[      Listen to "Live from the Islands" on the internet     ]
[         at http://www.heraldnet.com/stream/kser.asx        ]

Whidbey Island Residents and "Live from the Islands" radio hosts David
Ossman and Judith Walcutt will be hosting and producing a 21-hour, 3-day
live broadcast from the Northwest Folklife Festival at Seattle Center, this
Memorial Day weekend, to be broadcast on seven community radio stations down
the I-5 corridor from Bellingham, Washington to Astoria, Oregon.

PRESS RELEASE FOLLOWS:

  
Northwest Folklife Festival
First Ever Live Community Radio Network Broadcast
Saturday May 29 - Sunday, May 30, 11am-6pm / Monday, May 31, 11am-6pm

Radio Stations
Longtime Festival Partners: KBCS Bellevue and KSER Everett
New Partners: KUGS Bellingham, KSVR Mount Vernon, KAOS Olympia, KBOO
Portland OR, KMUN Astoria OR

For the first time in the history of the Northwest Folklife Festival and the
seven community radio stations involved, three days of folk and ethnic music
from the Festival will be heard live from Bellingham, Washington, to
Portland, Oregon.  Community radio stations carrying this premiere live
broadcast from the Rainier Room at Seattle Center are longtime Festival
partners KBCS 91.3 FM Bellevue and KSER 90.7 FM Everett and new partners
KUGS 89.3 FM Bellingham, KSVR 91.7 FM Mount Vernon, KAOS 89.3 FM Olympia,
KBOO 90.7 FM Portland OR, and KMUN 91.9 FM Astoria OR. The broadcasts are
made possible in part by support from the Organic Valley Family of Farms and
the Sage Foundation.

Highlights from the weekend's programming include folk legend and
singer/storyteller Utah Phillips, Saturday 11am and Monday 12:20pm; followed
on Monday by Tingstad and Rumble, 2003 Grammy winners for Best New Age
Album; the exceptionally talented classical Persian flute player Hossein
Omoumi, a world-class musician and visiting artist in the University of
Washington ethnomusicology program; and one of the most sought-after artists
in Eritrean communities worldwide, Tefono, master of the kirar.
 
Saturday's musical flavors sample traditional and contemporary Hawaiian
music, Afro-Latin, Brazilian, Andean and Cuban rhythms. Sunday's mix ranges
from blues harp and steel guitar to old-time bluegrass, Scottish and Celtic
fiddle and fiery Cape Breton tunes.

Monday's program begins at 11am with a jazz violin tribute to Stuff Smith
and vintage American cabaret songs, followed by Utah Phillips and Tingstad &
Rumble. The festival's final afternoon offerings include neo-folk, Gypsy
tango, Turkish art music, the classical Persian music of Omoumi, and the
traditional Eritrean music of Tefono.

Produced by Otherworld Media, an international award-winning and
Grammy-nominated production company, the day-long broadcasts May 29, 30 and
31st will be hosted by David Ossman, together with members of the Seattle
Folklore Society and regular program hosts from each of the participating
stations. Executive Producer Judith Walcutt comments, "Our goal in putting
together this first-ever regional broadcast of the Northwest Folklife
Festival is to draw public attention to the unique place of community radio
in the broadcast landscape. In the fight against lost localism, community
radio stations hold important ground for community voice and access to the
airwaves.  The Northwest Folklife Festival is a wonderful regional event for
us to make that point and draw new listeners to grass roots radio."

The weekend-long festival will be distributed via the Public Radio Satellite
system and available to other community radio stations nationwide for
broadcast live or on a delayed basis.  It will be streamed on the web by
KBCS, KSER, KAOS, and KBOO.

Contact/Broadcast: Judith Walcutt, (360) 331-2813, oworld@whidbey.com
Contact/Festival: Sandy Stahl, (206), 325-1493, sandystahl@comcast.net

This is Worker speaking.
  -- Firesign Theatre