Throughout the holiday season -- on both of our broadcast stations -- we'll share a festive array of music-based and storytelling-driven programs. These special shows are sure to enrich your experience of the holidays. So, take note...and tune in...and happy holidays!
PUBLIC RADIO 89.5 KWGS-FM
Tinsel Tales: NPR Christmas Favorites
Thursday, December 19 at Noon
This popular program offers narratives from the NPR archives that uncover the real meaning of Christmas. You'll hear David Sedaris, Bailey White, John Henry Faulk, Scott Simon, and other NPR voices (both past and present) sharing beautiful stories of the season.
The Hidden Sixties Holiday Special
Friday, December 20 at 8pm
Tune in for the latest Hidden Sixties Holiday Special! It's an hour of seasonal music you haven't heard since the 1960s -- if you've heard it at all -- as presented by Scott (ALL THIS JAZZ) Gregory and John (SWING ON THIS) Wooley. Here's a taste of what to expect: a number called "I've Got Christmas on My Mind" by a major Sixties rock band...from Sweden, a Rod McKuen/Anita Kerr mash-up with ever-so-sensitive support from The San Sebastian Strings, and finally a Shakespearean ditty about wintertime per the English jazz/cabaret singer/actress Cleo Laine. Mic drops and merriment, people! Put a proverbial spike in your radio-listening punch this Christmas season!
A Paul Winter Solstice (from The Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC)
Saturday, December 21 at 6pm
Celebrate the return of the sun with an encore performance recorded in the world's largest Gothic cathedral. Musicians will include Noel Paul Stookey, a/k/a Paul from the folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary. The Paul Winter Consort Winter Solstice Celebration (as this famous annual concert is officially named) will also feature gospel singer Theresa Thomason and Harlem's Forces of Nature, a dance and drumming troupe.
Swing On This: The Holiday Show
Saturday, December 21 at 7pm
It's become a Swing On This tradition to feature a Christmas playlist with not only Western swing selections from various decades and artists, but also several Tulsa-centric numbers from those wonderful "Holiday Harvest" CDs released locally in the early 2000s. Host John Wooley will also share a surprise track from the 1950s that he recently obtained from Tina Louis Elder (who is Curly's niece and Presley's daughter) -- a dandy Yuletide tune that likely hasn't been heard on the radio in decades. Also, John will share one of the all-time most-overlooked country Christmas songs...as done by Loy Blanton.
A Jazz Piano Christmas from NPR
Saturday, December 21 at 9pm
Each December, NPR and The Kennedy Center co-present A Jazz Piano Christmas, a sell-out event featuring at-the-keyboard renditions of seasonal tunes. This year, we spotlight three notable artists: the Grammy–winning, NYC-based pianist Kris Davis, the 2023 Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition winner Jahari Stampley, and the Cuban sensation Roberto Fonseca.
A Swinging Holiday Jazz Party with Wynton Marsalis
Saturday, December 21 at 10pm
The one and only Wynton Marsalis hosts an hour of holiday jazz faves. Join us for can't-miss Christmas jazz tracks from the likes of Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Gregory Porter, Warren Wolf, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and more.
All This Jazz: The Christmas Show
Saturday, December 21 at 11pm
It's Xmas-themed modern jazz, both recent and classic, across a range of styles! Tune in for improvised holiday music both freshly recorded and historically treasured. Whether you're wrapping gifts, looking at lights, sipping nog, or all (or none) of the above, you're be certain to dig this late-night yuletide jazz jam!
The Rhythm Atlas Hanukkah & Christmas Special
Sunday, December 22 at 6pm
With the first night of Hanukkah taking place on Christmas Day this year, host Denis McGilvray celebrates the season with festive music of both holidays on this special episode of The Rhythm Atlas. The first half of the show features traditional klezmer-styled Hanukkah tunes, a song from the Sephardic Jewish culture with roots in Spain, and more. In the second half, you’ll hear some familiar, and maybe not so familiar, Christmas songs full of musical flavors from all around the world.
Folk Salad: The Holiday Program
Sunday, December 22 at 7pm
Join co-hosts Richard Higgs and Scott Aycock as they share music of the season in a eclectic, singer-songwriter vein. Folk, roots, rock, Red Dirt, country, alt-country, blues, bluegrass, etc. -- it'll be a decidedly Folk Salad spin on the holidays. Come along!
A Christmas Carol with Jonathan Winters
Tuesday, December 24 at Noon
It's sorta like the NPR version of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" -- this public radio tradition, a beloved hour of radio storytelling that's as timeless as it is familiar, finds the late-great Jonathan Winters doing a lively and memorable reading of the Dickens classic. "God bless us, everyone!"
Selected Shorts: Holiday Hitches
Wednesday, December 25 at Noon
We love the holidays, but sometimes things don't go as planned. This seasonal special from Selected Shorts (the popular public-radio show) offers three yuletide tales that combine tradition, humor, and family dynamics. One of the contributing writers is Andy Borowitz of The New Yorker.
Hanukkah Lights 2024
Thursday, December 26 at Noon & Friday, December 27 at 8pm
The festival of lights commemorates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem, the lighting of the menorah, and the spiritual strength of the Jewish people. This special broadcast, a longtime NPR favorite, will present wonderful Hanukkah Lights stories from years past. It's hosted by Susan Stamberg and Murray Horwitz.
Toast of the Nation
Tuesday, December 31 at 10pm
An NPR program that's been airing every NYE since the 1970s, Toast of the Nation is the ideal audio compliment for the occasion: festive and exciting jazz that you can definitely party to, wherever and however that party is happening. Join host Christian McBride as we ring in 2025!
CLASSICAL 88.7 KWTU-FM
St. Olaf Christmas Festival 2024: Celebrating 150 Years of St. Olaf College
Monday, December 23 at 9pm
For one-and-a-half centuries, St. Olaf College has been a hub of connection, knowledge, and growth. And for 100+ years, the St. Olaf Christmas festival has been a part of that history. This year's festival is titled "Our Hope for Years to Come." Tune in for the latest installment in one of the oldest musical celebrations of Christmas in the US.
A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
Tuesday, December 24 at 9am
This is the live, worldwide Christmas Eve broadcast of a service of Biblical readings, carols, and related seasonal music, as presented by one of the world's foremost choirs of men and boys. You'll hear this powerful service as it's being performed in an acoustically and architecturally renowned venue: the 500-year-old Chapel of King's College in Cambridge, England.
New Year's Day from Vienna 2025
Wednesday, January 1 at 10am
Happy 2025! The ever-popular New Year's Day Concert will be performed by the Vienna Philharmonic. It'll be a stirring program of some of the world's finest classical music -- as rendered "live from Austria" in definitive interpretations, and as generously offered to a worldwide radio audience in the spirit of hope, friendship, and peace.