Vick Mickunas back on WYSO

WYSO launches weekly “Book Nook” and “Miami Valley StoryCorps” among other program changes

Starting September 15, WYSO will air “Miami Valley StoryCorps”every Wednesday at 6:30 and 8:30 am. “Miami Valley StoryCorps” interviews are the result of WYSO’s collaboration with StoryCorps, the national oral history collection project that visited Dayton last spring. All the “Miami Valley StoryCorps” segments consist of interviews between two local residents.

“These interviews are touching and often funny,” says WYSO general manager Neenah Ellis. “They offer us a view of our collective history, a glimpse of who we are. People talk about their lives, their dreams and their hopes for the future.”

“Miami Valley StoryCorps” will be repeated on Wednesday’s during Niki Dakota’s “Excursions” and on the following Sunday as part of “WYSO Weekend,” hosted by Jerry Kenney.

Starting Friday September 17, “Book Nook” hosted by Vick Mickunas will return to WYSO’s airwaves as a weekly program at 1:30 Friday afternoons and again at 11 on Sunday mornings.

“Book Nook” features both local and national authors talking about their books with host Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs. Mickunas began “Book Nook” on WYSO in the mid- 1990s. He also writes a weekly book column for the Dayton Daily News.

“We’ve had a tremendous demand for a weekly “Book Nook.” There’s no one quite like Vick Mickunas when it comes to interviewing authors,” says Neenah Ellis, WYSO general manager.

Mickunas says “I am delighted to have the opportunity to bring more author interviews to WYSO. There’s just something that is so compelling about hearing writers talk about their work.”

In order to accommodate these changes, “Filmically Perfect” hosted by Niki Dakota with J.Todd Anderson and George Willeman will be heard at 1pm instead of 12:30 on Fridays but will be re-broadcast on Sundays at 11:30, just after “Book Nook.”

As of Sunday, September 19, “Sound Medicine” will be dropped from the WYSO line-up. The last edition of “Sound Medicine” will be heard Sunday, September 12. One hour of “World Café” will be dropped on Fridays only.

Starting Friday September 10, WYSO reporter Emily McCord will present a wrap-up of the week’s important Ohio political news leading up to the November elections. Each Friday during All Things Considered, she will talk with political reporters from across the state about local and statewide races. Bill Cohen and Karen Kasler, statehouse news reporters for the Ohio News Network will be regular guests.

Also in September, WYSO will begin airing occasional commentaries by Julie Zickefoose, Ohio naturalist, artist and writer. Zickefoose, who lives in southeast Ohio, is also an occasional commentator for NPR’s “All Things Considered.”

“We see it as our mission to produce more and better local programs,” said Ellis. “Our listeners tell us over and over that they want more local voices on the air. It’s never easy to make program changes but we think these changes are any short-term confusion our listeners may have when they find that things have been rearranged.”

The program changes appear on the station’s program grid on its home page.

All the new features will be offered as podcasts at the WYSO website.

WYSO is licensed to Antioch University with studios in Yellow Springs. It broadcasts at 91.3 fm and on HD frequencies as well. All its programs are streamed live on its website,
www.wyso.org.