Stay Tuned: Our Christmas Radio Hour Is Coming

On Monday, December 14, the Asheville Senior Chorus is bringing that night back. We’re turning the Reuter Center into a live radio studio for “Stay Tuned: A Christmas Radio Hour,” broadcasting on W-SING, the only station in town with a whole chorus on staff.

Here’s how it works.

We sign on in 1942 and turn the dial forward, decade by decade, all the way to today. You’ll hear the songs radio made famous: “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “Silver Bells,” “Blue Christmas,” “Merry Christmas, Darling,” and a few you probably haven’t heard since you were a kid. (Somebody saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus. We have the song to prove it.)

Halfway through, W-SING takes you live to a candlelit carol service. The lights come down, and we sing “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” and “In Dulci Jubilo.”

Then the station pauses for a greeting to our Jewish listeners with “Hanerot Halalu.” We’re singing it for Kaye Hand, our longtime Communications Director, who signed every email “Shalom Aleichem.” We miss her.

And you get to sing. Three times. “Jingle Bells” with the studio audience, “Silent Night” by candlelight, and “White Christmas” to close the show.

That last one is my favorite moment of the night. Bing Crosby first sang “White Christmas” on his radio program on Christmas Day, 1941. So we’ll open our broadcast with it, and at the end we’ll hand it to you to sign us off.