This year we have several special programs lined up for your listening pleasure this holiday season. Turn on your radio, pour a cup of tea, cozy up to a warm fire, and enjoy the music!

Sunday, December 22nd

10-11 AM: Holidays Around The World with Bill McGlaughlin
Host of the WFMT Radio Network’s daily music program, Exploring Music, Bill McGlaughlin showcases the universality of music of the holidays, taking listeners on a musical journey to medieval Italy, an American jazz club, a Mexican celebration, Polynesia, and more!

3-4 PM: High Country Celtic Radio – Winter Solstice
The first day of winter, the Winter Solstice, is the shortest day of the year. As the days begin to get longer, the return of the sun is celebrated—using different themes, of course—across almost all religions. Host Katie Marie looks at a tiny sliver of winter and Solstice-themed Celtic music, featuring artists that include Siucra, Shantalla, Liz Knowles, Walking On Air, Catherine-Ann MacPhee, Mick Moloney & Athena Tergis, Todd Denman, Angelina Carberry & Martin Quinn, The High Seas, Steph Geremia, Dervish, FullSet, and Poor Man’s Gambit.

4-5 PM: The Film Score – Music For Winter Holidays
The WFMT Radio Network presents Chicago Tribune film critic and renowned film authority Michael Phillips’ perfect soundtrack for your holiday celebration, featuring an hour of wintertime movie music. In addition to beloved standards, Phillips shares an eclectic mix of wintry film scores, ranging from “It Happened in Sun Valley” from Sun Valley Serenade to Alexandre Desplat’s folk-inspired score for The Grand Budapest Hotel to Bernard Herrmann’s bracing sleigh ride accompaniment composed for the Orson Welles drama The Magnificent Ambersons.

5-6 PM: A Chanukah Celebration with Chicago A Capella
Join Jonathan Miller, artistic director of Chicago a cappella and a longtime champion of Jewish choral music, for an inspiring and informative show featuring choral music set to Chanukah texts, presented by the WFMT Radio Network. Heartfelt original compositions by American and British composers provide added depth of expression to celebrating the holiday and Miller provides liturgical and cultural background as part of this unique look inside old and newer choral Chanukah traditions.

10 PM-12 AM: Music For Baroque Brass & Choral Concert
Join celebrated WFMT Radio Network host Candice Agree for great works of composers like Samuel Scheidt, Giovanni Gabrieli, William Billings, Claudio Monteverdi, and many more, all performed by Music of the Baroque, a collective of approximately 60 professional musicians. Conductor William Jon Gray has assembled a program highlighting diverse holiday traditions around a single unifying principle: music gives voice to the spirit of the season.

Monday, December 23rd

8-9 PM: Holiday Jazz Party with Wynton Marsalis
Virtuoso musician Wynton Marsalis hosts an hour of holiday jazz favorites by Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Gregory Porter, René Marie, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Tuesday, December 24th

10-11 PM: Holidays Around The World with Bill McGlaughlin (Encore)
Host of the WFMT Radio Network’s daily music program, Exploring Music, Bill McGlaughlin showcases the universality of music of the holidays, taking listeners on a musical journey to medieval Italy, an American jazz club, a Mexican celebration, Polynesia, and more!

11 PM-12 AM: KRCU presents A Christmas Carol
Hear the ghosts of Christmas come alive this holiday season with this special radio adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. Children and adults alike will love this rendition of this heart-warming Christmas favorite. The myriad of sound effects and musical cues puts the listener right there with the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.

Wednesday, December 25th

8-9 PM: Dee Alexander – Jazz at Christmastime – Recorded Live at Chicago’s Jazz Showcase
With support from the WFMT Radio Network Jazz Network’s own Dave Schwan and longtime collaborators pianist Vijay Tellis-Nayak, bassist Junius Paul, guitarist John McLean, and drummer Rick Heath, the beloved Chicago vocalist and WFMT Radio Network Jazz Network host Dee Alexander entertains and enchants with songs and reminiscences of holidays past.

10 PM-12 AM: Music For Baroque Brass & Choral Concert (Encore)
Join celebrated WFMT Radio Network host Candice Agree for great works of composers like Samuel Scheidt, Giovanni Gabrieli, William Billings, Claudio Monteverdi, and many more, all performed by Music of the Baroque, a collective of approximately 60 professional musicians. Conductor William Jon Gray has assembled a program highlighting diverse holiday traditions around a single unifying principle: music gives voice to the spirit of the season.

Sunday, December 29th

10-11 PM: A Chanukah Celebration with Chicago A Capella (Encore)
Join Jonathan Miller, artistic director of Chicago a cappella and a longtime champion of Jewish choral music, for an inspiring and informative show featuring choral music set to Chanukah texts, presented by the WFMT Radio Network. Heartfelt original compositions by American and British composers provide added depth of expression to celebrating the holiday and Miller provides liturgical and cultural background as part of this unique look inside old and newer choral Chanukah traditions.

Monday, December 30th

11 AM-12 PM: Climate One – High Risks, High Hopes: A Year of Climate Conversations
2019 has been a year of climate rising. Youth activists skipped school and took to the streets, the Green New Deal thrust climate equity into the spotlight, and presidential candidates were forced to respond. Democrats are competing on climate policies more than ever before. Even a few Republicans dared to suggest climate is a concern that needs to be addressed. Tune in to this episode of Climate One for a look back on the big ideas that shaped some of our favorite episodes from 2019.