On December 7, we produced a live version of Tony Sarabia’s popular music radio show, Radio M, at the equally popular SPACE in Evanston. Over 150 WBEZ members gathered to celebrate how different musical cultures celebrate the holidays.

We opened the show with a curated round of trivia inspired by the music that Tony features on his show. Prizes included two tickets to our WBEZ New Year’s Eve Party, as well as passes to The Moth live events.

At 7 p.m., our engineer hit record and we began the taping of Tony’s show. Tony hand-picked three groups to perform that night. Saraswathi Ranganathan, “a Veena artiste with a dynamic track record of individual and collaborative performances” started the show by performing beautiful, atmospheric Veena music. After that, Ted Sirota and his band Heavyweight Dub took it up a notch with Roots-inspired Reggae/Ska/Rocksteady. The KGB Tamburica Orchestra closed things out with their brand of celebratory music integrating traditional stringed instruments native to regions of the former-Yugoslavia called the Tambura.

These events fit into a category that we define as “Member Meet-ups.” With events like these, we aim to check off three distinct boxes for our audience. First, we want our members to meet like-minded people. When I asked Director of Membership Jill Shepherd to tell me her favorite thing about these events, she said, “At Member Meet-Ups, folks usually say, ‘Ah hah, I’ve found my people.’ They are a great place to hang out with like-minded WBEZ fans.” Second, we try to leave our audiences with some new information. After all, WBEZ members are curious people! And lastly, we try to make at least one element of it entertaining.

From what I could tell, our audience absolutely found their people, learned something new about the music of these regions and no doubt had a good time, thanks in no small part to the musicians who offered their time, Goose Island who provided the first round and the fine folks at SPACE in Evanston for warmly welcoming us.

Have you been to a WBEZ Member Meet-up before? If not, be sure to stay tuned to your email box for information about our next one. We’re planning something related to the elections for February, as well as a live version of The Exoneree Diaries in April, among others.

And be sure to stay tuned to WBEZ on December 19 at 9 p.m. to hear the live version of Radio M that we taped that night!