UMKC’s literary public radio program, New Letters on the Air, has recently been picked up for regular broadcast by Peconic Public Broadcasting in Long Island, NY, and WETS in Johnson City, TN. This announcement from producer and host, Angela Elam, follows the 2013 addition of Hawaii Public Radio with KHPR in Honolulu and WMUK in Kalamazoo, MI, bringing the number of metropolitan areas broadcasting the series to over 30, including an international airing with Hamburger LokalRadio in Germany.
“We continue to expand the message that the University of Missouri-Kansas City is an important research institution and center for the arts,” says Robert Stewart, executive editor of New Letters on the Air. “These new stations can be added to the dozens of others internationally.”
A production of UMKC’s literary magazine, New Letters (now celebrating an 80th anniversary), the half-hour radio program has been on the air since 1977, featuring creative writers and poets reading their works and discussing the creative process. Former guests include late greats Amiri Baraka, Grace Paley, and Alan Ginsberg, as well current U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey and National Book Foundation’s recent Medal winner, E. L. Doctorow.
Now, the longest, continuously-running literary radio program in the country enjoys a newly designed website www.newletters.org that will soon hold more than 1,200 shows. A “Save America’s Treasures” grant from the National Endowment for the Arts provided digitization of the old analog audio by Marr Sound Archives; all these interviews and readings will soon be available through the online audio archives.
New Letters on the Air is also the 2013 Clarion Award-winner for Best Interview Program from the Association for Women in Communications and is produced by host Angela Elam, assistant producer Jamie Walsh, and technical editor Stephanie Hughes, under the direction of executive editor Robert Stewart. The radio show is a production of New Letters, a magazine of writing and art, published at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and is funded in part by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency. For more information about the show, to order past programs, or to sign up for our free weekly podcast, visit www.newletters.org, or call (816) 235-1159 or 1168. The program can also be found through Facebook, Twitter and Tumbler @NewLettersRadio. The show is aired in Kansas City on KCUR, 89.3 FM at 6:00 a.m. on Sundays.