Route 51

This Thursday, July 21st at 10 am, Wisconsin Public Radio's Route 51 continues our month of music with jazz vocalist Denise Sauter and musicians from this past weekend’s Sid Kyler River Valley Jazz Festival in Wausau. Sauter will perform a selection of American pop standards live in our Wisconsin Public Radio studios with her husband Charlie Sauter on bass, Scott Stieber of the River Valley Jazz Society on piano, UW Marathon County’s Jeff Erickson on saxophone, and Route 51 host Glen Moberg on guitar. The program will also feature selections by festival headliner Randy Sabien, the John Griener Quintet, Tim Buccholz’s UWMC Jazz Central Voices, and the Sid Kyler Jazz Band.

On Thursday, July 14th at 10 am, Route 51 welcomes back to our Wisconsin Public Radio studios the South Beach Chamber Ensemble for an hour of live music and lively conversation, as they return from Miami to Wausau for their annual Up North tour. Host Glen Moberg will share the hour with chamber ensemble leader, Wausau native and cellist Michael Andrews, violinists Sarah Schreffler and Timothy McCollum, violist Barbara Beechey, and double bassist Cindy Blandino. The ensemble performs Saturday July 16th and Sunday July 17th at the First Universalist Unitarian Church, 504 Grant Street, Wausau. Wisconsin Public Radio is a proud sponsor of the South Beach Up North tour.

Route 51 looks at the youthful energy, skill and discipline involved in the world of Competitive Drum and Bugle Corps, as we preview the River City Rhapsody, which takes place July 14th at D.C. Everest’s Stiehm Stadium in Weston. Glen Moberg will lead a discussion with organizers Diane Goetsch and Gary Tollers. The program will also celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Wausau Story’s Class A World Championship with one of the people who was there, corps member Jeff Viergutz. We're also joined by Wausau native and former Wausau Story member Jim Lien and La Crosee Blue Stars drum majors Hayden McClure and Nessa Guerra. River City Rhapsody-Wausau is sponsored by Wisconsin Public Radio.

We preview Operation Persian Gulf Welcome Home , a weeklong event at the Highground Veterans Memorial Park honoring those who served in Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan. Glen Moberg will discuss the purpose of the gathering with Theresa Hebert , Event Coordinator at The Highground, and Lakeland Times reporter Brian Jopek , who served in Iraq. He will be speaking at the event’s closing ceremony. Jopek’s son, Ryan, was killed in action in Iraq. The program will also bring to light the history and impact The Highground has had on veterans and their families. Operation Persian Gulf Welcome Home takes place from July 19 through July 25. The Highground Veterans Memorial Park is located at W7031 Ridge Road, four miles west of Neillsville on US Hwy 10.

Route 51 looks at two educational, outdoor recreation spots: the Monk Botanical Gardens in Wausau, and the Schmeeckle Reserve in Stevens Point. Glen Moberg will discuss the value of these two urban sanctuaries with Megan Espe , Outreach Coordinator of the Schmeekle Reserve; Linda Grilley , President of the Monk Gardens; and Vickie Richmond Hawkins , Past President of the Monk Gardens.

Originally broadcast March 3rd, the program features internationally acclaimed guitarist Greg Koch and the Tone Controls performing in front of a live audience. Born in Milwaukee, Koch studied jazz guitar at UW-Stevens Point, and won First Prize in the 1989 Bluesbreaker Guitar Showdown judged by legendary bluesman Buddy Guy. Greg Koch and the Tone Controls went on to win five Wisconsin Area Music Awards for Blues Artist of the Year (‘93, ‘95 through ‘98), and Koch personally took in seven WAMA awards as Guitarist of the Year (‘92, ‘94 through ‘99). In its 2001 feature story, Guitar Player magazine described Koch’s approach this way: “An impossible stream of riffs jumps off of Koch’s fretboard like clowns spilling out of a VW bug – and when you’re convinced that there can be no more, out pops another one.”

In 1942, in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Executive Order 9066 was passed requiring all Japanese Americans to be housed in government internment camps. Two survivors of those camps, Tets Furukawa and Howard Zenimura, shared their stories alongside historian Kerry Yo Nakagawa. Furukawa and Zenimura were both sent to the same internment camp in Arizona at the the Gila River War Relocation Center. In order to deal with the hardships of living in a camp, the two, as well as many other people, looked to baseball, America's pastime. Howard's father, Kenichi Zenimura, inspired many in the camp to pursue baseball and helped break down the race barrier in baseball when it came to Japanese-Americans. Although these men have been through so much, they were willing to forgive. Tets Furukawa made it clear, "We have to have forgiveness in our heart...If we don't have forgiveness, we will not have a peaceful end." Bitterness toward the government existed but what never faded was these men's love for the United States. Tets put it, "Despite what our communities went through...this still is the greatest country in the world and I wouldn't live anywhere else." "History doesn't change, only the names do." is a point that Kerry Yo Nakagawa​ made at a presentation in Edgar. The three men were in Central Wisconsin to educate middle and high school students through a program called A Walk in Their Shoes, which was headed by Edgar Elementary School Teacher, Colin Hanson. Relating events like this in the past to today's issues is imperative to the program, making it easier for students to relate. The main reason for the giving of this presentation can be put best in Nakagawa's words, "The youth is our hope." By Maxwell Harding...

Route 51 previews the 27th annual Energy Fair, the nation's longest-running renewable energy and sustainable living event, which will take place the weekend of June 17th in the community of Custer, Wisconsin. Our guests are Doug Stingle , development director for the Midwest Renewable Energy Association; Rob Peck , design consultant for North Wind Renewable Energy of Stevens Point; and keynote speaker J. Drake Hamilton , science policy director for Fresh Energy, a clean energy advocacy organization based in Minnesota.

This Thursday, May 26th at 10 am, Wisconsin Public Radio's Route 51 marks the 50th anniversary of CAP Services of Stevens Point. Host Glen Moberg will moderate a discussion with national poverty activist Sister Simone Campbell, Executive Director of NETWORK; Mary Patoka, President and CEO of CAP Services; and Ken Taylor, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families. This week, CAP Services is marking its 50th year of helping those in need in central Wisconsin, with a mission of transforming people and communities to advance social and economic justice.

This Thursday at 10 a.m., Route 51 examines the issues behind the award winning documentary Missing Threads, The Story of the Wisconsin Indian Child Welfare Act . Host Glen Moberg will moderate a discussion with producer, director and writer Susan Reetz of Rucinski and Reetz Communication; Kris Goodwill, one of the attorneys who worked on the Wisconsin Indian Child Welfare Act; and Loa Porter, a Ho-Chunk woman who plays a key role in the documentary. Missing Threads looks at the tragedy of Indian children who lost their families and their culture by being placed into foster care. The Wisconsin Indian Child Welfare Act was approved by state lawmakers in 2009.