Acoustic Afternoons with Kendra Downey & Mike Neuman

Michael Neuman hosts the Morning Mike show alternate Thursday mornings and Acoustic Afternoon alternate Tuesdays.  Residing in Inverness Park after living in Point Reyes Station and Marshall, he is a retired professor and consultant who has lived 17 years overseas in 5 countries on 3 continents. He serves on the Tomales Bay Foundation Board as well as KQED’s Citizen Advisory Board, and is a member of the IYC and supports PRNSA, CLAM, MALT and the TNC. 

I am so happy to be a DJ! I was a nurse for 30+ years and now I get to think about music instead of medicine most days of my life. Learning to play the guitar in high school and figuring out the chords and singing folk songs saved my sanity in the 60’s. Fortunately, I have gathered music all my life; first on albums then cassettes and cds. Over the last 20 years I saved all this music to my desk top computer. I was inspired to be a programmer at KWMR when I learned from Mia (who I have known since she was a baby)…that old ladies who loved music and were somewhat computer savvy would be welcomed at KWMR. Then Jeff went over the particulars of being a programmer and gave me the confidence to give it a try. My first program was in June 2023 and I love my two hours in the ‘solitude’ in Studio A. I want to support Singer Songwriters in this time of streaming music where they get pennies instead of dollars for their original songs and music. Each week I highlight the music of artists who are performing locally. Jeff gave me the opportunity to do a phone interview with Karla Bonoff before her performance at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley. I hope to interview some of the acoustic performers playing at the Hopmonk Tavern in Novato in the future. For now I am content to put together a weave of songs by artists who have passed on and those who are still with us. Sometimes I have a theme and I like to leave the theme as a mystery until the second half of the show. I try to offer at least one song each program that I call a ‘curious collaboration’ and leave my listener to guess who the duo is. If you would like to receive my pre-show newsletter just email me at kendradowney@mac.com and I will add you to my email list. For now, thanks for being a KWMR listener.