Program Highlights – May 2019

May at WJFF marks the real arrival of spring in the Catskills, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Pete Seeger’s 100th birthday commemoration and much more…

Here are some highlights this month. If you miss these or any other of our locally produced programs visit the Radio Catskill Archives.

FARM AND COUNTRY (Saturdays at 11) begins the May 4 show with Star Talks’s Keith Hubbard reporting on the Aquarid meteor shower visible at 3 a.m. low in the eastern sky. Sweetwater Fishing Guide Evan Padua talks about the highwater levels in the Delaware River bringing the shad to locations above Callicoon. “Along the Poet’s Row,” Christine San Jose recites the words of Brian Fantelli about Springtime along the Susquehanna River. And in her segment Now You Know, Stephanie Phillips visits the Center for Discovery in Monticello NY. She’ll also talk with Greg York, Director of Thanksgiving Farm operations. Their conversation includes Hemp as a crop cultivated for possible medical uses.

Our May edition of LET’S TALK VETS (Wednesday, May 8, 7 p.m.) with host Doug Sandberg explores the very serious issue of homeless veterans. Doug speaks with John Crotty, Director of the Sullivan County Veteran’s Service Agency in Monticello, who, with his staff, sees a lot of vets, some of whom are homeless. Often, the best way to help vets in need is the VA Hudson Valley Healthcare System. Doug also talks with HUD VAHS staff members who specialize in helping homeless vets to receive the help they need to put them back on a steady path.

James B. Huntington hosts WORK SHIFT, “a finger on the pulse of jobs in America” with the following schedule for May: (Wednesdays at 10 a.m.) May 8:  Oboes, Guatemala, and university acceptance scandals:  How are these things connected?  Where, if anywhere, can we go from here?;  May 15: Driverless cars are in trouble.  Is it minor or show-stopping?  Part 1 of 2; May 22:  Driverless cars are in trouble… Part 2 of 2; May 29:  Six years of WORK SHIFT​

The May 11 CULTURE CLUB with Harold Tighe (second Saturdays at 10) will Feature Franklin Trapp of the Forestburgh Playhouse discussing the 2019 season at the Playhouse; Susan Miller from Barryville Area Arts Alliance talking about upcoming Plein Air events, Krissy Smith updating us on the revitalization of the Callicoon Theatre and their partnerships with both DVAA and WJFF Radio. Also on the show are Bill Fellenberg from Yarnslingers on their event at Rafter’s Tavern that evening and Alan Freedman from the Gator and the Everglades band filling us in on their Rafter’s Tavern performance.

On May 18 RADIO CHATSKILL (Saturdays at 10 a.m.) with Barb Demarest will look at some new places to go and things to do for our Hear and There segment.  We’ll check out a specialty store in Honesdale, an arts organization in Damascus, a bar/restaurant in Cochecton and a general store in Equinunk. Farm Girl XOXO, author of a blog on like in the Catskills will be our special guest.

CATSKILL CHARACTER (Saturdays at 11:30 a.m.) host Donna Fellenberg extends April Poetry Month tributes to poets of the Catskills into May with the May 4 show featuring Father Bob Phelps, who writes wonderful poetry and has some good stories to tell. Author and lecturer Sasha Graham, a tarot card expert, former B horror movie starlet (who still has a cult following!) and has a cooking podcast called The Enchanted Kitchen!  will be Donna’s guest on May 11.  On May 18 she will feature Olivia Santo, originally from Staten Island, having moved to the family’s weekend home in Hawley when she was 13, attending F.I.T. and living in the big city before returning to the area to open Gather, a wonderful shop in Honesdale.  The Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, May 25 Donna will host Melanie Urdang of Wayne County PA to talk about giving, contributing, care taking, and karma, which can be an unexpected miracle. Melanie tells her story of resilience and intention.

On May 4 on the JANUS ADAMS SHOW (Saturdays at 4 p.m.) our host talks about how we respect, honor, and armor our children in these troubling times with guests David and Carley Cavins and Joyce Burges, co-founder of National Black Home Educators. On May 11 Janus “lights the fires of freedom” in celebration of the women (and mothers) of the Civil Rights Movement with author, Janet Dewart Bell, PhD. On May 18 she features author Hannibal B. Johnson on Tulsa’s Greenwood community and the White riot that destroyed “Black Wall Street” (May 30-June 1, 1921). And on May 25 Janus’ show, produced in cooperation with I Love New York, is on the road to Waterloo, New York—birthplace of Memorial Day and home to “packages” (asylum seekers) forwarded to freedom aboard the Underground Railroad, where she talks with Walter Gable, Seneca County Historian.

Ballads and Banjos (Saturdays at 7 a.m.) host Sonja Hedlund shares a special program commemorating Pete Seeger’s 100th birthday on Saturday May 25 with one hour of his music — songs going back to 1960 –as well as clips of Pete talking about his music.