KRTS Marfa Public Radio is now bringing two new shows to Far West Texas airwaves, American Public Media’s Marketplace and American Routes.
Marketplace will air each weekday evening at 6pm. The program is sponsored in part by the Marfa National Bank.
Marketplace presents news on business, economics, and money for the rest of us. The show takes a unique look at the real world causes and consequences of often abstract-seeming business and economic news.
“Especially in fast-changing economic times, Marketplace is a useful daily tool,” KRTS General Manager Tom Michael said. “Our thanks to the Marfa National Bank for helping us kick-start this smart program.”
Marketplace airs for an audience of more than 9.1 million listeners a week, and is heard on 486 public radio stations nationwide.
Award-winning journalist Kai Ryssdal hosts the program. His work has won first place awards from the Radio and Television News Directors Association and the national Public Radio News Directors Association. Before his career in public radio, Ryssdal served eight years in the United States Navy. He was also was a member of the United States Foreign Service and served in Ottawa, Canada, and Beijing, China.
Listeners can also now hear American Routes every Thursday from 11am to 1pm.
American Routes is a weekly two-hour public radio program produced in New Orleans, presenting a broad range of American music — blues and jazz, gospel and soul, old-time country and rockabilly, Cajun and zydeco, Tejano and Latin, roots rock and pop, avant-garde and classical.
Now in its 12th year on the air, American Routes explores the shared musical and cultural threads in these American styles and genres of music, and how they are distinguished.
The songs and stories on American Routes describe both the community origins of our music, musicians and cultures — the “roots”— and the many directions they take over time — also the “routes.”
Host Nick Spitzer is a scholar, documentary producer, and program host known for his informed and witty style in presenting American cultures and communities. He’s excited to bring his program to the region.
“I’ve long loved the legendary Southwest Texas landscape,” Spitzer said. “Having seen ‘Giant’ and long heard about the Marfa Lights, I was excited to pass through Alpine, Marathon, Marfa, Fort Davis and Van Horn for a visit some years ago after a camping trip to Big Bend — though the Javelinas slowed me down one night. Now I’m lucky to ride the radio waves to your homeland each week with our eclectic mix of American music and musicians. If you listen closely you’ll see what I mean.”
With his background in documentary media, American culture and “underground” progressive radio, Spitzer is well positioned to bring new audiences to the music and musicians he loves through American Routes.
The program also presents documentary features and artist interviews. The show includes conversations with Willie Nelson, Tom Waits, B.B. King, Dr. John, Dave Brubeck, Abbey Lincoln, Elvis Costello, Ray Charles, Randy Newman, McCoy Tyner, Lucinda Williams, Rufus Thomas, Jerry Lee Lewis and many others.
KRTS invites listeners to join American Routes as it rides legendary trains, or visits street parades, instrument-makers, roadside attractions and juke joints, and meet tap dancers, fishermen, fortunetellers and more.