If you happen to walk by our storefront studio at 216 N. Guadalupe and glance in the window, you’ll see a colorful quilt draped behind our mascot, Osito the 6-foot teddy bear. Logos from stations all over the country form the squares of the Community Radio Quilt, on loan to us for the next week. The display reminds us that that KZSM 104.1 FM/KZSM.org belongs to a big family — open, diverse and varied just like our programming.
You can now enjoy the creativity and variety of the Community Radio family Tuesday mornings from 10-10:30 with “Sprouts: Radio From the Grassroots,” a selection of broadcasts from stations all over the U.S. and beyond. “Sprouts: Radio From the Grassroots” is a radio program that celebrates community stories.
“Coordinated by Pacifica Radio’s Affiliate Network, ‘Sprouts’ showcases audio production at community radio stations and independent production groups from around the world,” as their website explains. “It is renowned for its diverse local voices, brought to a global media platform.” Stations submit their shows to Pacifica, where the staff assists with production and distributes the shows to about 150 stations for regular broadcasts.
Each show is unique. “Topics vary from minidocumentaries, to indepth interviews, to breaking events and issues of importance,” according to the “Sprouts” website. “Hyper-local stories of global interest are shared.” A look at their archive reveals the variety: “Religious Liberty vs LGBTQ Equality,” “The Value of Risk in Play,” “Fighting Fossil Fuel Fascism,” “Wikipedia and Where We Entrust Our Curiosity,” and “Rolling Back the Surveillance State.”
This Tuesday, September 2, “Sprouts” will be “Black and Fine: Little Known Musicians in 19th Century America,” an episode of “With Good Reason,” a show from Charlottesville Virginia, hosted by musician Jamal Millner. Fiddler and historian David McCormick will talk about the Black fiddlers of Monticello, revealing that two of Thomas Jefferson’s sons by his slave Sally Hemmings were gifted musicians who adapted European music, including tunes from operas, to delight partygoers at plantations.
Also, guitarist Ernie Jackson will recount the story of Justin Holland, a free Black man who enjoyed considerable success as a performer and arranger of classical guitar works in the mid-19th century. Holland and other performers of the time applied European classical guitar style to familiar American melodies like “Home Sweet Home.” To hear and learn more about this music, tune in to “Sprouts” Tuesday at 10.
