We wanted you to tell you about some exciting changes we’re making to the 88.5 KNKX broadcast schedule. As we were campaigning to save the station, many of you told us that you hoped we would continue to grow and innovate. We took that to heart, and that’s why this fall we will debut three new programs to invigorate our Saturday lineup: Snap Judgment, The New Cool and Jazz Caliente.

Beginning October 8, KNKX will bring you Snap Judgment every Saturday morning at 11. The hit storytelling show is hosted by Glynn Washington and co-produced by WNYC in New York. Snap delivers a raw, intimate, musical brand of narrative. It’s “Storytelling…With a BEAT.” The show is heard weekly on over 365 public radio stations and downloaded over 2 million times a month. The Atlantic magazine hailed Washington as “the first African-American [public radio] host to swing a big cultural stick, the first who seems likely to become a public radio superstar on the order of Ira Glass or Garrison Keillor.” Glynn’s show will fit perfectly, coming after our signature local storytelling show, Sound Effect, and leading into This American Life. Saturday mornings will be a satisfying serving of stories you’ll remember.

Evening Jazz host Abe Beeson will present The New Cool Saturday afternoons from 3 to 5 starting November 5. The show will feature artists pushing jazz to cool new places, artists such as Kamasi Washington, Snarky Puppy, and Northwest favorite Industrial Revelation. The show will feature players who have come of age in the 21st century understanding hip hop, punk rock, modern soul and electronic, and have incorporated those styles into their music. It's new ways of hearing old instruments; it’s contemporary; it’s rhythmically eclectic -- it's The New Cool!

Midday Jazz host Robin Lloyd will expand her weekly 15-minute Latin jazz feature, Jazz Caliente to an hour, which will air Saturdays from 5 to 6 p.m., starting November 5. Jazz Caliente debuted on 88.5 in July 2012 after the station received an overwhelmingly positive response to a survey asking listeners if they’d like to hear a regular Latin jazz feature on Midday Jazz. Jazz Caliente will showcase the melodies and improvisation of jazz blended with Latin rhythms.

To make room for these changes, we are cancelling The Saturday Jazz Matinee with Mary McCann. Mary is an incredible jazz host and will be moving her brilliant hosting talent to Friday nights on Evening Jazz.

We’ve also made the tough decision to stop broadcasting The Best of Car Talk. Saturday, September 24th will be the last show. 88.5 has aired Car Talk with Tom and Ray Magliozzi (The Tappet Brothers) since 1987. With the passing of Tom in November of 2014, NPR mined the show’s 30-year archives to create The Best of Car Talk. Car Talk has not created a new show in four years, and this summer NPR announced that it would stop production of The Best of Car Talk in September 2017. We are honored to have been part of Car Talk’s incredible run on public radio.

KNKX will also stop airing StarDate. The last broadcast will be Monday, September 26. Like Car Talk, StarDate is one of public radio’s longest running shows, and we feel that now is the time to invest in new features. For those who still need their StarDate fix, transcripts for all the shows are posted daily at stardate.org.

Our new Saturday lineup:

5 to 10a: Weekend Edition Saturday with Scott Simon

10a: Sound Effect from 88.5 KNKX

11a: Snap Judgment

12n: This American Life

1p: Radiolab

2p: Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me!

3 to 5p: The New Cool with Abe Beeson

5p: Jazz Caliente with Robin Lloyd

6 to midnight: All Blues with John Kessler

We’re excited to share these new programs with you, and we hope you’ll let us know what you think. Email your feedback to programming@knkx.org.

Thank you for listening, and for all your support!