Party Time Polkas

Hosted by Stan Wilgocki

Polka radio lives or dies on the person behind the microphone. A playlist alone will not carry three hours; what carries it is somebody who knows which band recorded which arrangement, who remembers the hall it was cut in, and who can tell you why a particular version of a standard is the one worth hearing. Every show on this schedule is built that way — put together by hand, week after week, by people who have spent decades inside this music.

Saturday at noon is prime polka time, and Party Time Polkas takes the slot with a straightforward brief: an hour of records that make people want to dance. The show sits comfortably in the mainstream of the genre and makes no apology for it.

The host has been around this music long enough to programme without gimmicks. Standards turn up, but so do the versions of standards you have not heard — the alternate arrangement, the live cut, the recording by the band that never made it out of its home region. That is the difference between a playlist and a show.

If you are introducing somebody to polka radio and only have one hour to do it in, this is a reasonable place to start.

About the Music

Polka in North America is not one style but several, and the differences matter to the people who play it. The Chicago-honky sound leans on trumpets and a driving push beat; the Eastern style favours a fuller horn section and a smoother swing; the Cleveland-Slovenian tradition puts the button box at the centre and takes the tempo down a notch. Add the Polish-language repertoire, the crossover bands, and the younger groups mixing rock and jazz phrasing into a two-step, and a well-built show has more range than most listeners expect on the first hour.

Times shown are Eastern. Shows are pre-recorded unless a live broadcast is announced, and the schedule can move at short notice when a host is broadcasting from a festival or a hall. If a show you are following is not where you expect it, check the programming grid, which is kept as current as we can keep it.