If you were traveling over the holiday weekend, you would have easily missed the announcement that popular local NPR affiliate WAMU 88.5 FM will be making big changes to their broadcast schedule — most notably moving the entirety of their popular weekend bluegrass programming to an HD Radio channel, leaving many listeners upset and confused as to how the station could abandon their signature music programs on the regular FM dial. Here’s what’s going to happen come Sept. 17 (or check out the entire programming scheme here):
WAMU 88.5 FM, as well HD Radio’s 88.5-1 and the live stream at wamu.org, will switch to solely news, talk, and information, all the time. This includes the addition of public radio staples like Speaking of Faith and Bob Edwards Weekend, and a few new shows including The State We’re In, a collaboration between WAMU 88.5 and Radio Netherlands. The Saturday schedule, including A Prairie Home Companion and This American Life, will stay the same. Sundays, however, will no longer carry any music, and instead focus on programming like Car Talk and repeats of The Diane Rehm Show.
In order to listen to any bluegrass, you’ll need either to purchase an HD Radio or be one of the 1,000 individual subscribers selected by WAMU to win a free one. The Sunday bluegrass content, currently airing from 1 a.m. to 4 p.m., will move to HD at 88.5-2, where it will join the prerecorded automated music service Bluegrass Country currently heard in HD at 88.5-3, to turn HD 88.5-2 into an all-bluegrass station with live programming.
We got more than a handful of emails from disappointed and upset bluegrass fans, as well as from adherents to the AAA-public station WTMD at 89.7, which has been partnering with WAMU to broadcast independent rock and folk music but will now be relegated to HD 88.5-3 weekdays from midnight to 5 a.m. and 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. What do you think about the change? For those of you who look forward to bluegrass on Sundays every week, will you consider buying an HD Radio? Keep in mind, popular brands retail starting at around $200.
