© 2024 KSUT Public Radio
NPR News and Music Discovery for the Four Corners
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

KSUT Honors Women's History Month

Shutterstock
/
Shutterstock

Join us for a series of special documentaries in March for Women's History Month, Sundays at 2 PM.

• March 6: WHER, 1000 Beautiful Watts
WHER, the first all-women radio station in the nation, went on the air in Memphis on October 29, 1955. It was the brainchild of sound legend Sam Phillips, who created the groundbreaking format with money he raised from selling Elvis Presley's Sun Studios contract. Women almost exclusively ran WHER. On the air they read the news, interviewed local celebrities, and spun popular records. Behind the scenes they sold and created commercials, produced and directed programming and sat at the station's control boards.

• March 13: Rocket Girls and Astro-nettes
This program is the story of women in the ultimate Man’s World – the labs and Shuttle crew cabins of NASA. Told in the first person, these stories explore the experiences of NASA’s first woman engineers and scientists and its first astronauts. It also tells the fascinating story of a group of women pilots who – in the early 1960s – were led to believe that they would be America’s first women astronauts and were given the exact same physical tests are the Mercury astronauts. The program is narrated by Eileen Collins, the first woman commander of a Space Shuttle.

• March 20: The Emergence of Janis Joplin
Music documentarian Paul Ingles presents a 1-hour exploration and celebration of the music of rock legend Janis Joplin featuring author Holly George-Warren who wrote the 2019 book JANIS: HER LIFE AND MUSIC. 2020 marked the 50th anniversary of the death of Janis from a drug overdose.

• March 27: Talk Music With Me: Bonnie Raitt
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and multiple Grammy winner Bonnie Raitt talks with Paul Ingles about her life and career in this extended interview. Bonnie talks about her early influences, her early days as a 20-something blues phenom, her brush with addiction and obscurity, then her rise back to the top with a string of Grammy awards and commercial success. Raitt will release her first new album since 2016. The new record, Just Like That will be released on April 22, followed by a national tour.

Additional special programming: KSUT DJ Susie B celebrates her 30 years on the radio with an afternoon featuring "Women Who Rock 1992-2022", Friday, March 4, 1-4 PM. Susie will also host a special Morning Blend for International Women's Day, Tuesday, March 8, 9 AM to noon.

Close Enough For Jazz, March 20, 7-9 PM, a special episode featuring Women of Jazz.

Tales of the New West celebrates Women's History Month with the first half of a two-week special on women in American roots music. Chris will play classics from Carole King and Nanci Griffith to contemporary cuts from Margo Cilker and Marija Droze. March 23 and 30, 7-9 PM.

San Juan Sunrise honors Women's History month on Saturday, March 26 from 6-8 AM featuring all female artists - both classic and contemporary, across various genres.

Related Stories