![WKCR Reggae Festival 2024](https://www.cc-seas.columbia.edu/wkcr/sites/default/files/styles/story_image/public/1_3.png?itok=0x84WdOc)
WKCR announces a much-awaited celebration of reggae music: a 48-hour broadcast on FM and HD radio and online, from 12:00am on Saturday, January 3rd, to 12:00am on Monday, January 5th, of 2024. In honor of Dennis Brown and Bob Marley, the broadcast will occur between their birthdays on February 1st and 6th, respectively. It will run from the conclusion of the Phil Schaap Memorial Broadcast on Friday until The Celtic Show at 12:00am on Monday. The broadcast will preempt all regularly-scheduled Saturday and Sunday programming, other than Footsteps of Reggae and Across 110th Street, both of which will consist of reggae programming.
WKCR listeners and programmers alike await Footsteps of Reggae on Saturdays, and we at the station are looking forward to this festival with similar excitement. Featuring guest musicians and programming from many students as well as Vaughn Allstar and Carter Van Pelt, the prolific and loved hosts of Footsteps of Reggae, the 48 hours will be packed with all styles of reggae music. This event is also a callback to the WKCR reggae festival of 1995 and an opportunity to celebrate reggae on WKCR’s airwaves and everywhere else.
The broadcast will feature live programming, archival WKCR performances, on-air in-studio performances and DJ sets, all centering around the rich past and present of reggae music since its birth in Jamaica in the late 1960s. A programming schedule for the special broadcast is forthcoming. Follow WKCR on Instagram (@wkcr) and Twitter (@WKCRFM) for further updates.