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Loboko takes over Cause & Effect
Cause & Effect (Saturday 1-3 PM) is WRIR's weekly program focusing on a single artist and exploring in detail their work, their influences and their peers. We don't often have the artist in...
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I need some money
WRIR's Fall 2024 Fund Drive is now underway -- we're hard at work toward raising $45,000 by Saturday November 2nd to power Richmond Community Radio for another six months. It's supporters like you who...
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Charts Oct 21 - Nov 3, 2024
WRIR World's NACC Top Ten1 ABOUBAKAR TRAORE AND BALIMA | "Sabubu" b/w "Sonfo" [Single] | Zephyrus2 MANU CHAO | Viva Tu | Because3 NYBOMA | Double Double | No Wahala Sounds4 KOG | Don't Take My Soul |...
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These strings / This drum / From another world they come
British guitarist Justin Adams and Italian drummer-violinist Mauro Durante might seem to inhabit entirely separate musical universes. Adams is Robert Plant's right-hand man, produced Tinariwen and...
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Charts November 4-10, 2024
WRIR World's NACC Top Ten1 ZANZIBARA 11: CONGO IN DAR | various artists | Buda2 JUSTIN ADAMS AND MAURO DURANTE | Sweet Release | Ponderosa3 LA RUEDA | Calentando La Nevera | Mambo Negro4 ROMPERAYO |...
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It's really not as bad as it sounds
Lance Koehler arrived in Richmond's Oregon Hill neighborhood in 2001 from New Orleans; soon thereafter he opened a studio, Minimum Wage Recording. For more than 20 years, Minimum Wage has been a...
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Charts November 11-17, 2024
WRIR World's NACC Top Ten1 MIRAMAR | "En Mis Suenos" [Single] | Ansonia2 BONGO HOP, THE | La Pata Coja | Underdog3 DOGO DU TOGO AND THE ALAGAA BEAT BAND | Avoude | We Are Busy Bodies4 MULATU ASTATKE...
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The sound that crushes
The teeming metropolis of Kinshasa is home to the music some folks call Congotronics, although that name is a bit too reductive to describe what's going on. The artists in question may or may not be...
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Charts November 18-24, 2024
WRIR World's NACC Top Ten1 KIN'GONGOLO KINIATA | "Lisekite" [Single] | Helico2 JULIAN MAYORGA | Chak Chak Chak Chak | Glitterbeat3 CEM KARACA | Bekle Beni | Turkishvinyl4 MULATU ASTATKE AND HOODNA...
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Mahmoud Ahmed, the Johnny Carson of Ethiopia and George Lowe
For 30 years, George Lowe has been a fan of (some might say "obsessed with") Ethiopia's Golden Age of Music: the 1960s and 70s, the last years of the Haile Selassie monarchy and the time when...
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Charts Nov 25 - Dec 1, 2024
WRIR World's NACC Top Ten1 JOAO SELVA | "Banho De Mar" [Single] | Underdog2 AL-QASAR | Uncovered | Wewantsounds3 HEPCAT | Scientific | Trust4 FEMI KUTI | "Politics Don Expose Them" [Single] | Partisan5...
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Charts December 2-8, 2024
WRIR World's NACC Top Ten1 LAST POETS, THE AND TONY ALLEN | Africanism | Africa Seven2 FLORENCE ADOONI | "Vocalize My Luv" [Single] | Philophon3 DJEUHDJOAH AND LIEUTENANT NICHOLSON | "Sarah Solo"...
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Top 10 new albums of 2024
It's the most wonderful time of the year, the time to find out who's been naughty and who's been nice. No, I'm not talking about the holiday season; I'm talking about when everyone's Best Of The Year...
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Top 10 new singles & EPs of 2024
I've been recapping my favorite singles and EPs of the year for each of the last six years. In the current era of home studios, direct-to-consumer distribution, mobile listening and streaming, the...
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Top 10 compilations, reissues & historic recordings of 2024
This week on Global A Go-Go (Sunday December 29, 1:00-3:00 PM on WRIR, for two weeks afterwards at wrir.org/listen, check your local listings for airing on other radio stations, and any old time at my...
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El heredero de la cumbia
Yeison Landero, from San Jacinto in Colombia’s Montes de María province near Cartagena, is called el heredero de la cumbia– the heir to cumbia, the inheritor of cumbia. He’s from the birthplace of...
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Charts Dec 9 2024 - Jan 5 2025
WRIR World's NACC Top Ten1 JUNIORE | Trois, Deux, Un | Le Phonographe2 ANGELICA GARCIA | Gemelo | Partisan3 BONGO HOP, THE | La Pata Coja | Underdog4 DOGO DU TOGO AND THE ALAGAA BEAT BAND | Avoude | We...
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Look to the sea
Note: I've come down with an illness, so this show is postponed until January 26.Richmond's own Miramar are building a worldwide audience for their highly personal, very groovy approach to bolero, the...
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Charts January 6-19, 2025
WRIR World's NACC Top Ten1 SUPER DISCO PIRATA: DE TEPITO PARA EL MUNDO 1965-1980 | various artists | Analog Africa2 VAUDOU GAME | Fintou | Hot Casa3 JUANA MOLINA | Exhalo [EP] | Little Butterfly4 CHEO...
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Charts January 20-26, 2025
WRIR World's NACC Top Ten1 MIRAMAR | Entre Tus Flores | Ansonia2 SAMBA TOURE | Baarakelaw | Glitterbeat3 NOVALIMA | La Danza (Deluxe Version) | Six Degrees4 SONGHOY BLUES | Héritage | Studio...
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