Campus and community radio station UMFM 101.5 prides itself on bringing quality fringe content to Winnipeg listeners. Only a month into 2015, the station has greenlit new shows to carry the station boldly into the future. Here are three unique, student-run shows on air right now for your listening pleasure.
KPOP Season, Thursdays, 2-3 p.m.
Host Steven Wong debuts a unique and international brand of pop music live every Thursday on UMFM with KPOP Season.
Wong got involved with UMFM through a friend and started his show off in the first full week of January. Off-air, Wong is a University of Manitoba student working toward a biotechnology honours degree in the faculty of science.
KPOP Season focuses on “KPOP,” or Korean Pop, a genre originating in South Korea. While many may pigeonhole KPOP as a derivative of North American pop music, Wong argues there is more depth to the music than one might expect.
“KPOP might be a genre to some, but there are a variety of genres within Korean pop music such as pop, ballad, trot, hip-hop, dance, [and] R&B,” explained Wong to the Manitoban.
“We play all these types of songs on the show along with our vintage top three KPOP songs of the week.”
KPOP Season also focuses on the pop culture phenomenon surrounding the craze of KPOP. During music breaks, Wong goes in depth about Korean entertainment and pop culture surrounding the artists. We may not know who these artists are now, but we are about to.
TV Talkers, Tuesdays, 5:30-6 p.m.
For 30 minutes each week, hosts Megan, Simon, and Tiago discuss the happenings on the small screen.
“The purpose is to discuss what’s currently going in the world of television or anything related to TV,” co-host Tiago Bueno told the Manitoban.
TV Talkers was founded by Tiago Bueno. Bueno, wanting to try something new in 2015, was introduced to the UMFM radio station through a friend. With his television show approved for air, Bueno recruited his friend Simon Pazdor and UMFM volunteer Megan Jensen to fill the show’s panel of experts.
The three hosts are all U of M students, in programs ranging from psychology to Icelandic studies.
TV Talkers first aired on Jan. 13 with the aptly named “Pilot Episode.”
Currently, UMFM’s TV Talkers is also the only talk radio show in Winnipeg directed entirely towards the telecommunication medium.
“People like talking about TV shows with their friends all the time, so I’m hoping that we can act as a surrogate for people to scratch that itch,” said Pazdor.
Allegro, Thursdays, 3-4 p.m.
Now that the WSO New Musical Festival has ended, the symphony will return to its classical portfolio once again. For fans of classical music in Winnipeg, there is a new UMFM show for you: Allegro.
While host Hannah Tamblyn plays classical music of all kinds and variety, the mandate of Allegro is to make classical music more accessible to all listeners.
“Too often people are steered away from classical music because it can be notoriously pretentious and inaccessible with its complex jargon and obscure nomenclature,” Tamblyn said.
Tamblyn is a fourth-year English major and history minor at the U of M. She became involved with the radio station to gain on-air experience for a future in journalism. Tamblyn hopes the show will connect with the Winnipeg classical music culture that has largely gone untapped.
“I want to let the music speak for itself and allow anyone to be able to tune in and enjoy; no prior knowledge required,” she said.
The show has stuck true to this mandate: the show on Jan. 22 featured composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky.
