Replaces cancelled ‘Live from Here with Chris Thile’

ATHENS — WOUB FM will begin airing a new music program at 6 p.m. today. American Routes is a weekly two-hour public radio program, hosted by Nick Spitzer, produced in New Orleans, presenting a broad range of American music — blues and jazz, gospel and soul, old-time country and rockabilly, Cajun and zydeco, Tejano and Latin, roots rock and pop, avant-garde and classical. Now in its 20th year on the air, American Routes also presents documentary features and artist interviews.

American Routes will replace the American Public Media-produced variety program, Live from Here with Chris Thile. Live from Here announced in June that it was ceasing production and aired for the final time on WOUB FM Sept. 12. The program, featuring musical performances, interviews, and skits debuted in 2016 as successor to the long-running A Prairie Home Companion.

Live from Here Host Chris Thile is a Grammy-winning mandolin player who was one of the co-founders of the acoustic trio, Nickel Creek, and is a member of the bluegrass group Punch Brothers. In 2012, Thile was a McArthur Fellow.

When the program cancellation announcement was made, Thile posted on Instagram, “While this news fills me with sadness, I understand the decision, as my extraordinary teammates and I conceived of Live From Here as a celebration of live, collaborative audible art, and there’s just no telling when it could be that again.”

Thile visited Athens in October 2019 and performed at Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium. Before the event, he met with WOUB supporters and Ohio University students.

As a member station of both NPR and PBS, WOUB Public Media is a trusted source of news, local content and educational resources that have proven to be worthy of the time, effort and support of our users. WOUB, an experiential-learning unit of the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University, is a non-profit, community-supported multimedia organization which provides online and broadcast services, along with non-broadcast educational services and student professional development. WOUB serves 55 counties throughout southeastern Ohio, western West Virginia and eastern Kentucky with its broadcast signals. WOUB Radio’s FM Network has transmitters in Athens, Chillicothe, Ironton, Zanesville and Cambridge, while WOUB AM serves the immediate Athens area.

WOUB TV is made up of seven television channels (WOUB HD, WOUB Classic, WOUB World, WOUB Create, WOUB Ohio, WOUB Kids and WOUB Voicecorps Reading Service) which are broadcast from two transmitters.

Through its support of public service, teaching, research and administrative missions, along with its high-quality local content and programming, WOUB enriches, enhances and expands the lives and horizons of the people in the communities it serves, as well as Ohio University faculty, staff and students.