Richard Esbenshade, a REEEC Research Associate, is the host of the Wednesday World Beat program on WEFT 90.1 FM. As the host of this program on the Central Illinois community radio station, Esbenshade has been spending twenty minutes of his show each week to showcase Ukrainian music following the start of the war in Ukraine.
On February 22, 2023, just ahead of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Esbenshade dedicated his entire two-hour program to Ukraine and shared musical selections from a variety of Ukrainian musical groups, from Kyiv-based world-music quartet DakhaBrakha to klezmer trio Veretski Pass–a group that performed locally during the 2019 Champaign-Urbana Folk and Roots Festival.
The program’s full playlist with timestamps has been shared via Dropbox, and you can listen to the entire Wednesday World Beat program from February 22 via Dropbox as well.
Please note that the first five minutes of the show is National Native News, and there is another five minutes of Deutsche Welle news halfway through the program. Thus, the Wednesday World Beat program runs from 0:05:10-1:02:01 and 1:07:10-2:00:00.