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 Programs 

WKCC programming is provided in part from Public Radio International, National Public Radio, and American Public Media.  We're also proud to offer quality local programming.

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A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion is the only live music and variety show aired nationwide today. For more than 34 years, A Prairie Home Companion continues its live Saturday night broadcast and features comedy sketches, music, and Garrison Keillor's signature monologue: The News from Lake Wobegon.
Saturday at 5 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.

A World of Possibilities
A World of Possibilities is an internationally acclaimed weekly program of spirited global conversations about global issues, featuring leading-edge analysts, big-picture thinkers, social movement leaders and practical innovators addressing the most pressing challenges of our time.
Sunday - 9 a.m.

Afropop Worldwide
Afropop Worldwide is the Public Radio International showcase for music from Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas. Hosted by one of Africa's best known and best loved broadcasters, Georges Collinet from Cameroon, the program is animated by Collinet's warmth, love of the music, and insights about the cultures the music embodies.
Sunday at 7 p.m.

BBC World Service
The publicly owned BBC World Service has a reputation for providing the best journalism in the world. BBC World Service offers news to fit the public interest, presented with independence, accountability, impartiality, diversity of opinion, truth and accuracy. BBC World Service is committed to being the most open and transparent news organization in the world.
Weekdays at 5 p.m.

Beale Street Caravan
Beale Street Caravan is the most widely distributed Blues radio program in the world. Produced in the Home of the Blues - Memphis, Tennessee - Beale Street Caravan covers the world with the heartfelt sounds and colorful stories of the Blues and its music makers. Each week, Beale Street Caravan takes its audience the greatest Blues venues in Memphis and around the US. Saturday at 7 p.m.

BP Chicago Symphony Orchestra Radio Broadcast Series
Experience the No. 1 U.S. Orchestra, according to Gramophone. Enjoy concerts from Symphony Center, the home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with engaging and lively content. Beyond the concerts, listeners gain deeper insight into the orchestra’s music and programmatic themes. Produced by Marty Ronish and hosted by Lisa Simeone.
Wednesday at 8 p.m.

Celtic Connections
Celtic Connections offers a variety of traditional and contemporary music associated with the Western European lands occupied at one time or another by people of the Celtic tribes and their descendants. Count on hearing the finest new releases, classics, exclusive concerts and interviews with top names in the Celtic music. Hosted by Bryan Kelso.
Sunday at 6 p.m.

Cleveland Orchestra
Kankakee native Robert Conrad hosts the Cleveland Orchestra broadcasts. During the 2009 broadcast season, The Cleveland Orchestra performs the 7th Symphonies by Dvořák, Beethoven, Shostakovich and Bruckner.  The season culminates in a stunning Marriage of Figaro—the first fully-staged opera performed at Severance Hall in decades. 
Thursday at 8 p.m. (April-September)

Collectors’ Corner
With a broad range of orchestral, vocal, chamber and solo-instrumental music, Collectors’ Corner shares a wide range of truly classic recordings. The show features both a repertoire that deserves a wider audience and performances unique in their interpretive profile, sense of commitment, and intensity. Many recordings are long out-of-print, or hard to locate. Hosted by Henry Fogel.
Saturday at 5 a.m.

Deutsche Welle Festival Concerts
Highlights of live performances from Germany include the Beethoven Festival, Moritzburg Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and prize winners at one of the world’s most prestigious music competitions. Hosted and produced by Rick Fulker. Thursday at 8 p.m. (October-March)

Etown
Every Etown show is taped in front of a live audience and features performances from many of today's top artists as well as conversations and information about the world around us. At Etown, we build community through music.
Sunday at 5 p.m.

Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin
Now in its sixth year, this award-winning series pursues a new musical theme each week. Featuring Peabody Award winning broadcaster, conductor and composer Bill McGlaughlin, listeners can ride a musical journey which enriches, enlightens, educates and entertains. Each broadcast offers in-depth knowledge of classical music, presented with enthusiasm, imagination and spontaneity.
Weekdays at 11 a.m.

Friends of the Blues Radio Show
Friends of the Blues is hosted by lifelong local blues aficionados D’Arcy “Shuffleshoes” Ballanger and James “Skyy Dobro” Walker. Ballinger, a rural St. Anne resident has been involved with local blues since the mid-1980s. He is a member of the Blues Foundation and the Blues Music Awards Nominating Committee. Walker, of Watseka, was listening to the blues before he knew it was “Blues.” The show’s name comes from loose-knit group of local blues fans the two helped create in 2006. 
Thursday at 7 p.m. and an extended 4 hour broadcast Saturday at 8 p.m.

Health Show
For two decades, The Health Show has been the award winning destination for an audience looking for health related news and information. Reports on the latest treatments and research...features on diet and exercise...discussions with policy makers and journalists...that's just some of what you and your listeners will find here each week.  Hosts are Dr. Nina Sax and Bob Barrett.
Monday at 4:30 p.m.

Here and Now
After more than 25 years in broadcasting, host Robin Young considers "Here and Now" her best assignment ever. With up-to-the-minute coverage of the world, Here and Now has been in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in March of 2003, and continues to follow the story as it unfolds. In between, other stories are pursued and programs are rounded out with entertaining features Yount has worked as a correspondent for all three networks, and has served as substitute host on NBC's "Today" show.
Weekdays at noon.

Jazz with Bob Parlocha
Three hours of Friday night mainstream Jazz selected and hosted by legendary Jazz expert Bob Parlocha. His five favorite Jazz recordings are: John Coltrane -- "Giant Steps", Stan Getz -- "Focus", Charles Mingus -- "Mingus Ah Um", Miles Davis -- "Four & More", John Coltrane -- "A Love Supreme"
Friday at 9 p.m.

Jazzset
JazzSet delivers rhythm... melody... harmony... improv...every week. Host Dee Dee Bridgewater brings you music in performance. With her friendly voice, the 2008 Grammy nominee introduces sets from coast to coast, and beyond. JazzSet's quality recordings capture the legends, today's top bands, and promising new talent.
Friday at 8 p.m.

Latino USA
Multi award-winning Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only nationally distributed English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective. It combines high-quality news, cultural and public affairs journalism with compelling sound to bring a rich understanding to a wide spectrum of listeners. Maria Hinojosa hosts the program and is also urban affairs correspondent for CNN and a former NPR News reporter.
Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. and Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

Le Show
This comical romp through the worlds of media, politics, sports and show business is leavened with an eclectic mix of mysterious music. Le Show is hosted by Harry Shearer, a comic personality who is perhaps most famous as the voice of Mr. Burns, Smithers, Ned Flanders, Rev. Lovejoy and Scratchy in television on The Simpson and in film for The Simpsons Movie.
Sunday at 8 p.m.

Left, Right & Center
This provocative, up-to-the-minute, alive and witty program features a lively mix of politics, policy and popular culture and proves those with impeccable credentials needn't lack personality. This weekly "love-hate relationship of the air" features four of the most insightful news analysts anywhere, Arianna Huffington, Tony Blankley, Matt Miller and Robert Scheer. Moderator is Matt Miller.
Friday at 4:30 p.m.

Marketplace
Award-winning Marketplace is public radio's daily magazine on business and economics news "for the rest of us." The 30-minute program—with an irreverent reporting style all its own—airs weekdays on more than 320 public radio stations nationwide and boasts the largest audience for any business program in the United States on radio, cable or network television.
Weekdays at 4:30 p.m. & 6:30 p.m.

Marketplace Money
Each week, Marketplace Money host Tess Vigeland looks at how major national and international stories will impact the average listener's wallet. Produced by the award-winning team of Marketplace and Marketplace Morning Report, Vigeland and her guests help listeners map out the course to financial well-being, offering advice on topics like how to pay for college and whether to buy or lease a car as well as the individual impact of national stories.
Sunday at noon

Performance Today
Performance Today is a two hour weekday program which features classical music in concert from American Public Media studios and sites across the nation and the world, as well as classical music news, interviews and features. Hosted by Fred Child. Weekdays at 9 a.m. and Monday through Thursday at 10 p.m.

Piano Jazz
For 30 years, legendary pianist Marian McPartland has welcomed a stellar line-up of jazz artists for conversation and improvisation on her Peabody Award-winning program. Piano Jazz fans say the show’s intimate style is “like listening in on a conversation in someone’s living room." And no one but McPartland, with her engaging personality and improvisational savvy, could host such a variety of performers in her radio “living room."  Piano Jazz is a forum for jazz legends and influential performers as well as up-and-coming talents. Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Dave Brubeck, Diana Krall, Max Roach, Cassandra Wilson and Tony Bennett are among the over 400 guests who have joined McPartland to create dynamic duets and discuss their lives and music.
Friday at 7 p.m.

State Week in Review
State Week in Review has been broadcasting about Illinois politics for nearly 35 years.  The program is patterned after the popular PBS show Washington Week in Review. Bill Wheelhouse moderates the weekly program. He is joined by a regular panel of reporters and political experts who analyze and comment on the top news stories of the week in Illinois state government and politics.
Friday - 5 p.m.

Sunday Baroque
With Baroque and early music written before 1750, Sunday Baroque provides your soundtrack for this uniquely relaxing day. Sunday Baroque features composers such as Bach, Vivaldi, and Handel. In the past several years, there has been a resurgence of interest in this early music, with many young, innovative performers and ensembles hitting the scene with their own interpretations of the repertoire.
Sunday - 5 a.m.

Symphonycast
A two-hour weekly radio program featuring a full-length concert by a major symphony. Material is drawn from Europe's premier symphony orchestras, along with U.S. orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra.  Hosted by Brian Newhouse. 
Tuesday at 8 p.m.

Talk of the Nation
NPR’s Talk of the Nation links the headlines with what's on people's minds, providing a two hour springboard for listeners and experts to exchange ideas and pose critical questions about major events in the news and the world around them. Host Neal Conan invites callers to discuss politics and public service, education, religion, music, and healthcare. Become part of the conversation by calling 1-800-989-TALK. Monday - Thursday at 1 p.m.

Talk of the Nation Science Friday
Each Friday, Talk of the Nation becomes Science Friday. Journalist Ira Flatow is joined by listeners and studio guests to explore science-related topics - from subatomic particles and the human genome to the Internet and earthquakes.
Friday at 1 p.m.

The Bioneers Radio Series
This stirring, award-winning documentary series The Bioneers: Revolution from the Heart of Nature, is composed of themed half-hour programs highlighting cutting-edge solutions to major environmental challenges and crises, along with broader social approaches for ecological and cultural restoration.
Thursday at 4:30 p.m.

The Midnight Special
The Midnight Special has stayed current through decades of change, rich in tradition and history. In 1953, Mike Nichols developed The Midnight Special as a showcase for recorded folk music. Today, the Midnight Special has evolved into an eclectic mixture of song and story ranging from traditional to contemporary folk performers, show and novelty tunes, and always hilarious comedy routines.
Sunday at 10 p.m.

The New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is by far the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States, and one of the oldest in the world. Founded in 1842 by a group of local musicians, the philharmonic plays nearly 180 concerts a year and in December 2004 gave its 14,000th concert.
Monday at 8 p.m.

The Romantic Hours
The Romantic Hours is a unique wedding of classical music with history, art and literature guided by the creative direction of Mona Golabek and writer/producer Doug Ordunio. This is a program where the love letters of Beethoven, Chopin, or Mozart come alive as they are read by an evocative female voice and accompanied by the most beautiful music of these composers.
Wednesday at 7 p.m.

The Song Is You with Bonnie Grice
The Song Is You with Bonnie Grice is an award-winning program inspired by the song of the same name. It is a unique program because Bonnie Grice invites guests from all walks of life to share their favorite music. Through unscripted conversation, they reveal how music has touched their lives.
Tuesday at 7 p.m.

The Splendid Table
The Splendid Table is a culinary, culture, and lifestyle program that celebrates food and its ability to touch the lives and feed the souls of everyone. Each week, award-winning host Lynne Rossetto Kasper leads listeners on a journey of the senses and hosts discussions with a variety of writers and personalities who share their passion for the culinary delights.
Sunday at 10 a.m.

The Takeaway
The Takeaway is a new morning news service — on radio and online. The program draws on the resources of a talented and diverse staff of journalists, as well as the BBC World Service and the "New York Times." Hosted by John Hockenberry and broadcast live from WNYC's studios, the news service draws on the resources of a global news network.
Weekdays at 5 a.m.

This American Life
This American Life documents and describes contemporary America, but it is, quite literally, a new kind of radio storytelling. Built around the innovative personal vision of host Ira Glass, the program explores a weekly theme -- fiascos, conventions, the job that takes over your life -- through a playful mix of radio monologues, mini-documentaries, "found tape," short fiction, and unusual music. The stories presented are engaging, intimate, surprising, funny, disturbing, bittersweet. Listeners praise the show as "riveting and mesmerizing."
Saturday at Noon and Sunday at 3 p.m.

Travel with Rick Steves
Travel with Rick Steves is a fun, hour-long, and practical talk show with guest experts, calls and questions from travelers. This weekly program is a lively conversation between travelers and experts as we learn to explore our world smartly, smoothly, and thoughtfully.
Sunday at 11 a.m.

The World
PRI’s The World is a radio news magazine offering a mix of news, features, interviews, and music from around the globe. Hosted by Lisa Mullins.
Weekdays - 3 p.m.

Upclose
Upclose is hosted and produced by Kankakee resident Michael Taylor. He finds and shares good news and good stories in Kankakee County.
Wednesday 4:30 p.m.

Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me
For a wacky and whip-smart approach to the  week's news and newsmakers, listen no further than Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me!, the oddly informative news quiz from NPR. During each fast-paced, irreverent show, host Peter Sagal leads what might be characterized as the news Olympics. Callers, panelists, and guests compete by answering questions about the week's events, identifying impersonations, filling in the blanks at lightening speed, sniffing out fake news items, and deciphering limericks. Listeners vie for a chance to win the most coveted prize in radio: having official judge, scorekeeper and NPR Newscaster Carl Kasell record the outgoing message on their home answering machine.
Saturday at 11a.m.

Weekend Radio
Many radio listeners know Kankakee native Robert Conrad as the subdued, perhaps even staid and conservative, host of the Cleveland Orchestra broadcasts. Since 1982, however, the other side of Robert Conrad has been displayed via Weekend Radio, that "curiously strange and offbeat potpourri of music, wit and convivial companionship". The hour-long show is a skillful mixture of classical music, cross-over selections and comedy bits dating back to the ‘50s.
Sunday - 9 p.m.

Women in Music with Laney Goodman
Women in Music with Laney Goodman is a weekly series with an eclectic mix of the best music of female artists from around the world.
Monday- 7 p.m.

World of Opera
NPR’s World of Opera with host Lisa Simeone brings listeners the world of tragedy and triumph, passion and seduction, intrigue and disaster, jealousies and dreams -- the world of opera -- every week. Now available year-round, World of Opera features the best in opera performances from around the world, both historical and contemporary.
Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

Zorba Pastor on Your Health
Laughter's the best medicine, and there's always a healthy dose when public radio's irrepressible family doc gets together with its most loveable curmudgeon! Each week, family doc Zorba Paster and sidekick Tom Clark team up with callers for an hour of upbeat, entertaining talk about healthy living.
Sunday at 4 p.m.          

Local Programming

Friends of the Blues Radio Show
Friends of the Blues is hosted by lifelong local blues aficionados D’Arcy “Shuffleshoes” Ballanger and James “Skyy Dobro” Walker. Ballinger, a rural St. Anne resident has been involved with local blues since the mid-1980s. He is a member of the Blues Foundation and the Blues Music Awards Nominating Committee. Walker, of Watseka, was listening to the blues before he knew it was “Blues.” The show’s name comes from loose-knit group of local blues fans the two helped create in 2006. 
Thursday at 7 p.m. and an extended 4 hour broadcast Saturday at 8 p.m.

Upclose
Upclose is hosted and produced by Kankakee resident Michael Taylor. He finds and shares good news and good stories in Kankakee County.
Wednesday 4:30 p.m.