Okee dokee folks… WBRU used to be my favorite radio station. I would always hear an eclectic mix of music played and I was introduced to many new artists this way. I listened to that station for decades. I would always tune in while driving or working on outdoor projects. It was sad when they were sold to a Christian group in 2017. That was sacrilege!
Nowadays I rarely, if ever, listen to the radio. My turn away from radio really started about 25 years ago. I used to listen to it in my truck when my dogs and I would drive about. My dog, Zoey, used to stand next to me, chest against the dash, right where the radio was. She would always bump the knob and change the station. Eventually I gave up listening to it and realized I enjoyed the silence while I drove. That silence allowed me to think and create.
Lately I have become an elder-Uber for my parents. My father is 90 and I don’t like him driving, though he still does. I will drive him and my mother to doctor appointments and events in Providence, not that I like driving in PVD anymore! (Damn rental scooters! [Get off my lawn! – ed.]) Sometimes I have to wait for them at their event or appointment, so I sit in the car and turn on the radio out of curiosity. Mostly, I just find today’s radio offensive to my ears — horrible music, overplayed music, commercials, and annoying DJs.
A few months back, while sitting in the car, I scanned the stations and came upon a song I liked. I let it play. Then another good song came on, then another. What was happening? I was confused. I looked at the display, and it read 88.1. It was just great music, mostly alternative. It was like WBRU used to be!
Now if I have to drive them places and wait, I will tune into this station: WELH 88.1 FM. Great music, very few commercials, and very little talking! Just the other day, I heard my friend Robin Lane’s song, “I Don’t Want To Know,” on that station! I am listening to WELH now as I write because I wanted to do a little research about them and found that they streamed, as well as playing on air.
According to the website, “88.1 FM WELH is in Providence and is based out of Wheeler School, and they have 4000 watts of broadcasting power. A high school student’s idea 37 years ago to create a campus radio station in a teacher’s small office closet has grown after three decades into an internet broadcast providing music, sports, and public affairs programming for The Wheeler School community and others in Rhode Island.”
This is now my elder-Uber go-to station! It’s refreshing to hear music that is enjoyable without the annoying other stuff. Like most things, I am probably late to the game with this, but I was excited to discover this and wanted to pass it along to others! For more, dial up welh.radio12345.com. Read on…
So here we are with the 2025 Motif Fall Guide once again. Fall is usually a relief from the scorching summer heat, but climate change has messed with the seasons and we can’t be sure of what we will get now. Outdoor festivals start to wrap for the year, and music slowly begins to move back indoors.
Here is a great, late-season festival to add to your calendar. On Sunday, September 28, from Noon – 5pm the Intention Fest will take place at Charlestown’s Ninigret Park to inform and inspire people to live a life of wellness and peace — and we really need this now! There will be over 50 booths of healing artists and peacemakers representing a variety of wellness techniques including: massage, Reiki, reflexology, acupuncture, breath-work, meditation, yoga, and tai chi, as well as practitioners specializing in mental health, nutrition, energy work, and more. There will be a variety of visual artists with artwork for sale. West African master djembe drummer Issa Coulibaly will be leading the drum circles. Live acoustic music with Mark Cutler will be headlining at 4pm. Johnny Juxo will be performing with the festival’s organizer, Autumn Francesca at 3pm. The Berger Boys go on at 1pm, and Steve Lyon will open the stage at noon with ukulele-playing singer-songwriter, Devin Bender. There will also be a Gong Meditation performed by Sounds of Harmony at the Beach Pavilion. The festival’s new location in Ninigret Park gives attendees room to roam with three separate pavilions, plenty of parking, a beach, shady trees, and a children’s playground. For more, imagine over to: intentionfest.info.
The Columbus Theatre, now remodeled and dubbed The Uptown Theater, has reopened and is hosting shows. They already have a slew of shows on their calendar but two coming right up are Ace Frehley on Sep 5 and Moe on Sep 6. Legend, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, The Spaceman-Ace Frehley will be playing KISS hits as well as his solo material! Maybe Ace will have his photo taken next to the mural of him on the side of Julians! I chatted with Ace last year and you can find it in my podcasts. Moe is celebrating 35 years of “corralled myriad musical forms on a truly original journey rich with crafty, clever songwriting and astonishing resourcefulness.” For more, go downtown to: uptowntheaterpvd.com
A show that I hope to get to is The Sparks on Sep 11 at the Berklee Performance Center. If you don’t know them, you should. The Sparks, Ron and Russell Mael, have been around since the early 1970s. I often saw the ads for them in Creem, Circus, and Rolling Stone magazine. They mostly have a cult following at this point, but have produced an enormous body of eclectic and genre-defying work. They were largely responsible for the eccentric film Annette, starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, which deserves a watch if you’ve never seen it. There is also the Sparks documentary, The Sparks Brothers, which is definitely worth a watch as well. Check out the doc, the film, and their music, and head to Boston for their MAD! show. Hippopotamus over to: berklee.edu/BPC for more.
The Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River just updated their schedule with tons of great shows. They will tempt you with awesome tunes from a stockpile of concerts through the end of the year. Just in September they have: Sep 5 – Session Americana; 6 – Down to the Sea in Ships, Movie/piano accompanist; 11 – Tuba Skinny; 12 – Patty Larkin; 16 – Alejandro Escovedo; 17 – Benmont Tench; 20 – Atlanta Rhythm Section; 21 – Loretta Laroche, and Sept 26 – 28 it’s the musical, Rent! Big Bad Braga over to: narrowscenter.org for more.
Now that summer is fading, maybe musicians can get back to writing some protest songs! We need to speak up and sing out, loudly and often, about the fascist and criminal takeover of the United States. The mango moron and his cronies must be removed. Unfortunately there is plenty to write about and it just gets worse by the day. When you write them, record them, put them online, and send me a link along with the lyrics, and I will write about them here. As artists it is part of what we do to communicate about injustice and the wrongs in the world. Right now it’s happening here. I have a few protest songs I need to finish. Get writing and send them over to risongwriters@yahoo.com
That’s it for now. You can listen to my podcasts at motifri.com/rootsreportpodcast and find my concert photographs at motifri.com/fuzeksfotos. Thanks for reading and listening. johnfuzek.com