First hour: WXXI celebrates 50 years
Second hour: Vinyl's comeback is for real
Fifty years ago, WXXI-TV was launched with its first broadcast, Julia Child's The French Chef. WXXI’s “Founding Father,” Harold Hacker, introduced the program after telling viewers they were about to witness something Rochester had never seen or heard before – educational broadcasting on Channel 21. He gave his word that WXXI would always provide a choice. His word still holds true today as WXXI continues to bring you quality programming that is inspiring, engaging, and entertaining. Our guests will talk about the early days of WXXI-TV, and of Rochester broadcasting five decades ago.
- Nancy Brush, founding member of WXXI, former member of the WXXI Board of Directors, and former director of community development for WXXI
- Justin Vigdor, founding member of WXXI
- John Andres, weekend host for WXXI Classical 91.5
- Don Alhart, anchor and associate news director for 13WHAM (joining later in the hour)
In our second hour: two years ago, vinyl looked like it might be having a short-lived comeback. A hipster blip, if you will. But now it looks like a full-fledged trend: vinyl sales are at their highest level since 1988. In 2015, vinyl sales were up 32% from the previous year; CD sales were down 17%. Vinyl still lags other formats, but it has busted out of the super-niche category, and now there are rumbles that mothballed presses are firing up again. So here's the question: why? We'll explore it with our panel:
- Dick Storms, co-owner of Record Archive
- Frank De Blase, music writer and photographer
- Chris Wilford, former professional musician and vinyl aficionado
