs and music of Chanukah, the Jewish Festival of Lights. [PRI]
Tuesday, Dec. 18
- 10:00 am Talk of Alaska: Holiday Greetings 2 hour special – From Ketchikan to Dutch Harbor, Prudhoe Bay to Homer, Alaskans send holiday greetings across the state on this extended Talk of Alaska. Call-in with you radio postcard 550-8422 or 1-800-478-TALK. [APRN]
- 2:00 pm & 7:00 pm Tinsel Tales 2 – NPR fills millions of homes each holiday with humor, warmth, and a host of festive voices. Continuing with the tradition of the first Tinsel Tales program, this is another collection of the best and most requested holiday stories. Joy, hope, and childhood memories overflow as NPR voices, past and present, tell stories of the season. Hosted by Lynn Neary.
Wednesday Dec. 19
- 2:00 pm & 7:00 pm Hometown, Alaska: Saluting Volunteers of Alaska. Call-in to thank the people who make our community strong by volunteering their time. Host Kathleen McCoy will be accepting phone call when the show is live 2:00 – 3:00 pm. Call 550-8433 or 1-888-353-5752. [KSKA]
Friday Dec. 21 Winter Solstice
- 7:00 pm A Paul Winter Solstice – Once again on the darkest night of the year, NPR Music presents the illuminating tradition From New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine: the 32nd annual Paul Winter Solstice Celebration, featuring gospel singer Theresa Thomason, Mbira Master Chris Berry and The Paul Winter Consort with Paul McCandless, Eugene Friesen, Paul Sullivan, Eliot Wadopian, Jamey Haddad, Tim Brumfield and the glorious Cathedral Pipe Organ.
Saturday Dec. 22
- 7:00 pm Jazz Piano Christmas – NPR Music brings you another great concert from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. NEA Jazz Master Ellis Marsalis, Jason Moran, Geri Allen, and Taylor Eigsti, and other artists perform their favorite holiday songs.
- 8:00 pm Night Music Holiday Favorites [KSKA]
Sunday, Dec. 23
- 12:00 pm A Celtic Christmas Sojourn To celebrate the 10th anniversary of sold-out concerts around New England, A Christmas Celtic Sojourn host Brian O’Donovan has assembled some of the best musicians, singers, and dancers imaginable from around the Celtic world. This year’s live show is again led by music director Seamus Egan, leading his groundbreaking group Solas, along with harpist Catriona McKay and much more. [PRI]
- 2:00 pm Christmas Revels Encore
- 4:00 pm All Things Considered
- 6:00 pm Travel with Rick Steves
- 7:00 pm Latino USA
- 7:30 pm KSKA Holiday music
- 8:00 pm Festivo Alt. Latino – NPR Music’s Alt. Latino hosts Felix Contreras and Jasmine Garsd take us on a Latin American holiday travelogue through the eyes and ears of four very different Latin Alternative musicians who put aside their contemporary sounds and go back to their musical and cultural roots.
- 9:00 Putumayo World Music
- 10:00 Christmas Revels [R]
Monday, Dec. 24 Christmas Eve
- 9:00 am –Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols– Hosted by Michael Barone, this is a live stereo music and spoken-word broadcast from the chapel of King’s College in Cambridge, England. The 30-voice King’s College Choir performs the legendary Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols service of Biblical readings and music [APM]
- 11:00 am A Chanticleer Christmas – A one-hour celebration of the season as told through the glorious voices of Chanticleer, the 12-voice San Francisco-based men’s choir. The program spans the globe and the centuries — from England in the 1300s to new arrangements of classic and contemporary carols. [APM]
- 12:00 pm The World
- 1:00 pm Marketplace (early)
- 1:30 pm KSKA Holiday Music
- 2:00 pm Christmas with Morehouse and Spelman Glee Clubs – One of the great holiday traditions in America, the choirs of Morehouse and Spelman Colleges – two of the most prestigious historically black institutions in the nation – get together to present a spine-tingling concert program. This encore presentation features the best works of the last several years. It’s a joyous celebration of the schools’ tradition of singing excellence, with their trademark mixture of spirituals and carols. Korva Coleman hosts. [NPR]
- 3:00 pm Jonathan Winters’ A Christmas Carol – An updated version of a public radio tradition hosted by NPR’s Susan Stamberg. Master comedian Jonathan Winters presents a distinctive reading of Dickens’ holiday classic, with a special performing edition prepared by Dickens for his own presentations. [NPR & KCRW]
- 4:00 pm All Things Considered
- 6:00 pm Alaska News Nightly
- 6:30 pm KSKA Holiday Music
- 7:00 pm Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols [R]
- 9:00 pm Jonathan Winters’ A Christmas Carol [R]
- 10:00 pm World Cafe (time shifted)
- 11:00 pm Fresh Air
Tuesday, Dec. 25 Christmas Day
- 8:00 am The Story of Christmas from Washington National Cathedral – This year’s annual special Christmas broadcast from the Washington National Cathedral with the Cathedral Girls’ Choir brings a unique performance of Benjamin Britten’s much-loved Ceremony of Carols, marking 70 years from its first performance in England in 1942. [PRI]
- 9:00 am A Chanticleer Christmas [R]
- 10: 00 am Christmas with Morehouse and Spelman Glee Clubs [R]
- 11:00 am Welcome Christmas – The best way to welcome Christmas is Welcome Christmas!, the VocalEssence holiday concert from American Public Media. New for 2012: Bring a Torch! This year’s program puts the focus on old French carols, alongside two world premieres in the annual VocalEssence/American Composers Forum Christmas carol contest. The new carols call for the intriguing combination of men’s chorus with English horn.
- 12:00 pm The World
- 1:00 pm Handel’s Messiah from Boston – Harry Christophers leads the period-instrument Handel & Haydn Society Orchestra and Chorus and world-class soloists in Handel’s beloved masterpiece live from Symphony Hall in Boston. [PRI]
- 4:00 pm All Things Considered
- 6:00 pm Handel’s Messiah – The Christmas Portion is hosted by Bill McGlaughlin, this one-hour program offers exceptional performances of the Christmas portion of Messiah, along with the Hallelujah Chorus, by the Dallas Bach Society and recorded in Dallas’ Meyerson Hall. [PRI]
- 7:00 pm A Chanticleer Christmas [R]
- 8:00 pm Echoes of Christmas – Moving selections of choral classics celebrating Christmas. The Dale Warland Singers provided magical performances to listeners across the country for over 30 years and were acclaimed as America’s premiere choir. Their signature holiday concert—beloved by public radio listeners nationwide—was the annual Echoes of Christmas program. Drawing upon the archive of their live performances, Dale Warland and host Brian Newhouse create a very special Christmas musical treasure. [APM]
- 9:00 pm A Celtic Christmas Sojourn [R]
- 11:00 pm World Cafe
Wednesday, Dec. 26 Kwaanza
- 2:00 pm & 7:00 pm Season’s Griot – An hour-long Kwanzaa celebration in story and song, again hosted by Madafo Lloyd Wilson. This year’s program features youth as the special guest griots, reading their own original and traditional stories. Familiar and favorite elements of Griot will also be in place with plenty of music, and an original composition by the show’s poet laureate, Beverly Fields Burnette. [PRI]
Monday, Dec. 31 New Year’s Eve
- 7:00 pm Toast of the Nation – An NPR tradition every New Year’s Eve since the 1970s,is perfect for the occasion. It’s jazz that you can party to, all night from coast to coast, with countdowns to midnight in all four continental time zones. Spirited, improvised, grooving and swinging, each segment is a stop in a sequence of celebrations and contributing something new to the musical feast. WBGO’s Rhonda Hamilton anchors the show.
Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013
- 1:00 pm New Year’s Day from Vienna 2013 – The Vienna Philharmonic presents its ever popular annual New Year’s Day concert from the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna. You’ll hear your favorite waltzes, polkas and more — a festive way to start off the New Year. Presented by NPR Music and WGBH, BostonNew Years.
