I think the issue here is our definitions of "folk" differ. Suffice
it to say it seems you prefer contemporary "singer-singwriters"
where I prefer traditional (very old) / revival (Woody Guthrie,
Pete Seeger, Dave van Ronk, Jack Hardy, Utah Phillips, Bob Dylan,
Joan Baez) folk.
WUMB used to "serve the roots and folk community" (their mission on
the UMass website, since scrubbed) but six months ago or so
switched to a commercial-pop AAA format (Meika Pauley, Kevin So,
Ani DiFranco, Bruce Springsteen, etc.), with the occasional folk
artist thrown in. They have hired a music/programming director from
a commercial rock and blues radio station, who promises hosting
changes (some of the current hosts have been employed as folk DJ's
for 30+ years). Read more about his thoughts of taking the station
away from its past, steerning it to a "contemporary" market ideas
in the link below.
To give an example of the extent to which WUMB drank the
consultant's kool-aid, they broadcast "World Cafe" 20 hours per
week(7-11pm, m-f). 100% of the NE Folk n Roots expressing their
opinion agree that they turn WUMB off when World Cafe comes on.
The format change has been enough for many of us to let our
memberships expire.
To read more of the programming change and long time listeners'
thoughts, go to
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NorthEastFolknRoots
Sorry, WUMB is NOT a folk radio station, they now promote
themselves as 'WUMB music mix". My recommendation for a quality,
non-commercial streaming folk music is Grassy Hill -
http://radio.grassyhill.org/
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