Campus News

WUGA to celebrate 25th anniversary with ‘Once in a Blue Moon’ live show

Shupe
Elvis tribute artist and WUGA host Chris Shupe will be the show's opening act.

To mark its 25th anniversary, WUGA-FM, the public radio station operated by UGA, will present a live concert broadcast of Once in a Blue Moon Aug. 26 from 7-9 p.m. in Mahler Hall at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased online at www.wuga.org.

The live show will feature performances by six local acts: 

• Local Elvis tribute artist and WUGA host Chris Shupe will open the broadcast with a performance by Athens King and the TCB Band.

• Revien, a new cello, guitar and electrics ensemble, will offer its unique take on chamber music spanning Bach sonatas to Radiohead, jazz to bluegrass. 

• The Rose Theatre of Athens Ensemble, which will perform selections from its fall production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

• Brock Sheidl, an up-and-coming  singer/ guitarist will put on his country-rock act.

• Kyshona Armstrong, a touring singer-song writer, sings about the triumphs and struggles of at-risk youth and prison inmates. A former music therapist, she has performed with Angie Aparo, Caroline Aiken, The Styx and the B-52s. 

• The Kenney Blackmon String Band, an Athens-based acoustic group, will close the show. The group provide unique arrangements of classic folk tunes with hard-driving fiddle, syrupy balladry and syncopated jazz. Band members are Jason Kenney on vocals, guitar, mandolin and banjo; Noel Blackmon on vocals, guitar and mandolin; David Blackmon on fiddle; and Chris Enghauser on double bass. 

The show will be hosted by Mary Kay Mitchell, one of the radio station’s founding staff members who retired in 2011. 

“We hope that our friends in WUGA’s listening community will join us for this entertaining event celebrating 25 years of broadcast service,” said Jimmy Sanders, WUGA’s director of TV and radio. “It will be a special evening, paying tribute to the station’s history of excellence with anticipation of a great future.”

WUGA-FM began operations just before 6 a.m. on Aug. 28, 1987. The university’s public radio station provides news, drama and comedy programming as well as mixture of classical, jazz and folk music.

Programming includes a varied slate of locally-produced shows along with state and national programs from Georgia Public Broadcasting, NPR, Public Radio International, American Public Media and more.

Once in Blue Moon will be carried throughout the state on the Georgia Public Radio network.