WAMC to celebrate 45th anniversary with special concert

12:00AM / Wednesday, October 22, 2003Print Story | Email Story

WAMC's call letters recall the station's early roots. Established in 1958 by Albany Medical College of Union University, WAMC has grown to one of the most-listened-to public radio stations in the United States, with over 300,000 monthly listeners and a signal reaching into portions of seven states. But there are still listeners and staff members who remember the old days, when WAMC served as a teaching tool for the Medical College. The station used to provide continuing education for health professions, broadcasting two-way medical conferences and lectures by physicians and other health professionals for hospitals across the region. According to Alan Chartock, "Every once in a while I still meet someone on the street who tells me, 'I love your station, but the best programming you ever had was when you could listen to some doctor telling you how to take out a kidney." WAMC/Northeast Public Radio will celebrate the station's 45th anniversary with a special concert featuring Arlo Guthrie at The Egg (Empire Center for The Performing Arts), in Albany, Saturday, November 8th at 8 PM. Folk music legend Arlo Guthrie, joined by Abe Guthrie, Gordon Titcomb, Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion. Information and tickets are available by calling WAMC at 465-5233, ext. 4. A special donation of $100 will entitle ticket-holders to VIP seats and a special post-show reception with Arlo, Alan Chartock, and WAMC staff. Regular tickets are available for $50 and $25. All proceeds of the concert will benefit WAMC and the Guthrie Center. "It doesn't get any better than this," said Alan Chartock, WAMC's Executive Director. "Arlo has become a real part of WAMC folklore. We couldn't have a fund drive without his song, "Mother, the Queen of my Heart," and our Wanda Fischer has played "Alice's Restaurant" every Thanksgiving for as long as we can remember. You can bet I'll be there and I know this is one that we'll all remember for a long, long time." Arlo Guthrie was born with a guitar in one hand and a harmonica in the other, in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York in 1947. He is the eldest son of America's most beloved singer/writer/philosopher Woody Guthrie and Marjorie Mazia Guthrie and he grew up surrounded by musicians like Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, Fred Hellerman, Lee Hays, Leadbelly, Cisco Houston, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee. Guthrie gave his first public performance at age 13 and quickly became involved in the music that was shaping the world during the 1960s. The Guthrie Center, housed in the old Trinity Church (It was Thanksgiving 1965 that events took place at the church which inspired Arlo to write the song "Alice's Restaurant") is named for Arlo's parents, and is a not-for-profit interfaith church foundation dedicated to providing a wide range of local and international services. Its outreach programs include everything from providing HIV/AIDS services to baking cookies with a local service organization; an HD walk-a-thon to raise awareness and money for a cure for Huntington's Disease, and offering a place simply to meditate.

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North Adams Officials to Revote School Committee Members

Staff reports06:31PM / Friday, October 09, 2026

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — City and school officials will meet a second time to vote in two new members of the School Committee.

The joint convention of the City Council and School Committee will be held on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the City Hall conference room and via Zoom.

Damon Grimes and Paul Moriarty were jointly elected on Monday to fill two seats vacated by resignation. They were two of four candidates standing for election.

Mayor Jennifer Macksey, chair of the School Committee, said she had received in inquiry about the votes, which were done by secret ballot.

"I have been advised that voting by ballot was not permissible in this circumstance," she said, after consulting the School Committee's attorney Adam Dupere and city solicitor KP Law.

To ensure the validity of the votes and conduct of the election, the joint convention will reconvene and formally confirm the selection of Grimes and Moriarty.

"I apologize for the inconvenience of having to reconvene," the mayor said in a statement. "My intention in using a ballot was to address concerns raised following our previous convention, when some members expressed discomfort with publicly voting for or against individual candidates.

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