About WFMU
WFMU-FM is a listener-supported, non-commercial radio station broadcasting at 91.1 Mhz FM in Jersey City, NJ, right across the Hudson from lower Manhattan. It is currently the longest running freeform radio station in the United States.
The station also broadcasts to the Hudson Valley and Lower Catskills in New York, Western New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania via it's 90.1 signal at WXHD in Mount Hope, NY. The station maintains an extensive online presence at WFMU.ORG which includes live audio streaming in several formats, over 8 years of audio archives, podcasts and a popular blog.
Rolling Stone Magazine, The Village Voice, CMJ and the New York Press have all at one time or another called WFMU "the best radio station in the country" and the station has also been the subject of feature stories in The New York Times and on the BBC. In recent years the station has gained a large international following due it's online operations and counts Simpson's creator Matt Groening, film director Jim Jarmusch and Velvet Underground founder Lou Reed, among others, as devoted fans of the station.
WFMU's programming ranges from flat-out uncategorizable strangeness to rock and roll, experimental music, 78 RPM Records, jazz, psychedelia, hip-hop, electronica, hand-cranked wax cylinders, punk rock, gospel, exotica, R&B, radio improvisation, cooking instructions, classic radio airchecks, found sound, dopey call-in shows, interviews with obscure radio personalities and notable science-world luminaries, spoken word collages, Andrew Lloyd Webber soundtracks in languages other than English as well as Country and western music.
All of the station's programming is controlled by individual DJs and is not beholden to any type of station-wide playlist or rotation schedule. Experimentation, spontaneity and humor are among the station's most frequently noted distinguishing traits. WFMU does not belong to any existing public radio network, and close to 100% of its programming originates at the station.
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Golden Festival 2012
For the fourth year, WFMU's Transpacific Sound Paradise presented a live broadcast from the massive annual Balkan and East European music and dance bacchanal, the Golden Festival. It's a two night affair - Friday and Saturday - held…
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WFMU's Free Music Archive Sampler Vol. 2
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MeghanM on 02/10/2012 at 02:00AM
Fujiya & Miyagi
It's winter.... well not really. Technically the calendar says winter, but for the past few months there has been no sign of it. Except for today. Yes, today when Fujiya & Miyagi are scheduled to show up to do their session with me. It decides to snow and enough to make the band's drive from their show in Philly the night before not a wonderful one. So I prepare the coffee, buy the bagels, fruit and juice while I await their arrival.
It's so refreshing when the band you have come in is actually a fan of the station. They become in awe of you and your place while you are in awe back at them for actually wanting to do a set for your show! They all pile in and are as nice as can be. As the band sets up, I chatted with David, the guitarist and singer, about the station and promised them a tour afterwards. It was such a relaxed vibe they gave off that it made everything run so smooth and comfortable. They get in to play and are pure professionals. It's my own private show, just for myself, though they can't hear me cheering behind the double plated glass. The entire time I can't stop moving. The music takes over and your are in their control, which isn't a bad thing.
Afterwards, the promised tour makes them giddy and the record library is a world of wonder. One of them even pulled out an album of his from a previous band. Ahhh, yes, the wonders of the record library....
Hopefully the next time they come around, the sun will be shining, the weather a little warmer and the stay a little longer. I could have listened to them all day and night.
jason on 02/02/2012 at 07:00PM
Golden Festival 2012: Balkan Vocal Groups in the Atrium Room
The Golden Festival is a massive Balkan and East European music and dance bacchanal. On January 14th, WFMU's Transpacific Sound Paradise presented its fourth live broadcast from the event's main stage in Brooklyn's kitschy and fabulous Grand Prospect Hall. The Grand Ballroom was one of four stages, and the two-night event featured over sixty groups. This year, the Free Music Archive will host archives from all four stages.
We're starting the Golden Festival 2012 Collection with the Atrium Room.
Black Sea Hotel (pictured) is the Brooklyn-based vocal quartet of Corinna, Joy, Sarah and Willa. Their set included traditional songs learned under a plum tree in Bulgaria, but with their own distinct twists and arrangements, since many of the songs were originally sung by larger choirs.
Brazda (pictured) is a New York-based Balkan band that plays fresh arrangements of traditional repertoire from Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, and beyond. Like many of the groups, they have provided information about each song in their set including translations. I was surprised to learn that "Yiati Foumaro Kokaini" has lyrics that translate to "That crazy rascal, cocaine smoker For my troubles, now I smoke cocaine."
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