From the Isle of Music, June 4-10
This week we begin featuring the winners and some of the nominees of Cubadisco 2017, Cuba’s most important music awards program.  We will have Timba from Aisar y el Expreso de Cuba, winner of the Música Popular Bailable – Nuevos Talentos category and will also sample some of EGREM’s Colección Memorias releases, a series of reissues of great recordings from the past (the collection was nominated for a Cubadisco in the Compilación y Archivo category). We finish with a couple of songs by Sindo Garay, one of Cuba’s most important trovadores.
Four opportunities to listen on shortwave:
1. For Eastern Europe but audible well beyond the target area in all directions with 100Kw, Sunday 1500-1600 UTC on SpaceLine, 9400 KHz, from Kostinbrod, Bulgaria (1800-1900 MSK)
2. For the Americas and parts of Europe, Tuesday 0000-0100 UTC on WBCQ, 7490 KHz from Monticello, ME, USA (Monday 8-9PM EDT in the US)
3 & 4. For Europe and sometimes beyond, Tuesday 1900-2000 UTC and Saturday 1200-1300 on Channel 292, 6070 KHz from Rohrbach, Germany.

Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot, June 8
Episode 15 of Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot, a musical variety program that features everything from everywhere EXCEPT music that you are probably familiar with, ,will air on WBCQ the Planet, 7490 KHz, Thursday, June 8 from 2300-2330 UTC (7:00pm-7:30pm EDT in the Americas). Brought to you by Tilford Productions, which also brings you From the Isle of Music.  Recently the signal has propagated well throughout North and Central America and is reaching as far south as Sao Paolo, Brasil and as far East as the West Coast of Europe. 

From the Isle of Music, May 28-June 3
We have just returned from Cubadisco 2017, Cuba’s most important music awards program, with the best new Cuban music and a lot of new interviews. We will begin broadcasting this wonderful new content June 4.
Meanwhile, this week is a replay of an early 2016 episode featuring members of Conjunto Chappottin, one of Cuba’s most historically important conjuntos. We will also feature a highly varied mix of other Cuban music genres.
Four opportunities to listen on shortwave:
1. For Eastern Europe but audible well beyond the target area in all directions with 100Kw, Sunday 1500-1600 UTC on SpaceLine, 9400 KHz, from Kostinbrod, Bulgaria (1800-1900 MSK)
2. For the Americas and parts of Europe, Tuesday 0000-0100 UTC on WBCQ, 7490 KHz from Monticello, ME, USA (Monday 8-9PM EDT in the US)
3 & 4. For Europe and sometimes beyond, Tuesday 1900-2000 UTC and Saturday 1200-1300 on Channel 292, 6070 KHz from Rohrbach, Germany.

Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot, June 1
Episode 14 of Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot, a musical variety program that features everything from everywhere EXCEPT music that you are probably familiar with, ,will air on WBCQ the Planet, 7490 KHz, Thursday,June 1 from 2300-2330 UTC (7:00pm-7:30pm EDT in the Americas). Brought to you by Tilford Productions, which also brings you From the Isle of Music. This week  Includes a special surprise for our friends in the UK

I.  From the Isle of Music, May 8-June 3
Cubadisco 2017, Cuba’s largest and most important music awards program (a combination of something like the GRAMMYs® and much, much more) takes place during May, and we’ll be away from the studio listening to Cuba’s best new recordings and doing new interviews.   While we are doing that,  our episodes for May will be a combination of new episodes and some of the best of early 2016 for the benefit of our many new listeners.

May 7-13 will be part 2 of our conversations with Cuban musicologist and producer Gloria Ochoa along with some killer Cuban Jazz.
May 14-20 is a special dedicated to some of Cuba’s very best charanga orchestras.   Bring your dancing shoes.
May 21-27 is a replay of an early 2016 episode with special guest Cuban Jazz singer Zule Guerra, but also some 1970s Cuban Rock.
May 28-June 3 is a replay of an early 2016 episode featuring members of Conjunto Chappottin, one of Cuba’s most historically important conjuntos, as well as a mix of other Cuban music genres.

Four possibilities to listen via shortwave:
1. For Eastern Europe but audible well beyond the target area in all directions with 100Kw, Sundays 1500-1600 UTC on SpaceLine, 9400 KHz, from Kostinbrod, Bulgaria (1800-1900 MSK)
2. For the Americas and parts of Europe, Tuesdays 0000-0100 UTC on WBCQ, 7490 KHz from Monticello, ME, USA (Mondays 8-9PM EDT in the US)
3 & 4. For Europe and sometimes beyond, Tuesdays 1900-2000 UTC and Saturdays 1200-1300 on Channel 292, 6070 KHz from Rohrbach, Germany.

II. Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot, Thursdays
Our musical mystery box with the rest of the planet including the US and just enough weird (including a few laughs now and then) to keep us from being confused with any generic World Music program. No gravitas for us!  We don’t tell you what’s coming up each week because the surprises are half the fun and we always mix things up anyway.  Every Thursday from 2300-2330 UTC on WBCQ the Planet, 7490 KHz

From The Isle of Music, April 30-May 6

April is Jazz Appreciation Month, and April 30 is International Jazz Day. In honor of this, we dedicate this week to the new generation of Jazz musicians in Cuba and to a wonderful series of recordings in Cuba, the Jazz Young Spirit. Our special guest is Gloria Ochoa, one of the most important figures in Cuba’s music and recording industry today and, among many other things, the Producer of many of the albums in that series.
Four possibilities to listen via shortwave:
1. For Eastern Europe but audible well beyond the target area in all directions with 100Kw, Sunday 1500-1600 UTC on SpaceLine, 9400 KHz, from Kostinbrod, Bulgaria (1800-1900 MSK)
2. For the Americas and parts of Europe, Tuesday 0000-0100 UTC on WBCQ, 7490 KHz from Monticello, ME, USA (Monday 8-9PM EDT in the US)
3 & 4. For Europe and sometimes beyond, Tuesday 1900-2000 UTC and Saturday 1200-1300 on Channel 292, 6070 KHz from Rohrbach, Germany.

Episode 10 of Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot, a clandestine musical variety program that features everything from everywhere EXCEPT music that you are probably familiar with, ,will air on WBCQ the Planet, 7490 KHz, Thursday, May 4 from 2300-2330 UTC (7:00pm-7:30pm EDT in the Americas). Brought to you by Tilford Productions, which also brings you From the Isle of Music.

From The Isle of Music, Week of April 24-29, 2017
For the benefit of our new listeners, we share one of our earliest episodes from last year with modern Cuban concert music (Piñera Concertante), Timba (El Niño y La Verdad), Danzón (Ethiel Failde, who is also our special guest), and some rare Cuban Jazz Fusion (Estado de Animo)
Four possibilities to listen via shortwave:
1. For Eastern Europe but audible well beyond the target area in all directions with 100Kw, Sunday 1500-1600 UTC on SpaceLine, 9400 KHz, from Kostinbrod, Bulgaria (1800-1900 MSK)
2. For the Americas and parts of Europe, Tuesday 0000-0100 UTC on WBCQ, 7490 KHz from Monticello, ME, USA (Monday 8-9PM EDT in the US)
3 & 4. For Europe and sometimes beyond, Tuesday 1900-2000 UTC and Saturday 1200-1300 on Channel 292, 6070 KHz from Rohrbach, Germany.

Episode 9 of Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot, a clandestine musical variety program that features everything from everywhere EXCEPT music that you are probably familiar with, ,will air on WBCQ the Planet, 7490 KHz, Thursday, April 27 from 2300-2330 UTC (7:00pm-7:30pm EDT in the Americas). Brought to you by Tilford Productions, which also brings you From the Isle of Music.
(The WBCQ website keeps us Top Secret, but we’ll be on, and propagation has been great lately….)