Celebrate the holidays with Spokane Public Radio!
SPR will bring special seasonal programming to keep you warm into the new year.
All programs air on KPBX unless otherwise noted.
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Tuesday, December 17
9–10 PM
The Score: It's a Wonderful Movie
For many of us, it isn’t the holidays until we’ve seen our favorite films. This week on The Score, Edmund Stone brings together some fan favorites in a show that just might have some movies that are on your holiday must see list. Is it Love, Actually? A Charlie Brown Christmas? A Christmas Story? Find out as Edmund crafts this sparkling holiday card of a show.
Wednesday, December 18
7–8 PM
Harmonia: Christmas Joy and Winter Wonder
Join us this week on Harmonia as we celebrate the Christmas season. We’ll hear music that offers us warmth and light in the cold and dark of winter, focusing on pieces that portray the joy and wonder of new birth. Plus, music from RIAS Kammerchor Berlin’s recent recording of Bach’s Christmas Magnificat.
10–11 PM
The Merriest: A Swingin' Afterglow Christmas
It’s the holiday season, and we’re keeping things light and snappy this week as we dance along to some swinging holiday tunes, sung by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and more.
11 PM–Midnight
Night Lights: Have Yourself A Very Quiet Christmas
Night Lights pays tribute to the holidays in the mellowest of moods, with music from Joe Pass, Dave Brubeck, the Modern Jazz Quartet, and more.
Thursday, December 19
11 AM–Noon
Guitar Hour: The Annual Holiday Gathering
The annual Guitar Hour Holiday Gathering, featuring Abe Kenney, Paul Grove, Matt Smith, Fabian Carrera, and host Michael Millham in a live round-robin in the studio.
(Click here for the podcast)
Friday, December 20
7–8 PM
Atomic Age Cocktail Party: Hi-Fi Christmas 2024
Coming up on The Atomic Age Cocktail Party, we’re spreading holiday cheer with our annual Hi-Fi Christmas program. A look at all those classic swinging seasonal tunes. We’ll hear from Don Ho, Dean Martin, Lena Horne, and many more.
8–11 PM
Friday Night Jazz: All Xmas Music Show
Friday Night Jazz will be an all Xmas music show featuring Nora Jones, Oscar Peterson, Diania Krall and lots of Jinglebell Jazz.
11 PM–Midnight
Blue Dimensions
Holiday music from JD Allen's new album "A Garland Of Holiday Songs," and selections from the new volume in the reissue series of holiday songs from the 1920s to the 1960s from Document Records, "Blues, Blues Christmas, Volume 7."
Saturday, December 21
3–4 PM
Live Wire!
This special holiday edition of Live Wire features comedian and podcaster Paul F. Tompkins, poet José Olivarez, and singer-songwriter Esme Patterson.
4–5 PM
American Routes: Sounds of Winter Solstice and the Holidays
It’s the season of cold weather, darkness, solstice, and… holidays. Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and New Years ahead. A time of celebration and contemplation, family and friends but also some broken hearts and Christmas blues.
6–6:30 PM
A Very Tolerable Christmas with All Songs Considered
Our annual attempt to throw a holiday party for the ages continues with a tolerable mix of songs for the season and, as always, some very special guests.
6–7 PM (on KSFC)
Director’s Choice: Jonathan Winters' A Christmas Carol
A public radio tradition hosted by NPR's Susan Stamberg. Master comedian Jonathan Winters presents a distinctive reading of Dickens' holiday classic, with a special performing edition prepared by Dickens for his own presentations.
7–8 PM
Rhythm Atlas: Hanukkah & Christmas Special
Since the first night of Hanukkah coincides with Christmas Day this year, host Denis McGilvray celebrates with music of both holidays on this week’s special episode of The Rhythm Atlas. You’ll hear traditional klezmer pieces as well as festive modern songs for Hanukkah, and familiar Christmas favorites from around the world in fresh musical settings.
Sunday, December 22
1–2 PM
Front Porch Bluegrass: All Holiday Bluegrass Show
An hour of bluegrass and string band music for Christmas, Hannukah and songs for the season.
4–5 PM
Selected Shorts: Holidays with Mom
Meg Wolitzer presents our holiday show--two stories from about being home for the holidays and how you can count on your Mom to be there for you—and possibly to complicate things. First, memoirist Augusten Burroughs recalls a disastrous—and hilarious—childhood cooking project. Reader Michael Cerveris relishes every bite. And in “Live Wires” by Thomas Beller, a young man invites his girlfriend to his mother’s annual Hanukkah party. The reader is Jane Curtin.
7–8 PM
The International Americana Music Show
This is this year's festive edition of the program when Michael Park fills the playlist with songs for the holidays and is joined by his son to help him introduce some of the songs, and tell some seasonal jokes. The International Americana Music Show remains the only radio show that plays Americana music made exclusively by non-American artists.
9–11 PM
Soundspace: Annual Winter Solstice Show
Zan's favorite show to craft, here's to the turning of the Light with music to celebrate this special time of reflection and going inward.
Monday, December 23
2–3 PM
In Winter's Glow
A winter solstice program, with modern classical sounds for the longest night of the year, chosen especially to compliment the chilly, starry nights of the season.
(Encore from 2023)
Tuesday, December 24
11 AM–Noon
A Rochester Festival of Lessons and Carols 2024
Recorded at Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester, New York under the direction of newly appointed organist/choirmaster James Kealey, winner of the AGO 2022 National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance and one of The Diapason’s 2021 “20 under 30” young artists.
The program consists of the traditional readings that were selected by King’s College Dean Eric Milner White in 1918, and music by Carl Rutti, George Frederick Handel, Herbert Howells, Ola Gjeilo, and William Mathias.
Noon–1 PM
Tinsel Tales: NPR Christmas Favorites
This program features stories from the NPR archives that touch on the meaning of Christmas. David Sedaris, Bailey White, John Henry Faulk -- these and other NPR voices, past and present, tell stories of the season. Hosted by Lynn Neary.
Featured Stories:
· Dad 'n' Sam (Jay Allison)
· Homeless Christmas (Lee Stringer)
· Christmas Morning, 1949 (Sylvia Seymour/Paul Auster)
· Low-Glamour Christmas Party (Bailey White)
· Doing it in the Closet (John McIlwraith)
· Christopher (Jay O'Callahan)
· Ode to Christmas (Chuck Kramer)
· Santaland Diaries (David Sedaris)
· Modern Day Joseph and Mary (Scott Simon)
· John Henry Faulk's Christmas Story (John Henry Faulk)
2–3 PM
Slavic Wonders: Christmas with The Rose Ensemble
The Rose Ensemble is back with a stunning celebration of the season featuring some truly brilliant gems from the libraries and monasteries of Krakow, Prague, and Moscow. The Rose Ensemble of Minnesota has put together a program of dazzling, passionate music for Christmastime in the great variety and range they are known for. Hear everything from soaring soprano lines, to the signature Slavic sound of rumbling basses; Slavic Wonders is an engaging and curious mixture of chant, carols, and glorious polyphony.
7 PM–Midnight
Christmas in Spokane
KPBX's traditional "Christmas Eve in Spokane" broadcast features a range of seasonal performances from many of our regional performing ensembles: the Whitworth, Gonzaga and Eastern Washington University choirs, the Spokane British Brass Band and guests, the St. Dominic's School choir of Post Falls, Chorale Coeur d'Alene, and the Spokane Valley Summer Theatre's "Big Band Christmas."
approximate start times for the evening:
Gonzaga University--7:00
Chorale CdA--8:05
Spokane British Brass Band and St. Dominic Choir--8:55
Spokane Valley Summer Theatre "Big Band Christmas"--9:45
Eastern Washington University--10:13
Whitworth University--10:40
Wednesday, December 25 – Christmas Day/Hanukkah begins at sundown
9–11 AM
St. Olaf Christmas Festival 2024
For one and a half centuries, St. Olaf has been a hub of connections, knowledge, and growth. And for more than a century, the St. Olaf Christmas festival has been a cherished part of that history.
A service in song and word that has become one of the nation’s most cherished holiday celebrations. Tickets to the event - which takes place at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN - are always gone months in advance. The festival includes hymns, carols, choral works, as well as orchestral selections celebrating the Nativity and featuring more than 500 student musicians in five choirs and the St. Olaf Orchestra.
11 AM–Noon
Carols, Customs and Candlelight: a Celtic Christmas Celebration
Listen as host Andrea Blain explores music and customs that have roots in ancient winter celebrations and traditional Christmas festivals. The music features classical ensembles and soloists like Apollo’s Fire and Bryn Terfel, as well as traditional instruments like harp, fiddle and mandolin.
Noon–2 PM
Tinsel Tales 2: More NPR Christmas Favorites
NPR fills millions of homes each holiday with humor, warmth, and a host of festive voices. Continuing with the tradition of the first Tinsel Tales program, this is another collection of the best and most requested holiday stories. Joy, hope, and childhood memories overflow as NPR voices, past and present, tell stories of the season. Hosted by Lynn Neary.
Featured Stories:
· Santa Claus, Private Eye (Duck's Breath Mystery Theatre of San Francisco)
· Pass The Fois Gras: Christmas Menu Hard To Digest (Firoozeh Dumas)
· A 'Silent Night' That Brought Healing (Steve Banko)
· The Christmas Club (Bill Harley)
· All I Wanted For Christmas (NPR staffers)
· Christmas Gift Records (The Ban-Smo Label)
· The Night Before Christmas, Latin Style (Read by NPR's Claudio Sanchez)
· The Designated Celebrator (Melinda Shoaf)
· Christmas Truce (Historian Douglas Brinkley)
· Wolf Christmas (Daniel Pinkwater)
2–3 PM
Your Classical Christmas Favorites
Join us this holiday season as we count down the top Christmas songs as voted by you in this new hour-long special.
You ranked your favorite holiday tunes. Now, we’ve tallied the results to create Your Classical Christmas Favorites, a holiday special highlighting the top carols based on your votes. Hosts Tom Crann and Valerie Kahler.
6–7 PM
Candles Burning Brightly
A delightful hour for everyone to celebrate the Jewish Festival of Lights! Lots of music from Jewish communities around the world, plus a hilarious lesson on how to prepare a classic Chanukah dish, and a timeless and touching holiday story that brings light into every home.
7–8 PM
Gaudete! Early Music for the Christmas Season
Sara Schneider, producer and host of Early Music Now, presents Gaudete! Early Music for the Christmas Season, with joyful and contemplative sounds of the season. In this 1-hour holiday special, we’ll hear Byzantine chant by Kassiani, and selections from Missa Puer natus est nobis by Thomas Tallis, plus hymns and motets from Spain, Germany, and France. Our performers include The Cardinall’s Musick, Theatre of Voices, Cappella Romana, and Oltremontano.
8–10 PM
The Christmas Revels: In Celebration of the Winter Solstice 2024
A brand-new, 119-minute musical celebration of the winter holidays – Advent, Chanukah, the Solstice, Las Posadas, Christmas, New Year’s and Twelfth Night/Epiphany -- featuring traditional carols, wassails, pub songs, hymns, spirituals, children’s singing games, and folk dance-tunes excerpted from live Christmas and Midwinter Revels stage productions presented around the country.
10–11 PM
Vince Guaraldi’s Christmas Gift to Jazz with Jana Lee Ross
Host Jana Lee Ross presents a special filled with warm-hearted sounds to bring together everyone in the family. Vince Guaraldi‘s music to A Charlie Brown Christmas ushers in the sound of the holidays for jazz fans as well as Charlie Brown fans. Songs like “Linus and Lucy,” “Skating” and “Christmas Time Is Here” have become holiday classics and have inspired many a jazz player. Jana Lee Ross will explore interpretations of Vince Guaraldi’s tunes by Cyrus Chestnut, Dianne Reeves, David Benoit and others. And of course we’ll hear from Vince Guaraldi himself.
11 PM–Midnight
Jazz Piano Christmas 40
Your favorite holiday classics as you’ve never heard them! The Kennedy Center and NPR present A Jazz Piano Christmas, the annual sell-out event featuring jazz-infused renditions of the season’s most-loved music. This year, we spotlight remarkable pianist, vocalist, and actress Melvis Santa—whose eclectic Afro-Cuban style has made her one of the most electrifying artists on the scene—in addition to internationally acclaimed Cuban composer and jazz pianist Alfredo Rodriguez. Hosted by Felix Contreras.
Sunday, December 29
1–2 PM
Front Porch Bluegrass: Top 10 Album Picks of 2024
Kevin’s annual list of favorite bluegrass albums of the year.
4–4:30 PM
Hanukkah Lights
This NPR favorite returns with some of our favorite stories from the archives. We’ll hear “A Gift of Light" by Dvora Zipkin, “Hanukkah Gelt, Hanukkah Money” by Sholem Aleichem, “Gifts of the Jewish Magi” by Allegra Goodman, How to Spell the Name of God” by Ellen Orleans and “Geek Week by Rebecca O’Connell.
6:30 PM (on KSFC)
Mr. Skids Saves the Tradwives' Holiday Pageant! A holiday special from the producers of Men in Charge: In Brief(s) and Rocket to the Future! – Part Two
Mr. Skids, Lower Heights' most famous n'er do well with a heart of limestone, inadvertently interferes with a tradwives' pageant during the holidays, thus destroying the best hopes of private interests that were promoting submissiveness in America's young women. Oh, the holiday antics!
9–11 PM
Soundspace: End of Year Show
Zan wraps up the year in music from 2024 with a music mix of songs that made themselves to top playlists all over.
Tuesday, December 31 – New Year’s Eve
7 PM–8PM
Toast of the Nation hosted by Christian McBride
An NPR tradition every New Year's Eve since the 1970s, Toast of the Nation is the perfect audio compliment for the occasion. This hour features Jazz singer Samara Joy recorded live at Purchase College.
At 25, Grammy-winning jazz vocalist Samara Joy is being heralded as a once-in-a-generation talent. Her voice, rich and velvety and yet precociously refined, evokes the greats—Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald. "Her voice is going to be remembered for a long, long time," says Christian McBride, a world-renowned bassist.
8 PM–Midnight
SPR New Year's Eve
Our local music hosts help usher in the New Year with music to celebrate, including jazz soul, rock and more.
- 8 PM – Zan Agzigian
The host of Soundspace brings an eclectic mix of music to get you geared up for ringing in the New Year. - 9 PM – Kevin Brown
Front Porch Bluegrass Host switches musical gears with an hour of uninterrupted deep-cut classic and retro soul music with "The Velvet Vinyl Hour." - 10 PM – Kathy Sackett
Tuesday Night Jazz host brings some tasty NYE party jazz featuring David Sanborn, Wynton Marsalis, Ray Charles, Veronica Swift, Duke Ellington and more. - 11 PM – John Johnson
The Improbable History of Pop host ushers in the New Year with an hour of great music featuring a look back at artists we've lost in 2024 and tunes to celebrate the arrival of 2025!
Wednesday, January 1 – New Year’s Day
10 AM–Noon
New Year's Day From Vienna 2025
The ever popular annual New Year’s Day Concert will be performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of Riccardo Muti in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna. Hosted by WBUR's Lisa Mullins.
