features « WMMT

When you support WMMT, you support Calls from Home.

DJ Sly Rye recording calls for the program

In addition to offering programming across most any musical genre you could think of and producing top-notch local news coverage, WMMT also provides content for those who may not have ended up in our community by their own choice. In recent years, central Appalachia has seen a boom in prison construction, and many of those who have subsequently incarcerated in our region’s growing prison system come from places far, far away from the coalfields. Due to this distance and the often-prohibitive cost of phone calls in prison, many have no contact with their friends and family, being far outside of a travel range that many loved ones can afford. In response, WMMT began the Holler to the Hood project ten years ago in an effort to connect those in prison to their families, friends, and the outside world.

Ten years on, Hot 88.7 - Hip Hop from the Hilltop & Calls From Home still airs each and every Monday night. Hot 88.7, the only hip-hop show we know of broadcasting from the coalfields of Central Appalachia, hits the airwaves from 7-9 p.m. Hosted in turn by DJs Jewelz, Sly Rye, Izzy Lizzy and Amelia, the show features the best of old school, new school, underground and southern hip hop, offering a slice of home to many of those inside.

Following the hip hop show is WMMT’s Calls from Home, a program which broadcasts recorded messages from the friends and family members of those incarcerated locally. We record calls for the show every Monday night between 7-9 pm, and then broadcast the messages that same night from 9-10 pm. The audio clip above is the program WMMT aired on February 6, 2012, and a representative of what the program sounds like on any given Monday.

WMMT’s local radio signal reaches: United States Penitentiary Big Sandy in Inez, KY; Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright, KY; Wallens Ridge State Prison in Wise County, VA; Red Onion State Prison in Wise County, VA; Keen Mountain Correctional Center in Oakwood, VA; United States Penitentiary Lee in Lee County, VA; Wise Correctional Unit in Coeburn, VA, and many regional jails and detention centers.

When you support Mountain Community Radio, you support radio programming for each and every part of our mountain community. You support family, hope, resilience, and a lifeline to folks trying to get their lives back on track, and we couldn’t be more thankful. We are more than halfway to our goal for this Spring Fund Drive, but we still need your help to get there. If you haven’t done so already, you can make a contribution to what we do here online or at 888-396-1208. Big, little, or in the middle, as we say, we appreciate your support so deeply–even 5 or 10 bucks goes a long, long way. Thank you all so very, very much!

When you support WMMT, you support your neighbors’ right to rock.

The Engine Room co-host Matt Carter rocking casually

From Electric Bill to Ben Gish, from The Engine Room to The Dog House, from The Atomic Fireball Hour to The Rock Show, and from The Junkyard to Killer Radio, and not even to mention Radioactive Rahj or Wiley Q., WMMT boasts as diverse an offering of rock and roll music as you fill find anywhere, and all on the same dial. Sure, plenty of commercial stations play “rock music,” but how rock-and-roll is it really to pipe in a playlist handed down from above?

Our DJs, which also happen to be our neighbors, play want they want to play, and as a result we hope you don’t think we’re getting uppity when we say that we have some of the best rock radio shows around. WMMT DJs have interviewed the likes of Les Claypool and Judas Priest live on-air; they have encyclopedic knowledge of any kind of rock you could think of, from metal to indie to punk to garage rock to hair-metal to americana to power violence and back again; they have the freedom to create the kind of rock shows they would actually want to listen to. And our numbers are ever-growing: since the last fund drive, we’ve welcomed some great new programs to the fold (The Junkyard, Killer Radio) as well as the return of some old friends (Otis Ray and the one and only ChickenMan).

For whatever your rock taste, we’ve got a show for you, done live and by a real human person. When you support WMMT, you support the right to hear the music you want to hear on the radio, not a playlist that someone in an office somewhere thinks would maximize potential commercial revenue. Keep WMMT’s lights on and rockin’–pledge your support at 888-396-1208 or online.

When you support WMMT, you support live bluegrass in the mountains.

Back in 1986, WMMT DJ Gary Rakes had the idea that this small, ragtag, brand-new, motley crew of a community radio station could make some huge waves by bringing live performance radio–a staple of radio’s early days–back to the mountains.

Our first live broadcast from the 150-seat Appalshop Theater came that November, marking our first anniversary with a bang. The show, Bluegrass Express Live!, has grown over the years into one of the premier bluegrass shows in the nation, regularly featuring the likes of Blue Highway, Dave Evans, Ralph Stanley, Larry Sparks, Larry Cordle and Lonesome Standard Time. Just since our last Fund Drive, we have welcomed Ralph Stanley II, Blue Highway, Larry Sparks, and NewFound Road to the Appalshop stage, and we have a stellar performance on tap for the series’ next installment: Dale Ann Bradley & Steve Gulley will play BGX Live on Thursday, May 10.

When you pledge your support to WMMT, you keep the BGX Live stage lit, and you help to keep bringing elite bluegrass performers right here to Letcher County, KY. Call 888-396-1208 or donate online to keep the music a-comin’, and while you’re on the phone, be sure to go ahead and make a reservation for the Dale Ann Bradley show!

When you support WMMT, you support Mountain Talk.

The grassroots Letcher Co. group Citizens Against Consolidation on Mountain Talk - 11/9/11

Each and every Wednesday evening at 6, WMMT brings you Mountain Talk, our weekly community conversation that touches upon a variety of topics related to life in these mountains, including our health, education, arts and culture, local economies, family, spirituality, food, history, and more.

On the first Wednesday of the month, this takes the form of What’s Cookin’ Now!, WMMT’s live radio cooking show. On the third Wednesday of the month, Art Matters sets aside time for conversations with local artists about creating art here in the mountains. In the intervening weeks, we welcome guests from all walks of life.

In just the half-year since our last Fund Drive…

Hosts Jonathan Piercy and Jenny Williams have cooked everything from Chicken Kiev to sweet potato-andouille hash browns to cow-tongue tacos to dishes inspired by the Affrilachian poets, and they’ve done it all on the radio. They’ve also started a brand-new blog, featuring recipes, commentary, photos, and more.

Host Carrie Wells has interviewed a variety of local artists on Art Matters, including Chris Day, Lacy Hale, and Jeff Chapman-Crane.

WMMT has also featured conversations with & between:

a grassroots citizens’ group opposing proposed school consolidation in Letcher County
Appalachian Media Institute (AMI) interns upon the completion of their Fall Media Lab radio pieces
Mimi Pickering, the Appalshop filmmaker behind the 1975 film “The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man,” played audio excerpts from the film and spoke with guests Jack Spadaro (who was hired as part of the state’s investigative team following the flood and later worked as a inspector for OSM and MSHA) and Shaunna Scott (Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Graduate Studies at UK)
Todd Howard, Fern Nafziger, and Nathan Hall, who discussed upcoming workshops that covered a broad range of ways to save and earn money here in the mountains through small-scale farming, forestry and energy solutions.
Substance abuse counselor Jim Recktenwald, who discussed KY House Bill 70, a bill that would have allowed Kentucky voters to decide whether to grant the automatic restoration of voting rights to most former felons once they have served their sentence.
And, of course, that ever-available and always-eloquent guest, Minnie Moore.

When you pledge your support to Mountain Community Radio, you’re supporting community members like these–from all walks of mountain life–and their ability to get on the radio to discuss issues important to us here in southeast Kentucky, southwest Virginia, and southern West Virginia. When you keep WMMT on the air, you keep your community on the air.

Be sure to tune in tonight (and every Wednesday) at 6 for the newest programs, and feel free to browse our streaming archives here on wmmt.org. Thank you so much for your support!

WMMT’s Spring Fund Drive Starts Wednesday!

Q. I’ve heard you folks at WMMT have a fund drive coming up. What’s all that about? Why should I support Community Radio? What’s in it for me?

A. Thanks for asking! As your very own community-powered, non-commercial, volunteer-driven, listener-supported radio station, WMMT 88.7 does some pretty cool things, if we do say so ourselves–we bring you 24 hours per day of music that our programmers choose (not what we tell them to play) and public affairs programming on life right here in these mountains of ours, the vast majority of which we create ourselves about issues that you have told us are important to you.

We don’t beat you over the head with commercials, jingles, people yelling at you to buy things, or vague threats that the world might end if you don’t sign up for a lifetime subscription to Tomato Sauce Monthly, or anything like that. We air something for everybody: music your neighbors choose, across most any genre you could think of, and locally relevant programming. And we’ve got no plans to stop.

The catch is that there’s a reason you don’t hear commercial radio stations that sound like us; heck, there’s a reason you don’t hear other public stations that sound like us either! WMMT is truly one of the most unique radio stations on the planet, and that’s because WMMT is powered by all of you.

Twice per year, we ask that you give whatever you can to keep this amazing thing going, to affirm that you’d rather hear your neighbors on the radio than a playlist sent in from far away; that you enjoy hearing about issues of interest to us right here in the coalfields; that you appreciate that these mountains have a radio voice as diverse and distinct as each and every one of you that listens and keeps it alive. Our Spring Fund Drive starts tomorrow, April 25, and runs until next Thursday, May 3. As always, we don’t ask that you “Give ’til it hurts” or that you do anything you can’t afford. We’re excited about this radio station and we love being here, and fund drives are a celebration, a regular reunion with all of you wonderful and generous folks who are a part of the local, regional, national, and global WMMT family.

Big, little, or in the middle, on the air or online, all we ask is that if you value what WMMT brings to you, Give ‘Til it Feels Good. See you on the radio!

What’s Cookin’ Now: Mad Men!

What’s Cookin’ Now: 4-4-12

The WMMT office on a typical Wednesday

In the April edition of What’s Cookin’ Now, intrepid hosts Jonathan Piercy and Jenny Williams pay homage to the AMC series Mad Men by serving up dishes inspired by the TV show and the era.

Jenny prepares a green bean casserole, but eschews the traditional cream-of-mushroom soup and crunchy onions for a shiitake mushroom cream sauce and caramelized vidalia onions. She also prepares an appetizer that has apparently been described as a “staple of 1960′s Bridge Club hostesses,” cheddar olive bites.

Meanwhile, Jonathan prepares Chicken Kiev, a breaded, rolled, buttery delight that was popular in the 60′s and ordered by Don Draper himself in a Mad Men episode. He also prepares two classic cocktails (for consumption either at home or on the job, if you’re truly paying homage to the show / era), the Tom Collins & the Old Fashioned.

Tune in to learn about bitters, the origin of the name “Tom Collins,” how food and Mad Men shed light upon the 60′s, feminism, and social change, and so much more. For more What’s Cookin’ Now!, head over to their blog or browse our streaming archives.