Classical 95.9-FM WCRI
Local programming from southern R.I. & southeastern CT.‘s classical station
Local programming from southern R.I. & southeastern CT.‘s classical station
To more easily find a specific show please click on the Tags tab above. Here you will find our programs listed by the title to make searching a little easier. Thank you and enjoy!
Episodes
7 days ago
7 days ago
1 hr 7 min
Join us as Ocean House owner and award-winning author Deborah Goodrich Royce has a conversation with The New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling author Beatriz Williams about her new book, When You Loved Me.
Beatriz Williams is the New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling author of Husbands and Lovers, The Summer Wives, The Secret Life of Violet Grant, A Hundred Summers, the Wicked City series, and several other works of historical fiction, including five novels in collaboration with fellow bestselling authors Karen White and Lauren Willig. A graduate of Stanford University with an MBA in Finance from Columbia University, Beatriz worked as a communications and corporate strategy consultant in New York and London before her first novel was published in 2012. Beatriz’s books have won numerous awards, have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and appear regularly in bestseller lists around the world. Her essays have appeared in magazines such as Real Simple and Southern Living, among others, and she regularly reviews fiction for the New York Times Book Review.
Born in Seattle, Washington, Beatriz now lives in southeastern Connecticut with her husband and four mostly-grown children.
About the Book:
A love story steeped in New England legend.A young widow returns to her late father’s New England estate, only to be drawn into the hunt for the rumored pirate treasure that consumed his life, in this thrilling and moving new novel from Beatriz Williams.
Local history insists that a legendary pirate buried his treasure somewhere beneath Windward, the decayed Cooper estate on Winthrop Island, but Lucy Cooper never trusted the fable that broke her family apart. When a widowed Lucy returns with her young daughter to grieve her estranged father, she discovers catastrophe: the property’s mired in debt she can’t repay, and Ben Ressler has unexpectedly turned up on her doorstep.
Thirteen summers ago, a teenaged Lucy never meant to fall in love with Ben, a Dartmouth football star vacationing nearby at the Peabody estate, and the object of an all-consuming crush by Laura Peabody, Lucy’s best friend. Those few weeks were the best and worst of Lucy’s life, dooming her friendship with Laura. Now Ben’s returned to live quietly in the Peabodys’ caretaker lodge, after a fatal accident ended his dazzling NFL career. He’s also the last person who saw Lucy’s father alive.
As Lucy reconstructs her father’s troubling final days, she uncovers his research on the frozen winter of 1717, when a desperately wounded pirate sought refuge on Winthrop Island with an enigmatic healer. To Lucy, this history points the way to a different kind of treasure: how to heal the fractures of the past and earn a second chance at love. But just as Lucy’s long-buried emotions sear to the surface, a shocking turn of events reveals that someone else on the island will do whatever it takes to claim the fabled plunder.
A timeless story of love and atonement, When You Loved Me maps both a centuries-old treasure hunt and the intimate territory of the human heart, weaving together past and present as only Beatriz Williams can.
For more information about Beatriz Williams, visit beatrizwilliams.com, and for more on Deborah Goodrich Royce and her new release, Best Boy, along with information about the Ocean House Author Series, visit deborahgoodrichroyce.com
7 days ago
1 hr 7 min
7 days ago
7 days ago
48 min
In this week's episode, we talk about The Coast Guard House, a great New England restaurant and landmark. Elisa Wybraniec, Wine Director, talks about the great food, the wine menu, and the wide variety CGH offers. We listen to music by Grammy-nominated pianist Joe Parillo to set the mood. For more information, call (401) 789-0700 or go to www.TheCoastGuardHouse.com
7 days ago
48 min
7 days ago
7 days ago
49 min
This week on Jazz After Dinner, Joe is featuring The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band from their 2005 Blue Note Records recording, titled “Live At The Village Vanguard.”
7 days ago
49 min
Aug 11, 2026
Aug 11, 2026
47 min
Join us as Ocean House owner and award-winning author Deborah Goodrich Royce has a conversation with New York Times Bestselling author Luanne Rice about her new book, Until Midnight.
Author Bio:
Luanne Rice is the New York Times bestselling author of thirty-nine novels, including three YA novels, that have been translated into thirty languages. Until Midnight is her most recent.
Rice’s books often center on love, family, nature, and the sea. The Beautiful Lost deals with teen depression, something Rice experienced herself. She is an advocate for mental health awareness, a participant in McLean Hospital's Deconstructing Stigma: A Change in Thought Can Change a Life
Several of Rice's novels have been adapted for television, including Crazy in Love for TNT, Blue Moon for CBS, Follow the Stars Home and Silver Bells for Hallmark Hall of Fame, and Beach Girls for a mini-series on Lifetime. Rice contributed a monologue to Motherhood Out Loud, a play that premiered at Hartford Stage Company and was performed Off-Broadway and at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.
In 2002, Connecticut College awarded Rice an honorary degree. Her papers are located in the college's Special Collections Library. A profile of Rice appeared in Connecticut College Magazine, Fall 2014.
She was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from St. Joseph College in West Hartford, Conn.
In June 2014, she received the 2014 Connecticut Governor’s Arts Award for excellence and lifetime achievement as a literary artist. Christopher Plummer, actor, and Tim Prentice, sculptor, were also celebrated, and Rice was thrilled to share the moment with them.
Rice, an avid environmentalist, is honored to be a creative affiliate of the Safina Center. Visit her links page to find out more about the causes and organizations that offer support and work for a better world.
About the Book:
Until Midnight is the thrilling new novel from the Amazon Charts and New York Times bestselling author Luanne Rice (Last Night, The Shadow Box and Last Day). The Reid Brothers are back…
Rhode Island’s picturesque Ocean House is the perfect setting for Kate Woodward and Conor Reid’s fairy-tale wedding weekend. But there may not be a happily ever after.
When an old friend of Conor’s disrupts the rehearsal dinner and reveals a blindsiding secret—a claim that she and Conor share a child—Kate calls off the wedding, thinking things can’t get any worse. Until the next morning, when that same woman is found with her throat slashed.
As investigators close in and suspicions mount, the evidence points to a mystery deeper than anyone imagined. The soundproof boat with telltale signs of something sinister. The mansion on the hill that lures in young girls and doesn’t let them go. A secret society whose members might be more familiar than not. And the truth of the dead woman’s past that draws Kate and Conor into a nightmare.
For more information about Luanne Rice, visit luannerice.com, and for more on Deborah Goodrich Royce and her new release, Best Boy, along with information about the Ocean House Author Series, visit deborahgoodrichroyce.com
Aug 11, 2026
47 min
Aug 10, 2026
Aug 10, 2026
49 min
This week, Joe is featuring GRP All Star Big Band from their 1992 GRP Records recording titled “GRP All Star Big Band.”
Aug 10, 2026
49 min
Aug 10, 2026
Aug 10, 2026
49 min
This week, the Colonial Theatre of Westerly is the subject of the program with Marion Markham, Director, and Miles Menendez, Stage Manager. We talk about their current production of “The Roommate” and the next program, “Merry Wives,” and listen to music that relates to those performances. For more information, you can go to colonialtheaterart.org
Aug 10, 2026
49 min
Aug 3, 2026
Aug 3, 2026
44 min
In this week's WCRI Kids Hour, your host Jamie listens to Peter & The Wolf to celebrate Frisson returning to Newport Classical in a free, outdoor, family-friendly concert perfect for kids and adults alike on August 15, 2026 4:00 PM at the Newport County YMCA. This fun and interactive hour features a playful retelling of Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev, alongside popular favorites including Gershwin’s Summertime, The Pink Panther, selections from Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha and Maple Leaf Rag, as well as excerpts from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Pirates of the Caribbean. For more information visit www.newportclassical.org
Aug 3, 2026
44 min
Aug 3, 2026
Aug 3, 2026
49 min
This week, Joe is featuring Pianist Oscar Peterson from his 1982 Pablo Records recording titled “Nigerian Marketplace.”
Aug 3, 2026
49 min
Aug 3, 2026
Aug 3, 2026
49 min
Puddingstone Music of Newport is the subject of this week's program with Clemens Teufel, pianist and Executive Director. We talk about what has been happening with the organization as well as the concerts on August 14th and 21st and other events taking place this season. For more information, you can go to www.puddingstonemusic.org
Aug 3, 2026
49 min
Jul 27, 2026
Jul 27, 2026
1 hr 3 min
This month, This Old Tree Doug introduces us to Kongeegen, or the 1,500-year-old “King’s Oak,” deep inside a forest called Jægerspris Nordskov in Denmark. The tree is named after 19th-century King Frederik VII, who owned a nearby castle with his wife, the Countess Danner. It is a national treasure and one of northern Europe’s oldest living oak trees.
Getting there meant a two-mile hike through the woods with guests Anders Jensen of the Danish Tree Association and forest historian Helle Serup of The Green Museum. They tell the biological story of Kongeegen, and how Denmark sees its forests.
But there is also a love story - a tangled affair between the unconventional Frederik, the Countess Danner (aka Louise Rasmussen), and a wealthy newspaper publisher named Carl Berling. The Countess's own love letters embellish this true story from her point of view - scandal, romance, and all - and how it led them to seek shelter from the rain under this ancient oak.
GuestsHelle SerupCurator, Det Grønne Museum (The Green Museum)Auning, Denmark
Anders JensenVice ChairmanDansk Træplejeforening (The Danish Tree Care Association)
Reading"Beneath Kongeegen" by Doug Still and Ida Zecco, read by Ida Zecco and Martha Douglas-Osmundson (Louise Rasmussen's letters)
References"Din hengivnes Louise": Louise Rasmussens breve til Carl Berling og kronprins/kong Frederik VII, 1844-1850." Ved Pernille Arenfeldt og Pernille Hasselsteen. Kong Frederik VII's Stiftelse Paa Jægerspris, Forlaget Fremad,
Music"La Sylphide, Music for the Bournonville ballet" by Herman Severin Løvenskiold. Royal Danish Orchestra, Chandos Records, 1991.
Special thanksDansk TræplejeforeningRobb BarnardEd Nardell
Theme Music"This Old Tree," Diccon Lee, www.deeleetree.com
ArtworkDahn Hiuni, www.dahnhiuni.com/home
Websitethisoldtree.showTranscripts available.
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This Old Tree podcast is a sponsored project of the New England Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture. To support This Old Tree and New England ISA, click here.
We want to hear about the favorite tree in your life! To submit a ~4 or 5 minute audio story for consideration for an upcoming episode of "Tree Story Shorts" on This Old Tree, record the story on your phone’s voice memo app and email to: doug@thisoldtree.net
This episode was written in part at LitArts RI, a community organization and co-working space that supports Rhode Island's creators.litartsri.org
Jul 27, 2026
1 hr 3 min
Jul 27, 2026
Jul 27, 2026
48 min
This week, Joe is featuring Composer/Arranger Michael Gibbs from his 1974 Act Records recording, titled “Big Music.”
Jul 27, 2026
48 min
Jul 27, 2026
Jul 27, 2026
49 min
Compass Hardware in Charlestown, RI, is the subject of this week's program with Skip Graf, General Manager. We talk about his role in this over 60-year-old, locally owned institution. It’s an amazing story of what originally started as a store that mostly sold coal to what has become a very diversified establishment. For more information, you can go to www.compasshardware.com
Jul 27, 2026
49 min
Jul 21, 2026
Jul 21, 2026
50 min
This week, Joe is featuring Pianist Chick Corea from his 2000 Stretch Records recording titled “Solo Piano: Standards (Part Two).”
Jul 21, 2026
50 min
Jul 21, 2026
Jul 21, 2026
48 min
Theatre By The Sea's third production of the 2026 season, Titanic, the Musical, is the subject of this week's program with Kevin Hill, Director, and Karen Kessler, General Manager. We talk about the musical and listen to some of the very interesting songs from the show that runs July 23rd to August 15th. For more information, you can call (401) 782-8587 or go to www.theatrebythesea.com
Jul 21, 2026
48 min
Jul 14, 2026
Jul 14, 2026
48 min
Join us as Ocean House owner and award-winning author Deborah Goodrich Royce has a conversation with New York Times Bestselling author Annabel Monaghan about her new book, Dolly All The Time
Author Bio:
Annabel is the New York Times bestselling and Library Reads Hall of Fame author of Dolly All The Time, It’s A Love Story, Summer Romance, Same Time Next Summer and Nora Goes Off Script, published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons.
She is also the author of two novels for young adults, A Girl Named Digit and Double Digit, as well as Does This Volvo Make My Butt Look Big?, a collection of essays based on her column that appeared on the Huffington Post, The Week and The Rye Record. She has a BA in English from Duke University and an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania. She hosts an author series called Friends with Words and spent several years on the novel writing faculty at The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College. She lives in Florida and Connecticut with her family. Her novels have been translated into 23 languages.
Book Summary:
A romance about a single mother who’s offered a Pretty Woman-type deal that’s too good to refuse.If they begin by pretending, can they end with something real?
Dolly Brick has never met a problem she couldn’t solve. Not when her mom left when she was twelve, and not at thirty-nine when she moves with her son back to Wickford, Rhode Island for the summer to keep her dad and brother from losing the family home.
So when she comes across Stewart Wickford—annoyingly handsome scion of the Wickford family—with a flat tire and at the wrong end of a very public, very humiliating breakup, it’s in her nature to help. But Stewart’s proposed arrangement ends up being more than either of them bargained for, because as public dinners and high society benefits turn into sunset boat rides and swinging on the porch, Dolly starts to feel something more than helpful. She’s never relied on anyone besides herself, can she really start now?
For more information about Katherine Center, visit AnnabelMonaghan.com, and for more on Deborah Goodrich Royce and her new release, Best Boy, along with information about the Ocean House Author Series, visit deborahgoodrichroyce.com
Jul 14, 2026
48 min
Jul 13, 2026
Jul 13, 2026
50 min
This week Joe is featuring Guitarist Jim Robitaille from his 2026, Whaling City Sound Records recording, titled “Sonic.”
Jul 13, 2026
50 min
Jul 13, 2026
Jul 13, 2026
48 min
Block Island’s Mary D. Fund is the subject of this week's program, featuring Marguerite Donnelly, Executive Director. We talk about her life on the Island, how the Fund got started, where it is today, and the major event coming up on July 18th...The 62nd Annual A Cappella Festival and listen to some of the music that will be presented. For more information, visit the Mary D Fund on Facebook.
Jul 13, 2026
48 min
Jul 7, 2026
Jul 7, 2026
46 min
In this week's WCRI's Kids Hour, your host Jamie listens to music celebrating America's 250th birthday. We celebrate the land, the music, the people, and more. We hope you enjoy!
Jul 7, 2026
46 min
Jul 6, 2026
Jul 6, 2026
50 min
This week, Joe is featuring Vocalist Ella Fitzgerald from her 1974 Pablo Records recording, titled “Ella In London.”
Jul 6, 2026
50 min
Jul 6, 2026
Jul 6, 2026
48 min
This week, Newport Classical is the subject of the program with Oliver Inteeworn, the new Executive Director, and Elise Felker, Director of Marketing. We talk about their upcoming Festival season, which runs from July 2nd through July 19th, and listen to music related to those performances. For more information, you can go to www.newportclassical.org
Jul 6, 2026
48 min

Classical 95.9-FM WCRI
The Classical Station
Classical 95.9-FM WCRI is owned by Judson Group, Inc., a company that includes the son and grandsons of broadcasting pioneer Ted Jones, founder of Charles River Broadcasting Company and Boston’s legendary classical music station, WCRB. Judson Group acquired Classical 95.9-FM WCRI from Charles River Broadcasting in 2006 and is committed to carrying on the Ted Jones tradition of radio excellence.
In addition to popular classical movements and pieces, WCRI presents special local arts programming such as Jazz After Dinner w/ Joe Parillo, WCRI’s Kids Hour, Conducting Conversations w/ Mike Maino, The 95.9 Company Break and more.









