Atlanta radio station WRFG to celebrate 50th anniversary

In commemoration of its 50-year anniversary, Atlanta radio station WRFG has announced that it will be hosting a celebratory event on July 15 at the Rialto Center for the Arts.

Established in 1973, WRFG 89.3FM has been providing its style of independent community broadcasting to the Atlanta community for a long time now, an accomplishment that will be honored at the upcoming event.

The event is slated to feature numerous electrifying live performances from several Atlanta-based musicians, including Ruby Velle, Julie Dexter, as well as Mausiki Scales and the Common Ground Collective.

Ruby Velle is the lead vocalist for the R&B/soul music group, Ruby Velle and the Soulphonics. The band is known for its Stax-style Southern soul brand of music, incorporating classic sounds and injecting them with fresh, modern stylings. Velle will be performing at the event with the majority of her Soulphonics band, according to a release.

Julie Dexter is a world renowned, award winning, British singer, songwriter and producer considered by many to be one of the most influential female vocalists of our generation. Influenced by legends such as Nancy Wilson, Abbey Lincoln and Bob Marley, Dexter has crossed into several music genres throughout her career, including jazz, broken-beat, bossa-nova, reggae, afrobeat and soul. Recently, Dexter was honored at the Black Women in Jazz Awards with the Afro Caribbean Soul of Jazz Award.

Mausiki Scales has been in the Atlanta indie music scene for almost 20 years as a sought after keyboardist and the founder/musical director of the critically acclaimed ensemble, the Common Ground Collective. Whether performing as a trio or a full 10-piece ensemble, Mausiki Scales and the Common Ground Collective are known for taking fans on a journey, combining genres such as afrobeat, funk, hip hop, soul and New Orleans jazz into a single performance.

Also in celebration of its 50th anniversary, WRFG announced that it is digitizing and rebroadcasting 50 episodes from the radio station’s award winning series, Living Atlanta: An Oral History from World War I to World War II.

Throughout the series’ duration, hundreds of Atlanta residents were interviewed about a wide range of topics, such as railroad workers, bootlegging, textile workers and the 1934 strike, among other developments and experiences discussed.

New episodes of the series will be broadcasted through the station and online every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 4 p.m. After each episode airs, WRFG will upload and archive them at wrfg.org/livingatlanta, so that residents can go back and listen to them whenever they please.

To purchase tickets for WRFG’s 50th anniversary event, visit the Rialto Center for the Arts website.