Holiday Programming
We have a great lineup for special programming this year beginning with Hanukkah and ending with New Year's. We hope you're able to tune in and enjoy.
Wednesday, December 20 at 10 p.m.
NPR's Hanukkah Lights 2006
With Murray Horwitz and Susan Stamberg. Now in its second decade, this NPR perennial favorite features four authors exploring Hanukkah traditions in original stories commissioned expressly for Hanukkah Lights.
Sunday, December 24 at 7 p.m.
Christmas Eve Recollections
Ed Walker takes us down memory lane to the best of vintage radio broadcasts from the 30s, 40s and 50s to celebrate Christmas. This edition features the 1939 version of Charles' Dickens "A Christmas Carol" with Lionel Barrymore and Orson Welles.
Monday, December 25 at 8 p.m.
Christmas Night Recollections
More vintage radio broadcasts celebrating the holiday season including the 1952 edition of "Gunsmoke: The Christmas Story".
Tuesday, December 26
8 p.m.
American RadioWorks Japan's Pop Power
Japan has become a powerful new competitor to the United States in the world of pop culture. Young people across the globe watch anime, read manga comic books from right to left, listen to J-pop, and play with Japanese toys and video games. Hear an entertaining hour about how Japan has become one of the world's leading exporters of technology and fantasy.
9 p.m.
George Harrison An Appreciation Part 1
This special marks the fifth anniversary of George Harrison's death and features some of his best-loved music, some history of the Beatles, and thoughtful reflections from Harrison fans that help define his unique contribution to the Beatles and music in general.
Wednesday, December 27
8 p.m.
American RadioWorks Early Signs: Reports from a Warming Planet
The early signs of climate change are showing up across vastly differing landscape: from melting outposts near the Arctic Circle, to disappearing glaciers high in the Andes; from the deepest lake in Africa, which keeps getting warmer, to the deltas of Bangladesh and the atolls of the Pacific, where the water's edge creeps closer. This documentary demonstrates how climate change is no longer restricted to scientific modeling about the future. It's happening now.
9 p.m.
George Harrison An Appreciation Part 2
See description above for December 26.
Thursday, December 28
8 p.m.
American RadioWorks Hearing America
Popular history has it that on Christmas Eve, 1906 Canadian inventor Reginald Fessenden stepped into his laboratory in Massachusetts and became the first man to broadcast the human voice over the radio. That first human voice -- as the story goes -- was singing. Music has dominated America's airwaves ever since as radio's economic engine and its primary means of cultural exchange. "Hearing America" tells the story of how music radio has helped shape 100 years of American identity and American culture.
9 p.m.
Bankrupt: Maxed Out in America
An examination of the forces that drive debted Americans to seek new beginnings. And despite a new law designed to slow down Chapter 11 filings, America's bankruptcy rates are likely to remain high.
Friday, December 29
Noon
DC Politics Hour - Mayor Williams Political Legacy
10 p.m.
Capitol Steps Politics Takes a Holiday! New Year's 2006
Year in Review Show
Sunday, December 31
7 p.m.
The Big Broadcast
Ring in the New Year with vintage variety shows from the golden age of radio.
9 p.m.
A Hot Jazz New Year's Eve
LIVE with your host Rob Bamberger. An annual tradition now for over 20 years!
Monday, January 1
8 p.m.
The Big Broadcast
Ed celebrates New Year's Day with more vintage variety shows from the 30s, 40s and 50s.
Tuesday, January 2
8 p.m.
Seeking Peace On Earth: The 2006 Peace Talks Special
Spend an hour hearing from people whose life's work is pursuing peace in different ways. You'lll hear nonviolent communication expert Marshall Rosenberg; Arun Gandhi, Mohandas K. Gandhi's grandson; 1976 Nobel Prize Laureate Mairead Maguire; plus highlights from programs on peaceful parenting, the Peace Corps, workplace peacemaking, prison inmates finding their own peace and more.
9 p.m.
New Years in the West (Western Folklife Center Media)
Amid the din and frenzy of the holiday season, host Hal Cannon visits with several people in the West for whom New Years is a time of reflection on the past. He discovers the connection between contemporary New Years celebrations, and traditions that reach back hundreds, even thousands of years. A Native American elder explains how the holiday stirs memories of a dark chapter in his people's history, and how he was given the opportunity to add an inspiring new chapter to that legacy. Hal also visits a long-time resident of the Grand Canyon for whom the western landscape holds spiritual lessons for the New Year.
