WUMB Celebrates Twenty Years on Air and Sold-Out Crowds at Fifth Annual Boston Folk Festival

By Anne-Marie Kent

Topping off twenty years of public broadcasting, WUMB 91.9FM held the fifth annual Boston Folk Festival the weekend of September 21. What a celebration it was!

With two large outdoor stages, an indoor coffeehouse stage, a family stage, and a floating, harbor-cruising boat “stage,” the festival featured a diverse music mix including blues, bluegrass, traditional and cutting-edge folk, and Zydeco music; as well as children’s activities, dance workshops, and more.

Among the thousands of ticketholders were fans from places as distant as England, Canada, Alaska, California, and even Japan. Sunday’s lineup drew a sell-out crowd. On the main-stage soccer field, most lounged on colorful blankets and lawn chairs to hear top folk stars including Cheryl Wheeler, Richard Thompson, and Nanci Griffith. Some fans displayed lively jigs, while children flew kites made at the festival.

The music, food, and crowd at the Boston Folk Festival all represented a kind of diversity that is close to the heart of the radio station that produced the big event. “We air a diverse mix of folk music including traditional and contemporary folk, blues, Celtic, bluegrass, Afropop, and world music,” said Pat Monteith, general manager and UMass Boston alumna, who helped establish the station more than 20 years ago. WUMB and its issues-based talk show “Commonwealth Journal” have amassed a number of awards from the Massachusetts Broadcasters Association, the Associated Press, and others.

Back in 1982, WUMB went on the air with an all-volunteer staff, including Monteith. It moved to a professional staff in 1986 when it became a public radio affiliate of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The UMass Boston studio is the central hub for a network of five public radio stations in Boston, Worcester, Falmouth, Orleans, and New-buryport. All five facilities simulcast the identical program schedule. WUMB reaches tens of thousands of listeners in over 275 cities and towns in eastern and central Massachusetts and Cape Cod along with parts of Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. A webcast can also be heard live around the world.

Image: Chancellor Jo Ann Gora, State Representative Harriett Stanley, Pat Monteith, general manager of WUMB, and State Representative Jay Kaufman were on hand to celebrate WUMB Radio’s 20th anniversary on September 19. (Photo by Harry Brett)

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