Classical 90.7 KWMU-3

Schedule Playlists

Our Classical 90.7 KWMU-3 HD radio channel and online service is dedicated to live classical music programming 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Our hosts guide listeners into the heart of the classical repertoire, with carefully selected music that represent both classical favorites and lesser-known masterpieces, while ensuring that every hour of music is enjoyable for novices and aficionados alike.

HD Radio

This guide will help you learn about the difference between HD Radio and FM Radio, and assist you with optimizing your HD Radio listening experience.

Program Hosts

Julie Amacher

Julie Amacher’s desire to introduce others to great music is what led her to radio. She began her professional broadcast career at a station in Sun Prairie, Wisc. She went from rock & roll to the Rocky Mountains, where she found her niche in public radio at KUNC in Greeley, Colo. Julie spent 13 years at KUNC, where she managed the announcers and their eclectic music format. During that time, she earned four national awards for best announcer.
Andrea Blain

Andrea Blain was born and raised in the Midwest, but lived in Northern Ireland for 33 years, working as a freelance musician, teacher and journalist. She joined the BBC in 1998 and worked in various capacities in the areas of classical music, religion and ethics and current affairs. She plays violin, viola, piano and organ. A lifelong interest in orchestral and choral conducting has been the catalyst for her involvement over the years with a variety of ensembles including orchestras, choirs and theatre groups.
Scott Blankenship

Scott Blankenship started his radio career in college when he began working as a volunteer at a local cable radio station, announcing alternative and new rock music. His love and appreciation of classical music began at public radio station KVNO in Omaha, where he spent 13 years in various on-air and management roles, five of those years as the morning drive-time host.
Jeff Esworthy

Jeff Esworthy is a public radio veteran with more than 20 years behind the microphone, where he’s hosted everything from folk to jazz to progressive rock. A hobbyist musician and collector of instruments from around the world, Jeff has what he describes as a “passable” command of southern string-band music on fiddle and banjo, and he is a long-time student of the classical music of Northern India on instruments such as the sitar, sarangi and tabla.
Ward Jacobson

Ward Jacobson has enjoyed a radio career spanning over two decades as a morning show host and sportscaster, as well as producer/host of an interview program where he chatted with authors, musicians, politicians and newsmakers.
Valerie Kahler

Valerie Kahler served more than a decade as a classical host and music director at KNAU in Flagstaff, Ariz. She holds a degree in cello performance and plays piano in self-defense, but feels most at home in front of a microphone—as your companion for an evening of classical music, or singing classic tunes in a club.
Jillene Khan

Jillene Khan works for Minnesota Public Radio/American Public Media as an overnight classical host. She studied radio broadcasting at Brown College in St. Paul and kept her Midwestern roots after graduation by hosting at radio stations in Minneapolis; Milwaukee; Davenport, Iowa; and Madison, Wisconsin. She has received local and national recognition for her work from the Country Music Association and Wisconsin Broadcasters Association. She recently won the Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media. Outside of radio, her favorite things include spending time with loved ones, a great hug, an animal of any kind, and the thrill of a new experience. She absolutely loves doing things for the first time or going places she has never been before. She also enjoys being outdoors, no matter what the weather. “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing,” she says.
Elizabeth Lyon

Elizabeth Lyon joins the classical ranks as our assistant program director and fill-in host after six years working for us as a master control specialist, board operator and producer. Her new role combines her love of working technically, behind-the-scenes, as well as stepping in front of the microphone to share her favorite music. As the assistant program director, she coordinates programming, serves as an on-air host and dips her toes in every part of the department. That’s what she loves most about working in radio: “It’s like a river you flow on and you don’t know where you’ll end up, but you love the ride.” Although a violinist by training, her favorite classical composers are tied to her roots in choral music. When not doing all things audio, she can be found hiking, reading, or volunteering with programs that benefit children.
Melissa Ousley

Melissa Ousley stumbled into a career in broadcasting many years ago when she moved to Wichita, Kansas to be near her soon-to-be husband. The attraction (to radio work, that is) was immediate and the chance to be around great music without having to practice was irresistible. After establishing herself as a host and producer in Kansas, Melissa moved to Minnesota and continued her work at WCAL in Northfield and Minnesota Public Radio in St. Paul. Her morning classical show at WCAL was twice named “Best Classical Radio Program” by the Twin Cities paper City Pages.
Kevin O’Conner

Kevin O’Connor grew up in a household where his father and boisterous Irish uncles would often noisily debate what was to be played on the turntable: Between the three brothers, and depending on the mood of the day, it wavered between Glenn Gould, Oscar Peterson and Gordon Lightfoot. (The brothers also hailed from Toronto). Kevin’s career arc seemed to follow suit, spinning and selling classical, jazz, folk and pop music on the radio, and briefly in retail, for the past three decades. For the past 18 years, he has served as music director and afternoon host at KBEM. He is also an avid cyclist and walker.
Mindy Ratner

Mindy Ratner began her career in public broadcasting following her graduation from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, working first for the local public television station and then for Wisconsin Public Radio. She moved on to stations in Cincinnati and Philadelphia before joining Minnesota Public Radio in 1983. In 1998 and ’99, Ratner took a leave of absence to work as a music host and producer for China Radio International in Beijing. Her spare time is devoted to international travel; folk, ballroom and contradancing; singing; her two cats, and trying to stay ahead of the weeds in her garden.
Elena See

Elena See started her radio career in Minnesota in 2001, working as part of the production team for Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion. She moved to Maine and started working as the classical music director for Maine Public Broadcasting in 2003. Eventually, she headed south to Washington, DC for several years to try out satellite radio with Sirius XM and landed back home in Minnesota in 2009. She’s proud to be a part of such a fantastic public radio organization.
Steve Seel

Steve Seel possesses a broad knowledge of many musical genres, having hosted radio programs ranging from classical to jazz and even avant-garde music at radio stations around the country. Steve began his love affair with public radio at the age of 24 working whatever shifts he could at his hometown station of WUSF-FM in Tampa, FL, and from there worked his way to snowy Buffalo, NY and its renowned classical station WNED-FM, where he hosted mid-days and the weekly experimental-music show Present Tense. In 2005, Steve became one of the founding voices on Minnesota Public Radio’s eclectic station The Current. While there, he hosted afternoons and mornings, and conducted in-depth interviews with pop music luminaries ranging from Brian Eno to David Byrne to Tori Amos. Steve is a basement composer obsessed with all things both minimalist and slow, and might actually be incapable of writing anything that exceeds 75 beats-per-minute.
Steve Staruch

Steve Staruch can be heard on Classical Minnesota Public Radio from 3 to 7 p.m. weekdays, including hosting Friday Favorites, as well as nationally during those times. Before joining MPR in 2004, Steve presented a variety of radio programs on WCAL in Northfield, Minn., where he created an immensely popular call-in program, and on WXXI in Rochester, N.Y. Outside radio, he enjoys work as a freelance tenor and violist. He and his wife, Naomi, enjoy traveling, gardening and hosting dinner parties.
Lynne Warfel

Lynne Warfel returns to a 24-year radio career after a four-year hiatus. In this “Cavorts with Collies” period, she followed her lifelong passion for working with dogs as a trainer and behavior consultant. She started “Good Dog Productions,” her in-home dog training business in 2006. Previous to The Dog Mutterer phase, she was one of MPR’s first national hosts in 1995. She was also heard on Minnesota Public Radio from 1993-2005. While at MPR in her former incarnation, she hosted the Minnesota High School Music Listening Contest, Echoes of Christmas with the Dale Warland Singers, Sommerfest broadcasts, and was a guest narrator with The SPCO and Minnesota Orchestra.