Special Co-Host Rev. Robin Haruna this Sunday on The Rockin’ Chair with DJ Franny from 1-2 pm!

(Robin, Sasuke & Jasmine)

Ms Robin Haruna, hooker of rugs/artist, Dachshund lover, Author, and Minister of Unity of Bandon Church joins DJ Franny to discuss the Peace Rocks Project, equinox/solstice women’s potlucks and spin some tunes!

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KBOG’s Favorite Local Recording Artist, Nyah, has dropped her new single!

InRage recording artist (and hometown Florence girl), Nyah, has released her newest single “Slowly Dying”, a lyrical take on the upheaval climate change & global warming are wreaking on the planet. A multi-talented singer/songwriter/performer, Nyah writes all of her lyrics and works side-by-side with producer Automatic to create the entire musical composition. You can check out her other tracks & videos on Facebook and YouTube and InRage Entertainment. Take a look at the promo and then have a listen to the track below, and head to Song Link to grab your copy!

Teaser promo:

Nyah is also a virtuoso with the National Anthem, gracing audiences of the Oregon Ducks, Portland Trailblazers & Eugene Emeralds many times. Because the pandemic has created strange times, Nyah had to be creative…so, “Team Nyah” built her a recording sound booth, and she was able to continue performing, “virtually”, all the way from Florence, Oregon! You can check out the video of her performance “for” the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers Right Here.

(Nyah’s ISO Booth, Performing the National Anthem for Century Link Field from Florence)

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Bandon Beach Cleanup, September 19

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Circles In The Sand, September 19 & 20

Labyrinth – Walking Meditation – A unique walk on the beach at low tide. Labyrinth Master Denny Dyke creates “walkable art” which is a sandy path through an entire pattern with no wrong turns or dead ends. The path is further enhanced with detailed designs and is open for all to enjoy. Subject to cancellation due to inclement weather, rain and/or high winds. For more information, see Sandy Path Bandon.

Saturday Sep 19
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Sunday Sep 20
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM

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The Old Town Marketplace Farmers & Artisan Market is open!

The Old Town Marketplace Farmers Market features the best in farm fresh products and lovely artisan works from around Southern Oregon, be sure to get there early!

Saturday Sep 19
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Saturday Sep 26
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Saturday Oct 3
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

250 First Street SW, Bandon. For more information, visit the Port of Bandon website Here.

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Cranberry Festivals of the Past by the Bandon Museum & Bandon Chamber, September 10-25

Need your Cranberry Festival fix during this time of COVID? Relive Past Cranberry Festival’s through the archives of the Bandon History Museum – visit the Museum or watch our on-line show.

Bandon Historical Museum, 270 Fillmore Ave SE, corner of 101 and Fillmore. Any questions, please contact The Bandon Historical Museum.

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Current info on COVID-19 – Our station is currently closed to all visitors. Only staff and designated volunteers can enter the building, but KBOG staff are available through email at contact@kbog.org. We are working hard to keep you up to date and connected through community radio.

The Coronavirus Disease COVID-19 pandemic is here in Oregon. Governor Kate Brown issued Executive Order 20-12. Worldwide, the virus has already killed hundreds of thousands of people, overwhelmed medical systems, millions have lost their jobs, many businesses are shuttered, and, experts say, this is far from over. To help you navigate how to respond to this public health challenge, below are some trusted sources of information for your review, including Frequently Asked Questions, the CARES Act, Unemployment and Small Business Resources:

• Oregon Health Authority
• Coos Health & Wellness
• Southern Coos Hospital & Health Center
• Oregon Coast Community Action Local Resources
• Governor Kate Brown Coronavirus Resources
• Congressman Pete DeFazio Covid-19 Resources
• Senator Jeff Merkley’s Economic Recovery Hub for Oregon’s Small Businesses and Non-profits
• Worldometer Coronavirus Statistics

Stay Safe, Stay Healthy, Stay Inside

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September is National Classic Music & National Piano Month!

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September is International Square Dancing Month!

Have Some Fun in the Barn…Swing your partner ’round and ’round and promenade across the ground!

September is International Square Dancing Month; and since its beginning in the days of early America, square dance has been a popular pastime and excuse to party hard in the barn. It was brought over from New England with the first settlers in the form of folk dances, which included the quadrille, jigs, reels, and the minuet.

Early American colonists worked hard during the week building their community and homes in the formerly-untouched woods. When Saturday evening came, they would all get together for a dance in the community center. As their settlements grew and became more and more diverse, so did their dances. Eventually, there were too many dances for everyone to memorize. So, instead of memorizing all of the steps to every different dance, they began using callers to give out cues while they danced. Calling actually became an art of sorts, and prompters would build a repertoire of their own unique jargon and cue sayings. Many prompters would even come up with their own routines and teach them to the community. This is how square dancing with a square dancing caller was developed.

Fun Fact: When the American Revolution happened, many Americans shunned anything pertaining to Britain, so they began adopting things from the French. Many square dancing terms that are still used today have origins in France, like “promenade”, “allemande”, and “do-si-do” (a play on “dos-à-dos” meaning “back-to-back”).

As the American population spread across the South and West, square dancing followed. Pioneers used it for recreation and to be social with their neighbors. It was good exercise and could be done anywhere – all they needed was music, a wooden floor, and a prompter. Barns were excellent choices for these dances. By the late 19th century and with booming trade, square dancing began to lose its popularity to new, modern dances as communities became more urban. Waltzes, polkas, swing, and jazz began to replace and out date swing dance, isolating it to only a few regions, mainly in the country.

The square dancing tradition was revived in the 1920’s by automaker Henry Ford, who saw it as a great way to exercise as well as to work on good manners. He hired a dance master to develop a national square dancing program, required the workers in his factories to take these classes, and opened ballrooms specially for square dance. His enthusiasm sparked others to rediscover it, retain it, and share it. By the 1950’s with the development of microphones and records, square dance modernized to appeal to contemporary Americans, vibrantly growing and once again thriving in many parts of the country.

Square dancing keeps you on your toes and can be a little confusing at times. If you’re new to it, you will come to appreciate the seasoned dancers who help instruct the square on what to do. But regardless of your skill level, it’s a fun way to get some exercise and to do something different! So if you have some open space or access to an empty barn, break out the fiddle, banjo, and washboard, hang up some twilights, and have a good old fashioned square dance!

To find local square dance groups, check out Oregon Federation of Square and Round Dance Clubs and the Southern Oregon Coast Square Dancing websites.

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September 19th is International Red Panda Day!

7 Things You Didn’t Know About Red Pandas – Here’s one thing you already knew: red pandas are adorable. While they’re not domesticated and therefore are probably not suitable as pets, some people keep them as pets anyway – especially in Nepal and India. Red pandas are considered an endangered species, with populations declining by about 50% in the past 20 years. While exact numbers are uncertain, some estimates indicate as few as 2,500 may be left in the wild. In addition to habitat loss and fragmentation, red pandas also face threats from poaching and the illegal wildlife trade.

Here are seven other facts about red pandas that you might not already know:

1. Red pandas aren’t pandas. Despite their name, red pandas aren’t actually closely related to giant pandas, but it wasn’t until the last ten or fifteen years that scientists settled upon just where red pandas fit on the evolutionary tree of life. It was clear that red pandas were members of the taxonomic “infraorder” Arctoidea, placing them in a group with bears, pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walrus), raccoons, and mustelids (weasels, skunks, otters, and badgers). Research published in 2000 in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution determined that they were not most closely related to bears or to raccoons as had been previously suggested. Instead, red pandas form their own phylogenetic family, alongside skunks, raccoons, and mustelids. From a genetic perspective, they’re more like the skunks and raccoons you might find in your own backyard than the giant pandas with whom they share habitats.
2. Herbivorous carnivoran. As a member of the Order Carnivora, the red panda is a carnivoran. But unlike most carnivorans, it’s not actually a carnivore. That is, the red panda is a mostly an herbivore. It’s actually one way in which the red panda is more like the giant panda than its genetic relatives: its diet consists almost entirely of bamboo leaves, plus bamboo shoots when in season, and the occasional fruit, flower, and (rarely) an odd egg or bird. The other carnivoran who is also primarily herbivorous? The binturong, the funny-looking bearcat that smells like popcorn.
3. Sweet tooth. Speaking of diet, red pandas like fake sugar. In a 2009 study in The Journal of Heredity, researchers presented a variety of Carnivoran species with bowls of plain water, naturally sweetened water, or artificially sweetened water. They discovered that red pandas preferred three artificial sugars: neotame, sucralose (Splenda), and aspartame (Nutrasweet or Equal). That makes them the only non-primate species known to be able to taste aspartame, an ability previously thought unique to Old World monkeys, apes, and humans.
4. Blending in. Take a look at the reddish-orange tint of the red panda’s coat and you might not immediately think “good for camouflage,” but that’s where you’d be mistaken. It turns out that the red panda is pretty good at hiding from predators by disappearing into the branches of fir trees which are usually covered with reddish-brown moss. Which is pretty handy because death by snow leopard seems like a particularly bad way to go.
5. A Cheesy Problem. Okay, stay with me on this one. Red pandas, classified as “vulnerable” by the IUCN, are threatened by habitat loss and poaching, despite being protected by legislation in the countries where they’re found. Because of that habitat loss, wild populations of red pandas are increasingly fragmented. One fragment that hosts a population of around forty red pandas is Nepal’s Langtang National Park, in the Himalayas. Even within the national park, those forty pandas are fragmented into four groups. In Langtang, the red pandas have another problem, and it’s cheese. You see, the park is also home to two cheese factories that produce a combined 14,000 kilograms of cheese each year to be sold in nearby Kathmandu. To amass the 140,000 liters of milk necessary to make the cheese, farmers keep large herds of chauri, a yak-cow hybrid, and those herds are permitted to graze within the park. The competition over food sources with the chauri combined with other threats to their lives from the herders and from their dogs has led to the death of many, many red pandas. “This problem might be solved,” write a pair of researchers in the journal Conservation Biology, “by reducing cheese production and restricting the number of chauri while commensurately increasing the price of cheese so that farmers’ income from milk could remain the same.”
6. Red pandas tweet. They don’t tweet in 140 characters like you or I do, but they tweet nonetheless. Actually, to be accurate, the sound they make is known as “twittering.” Have a listen below. According to researchers at the National Zoo, twittering seems to mainly used to signal reproductive intent. Which, now that I think about it, is not all that different from some twitterers of our own species either.
   
7. It Could Have Been Called The Wah. Red pandas have different names depending on where you are. In Nepal, they’re called bhalu biralo. Sherpas call the critter ye niglva ponva or wah donka. But the Western world did not always call it a red panda. In 1821, the English naturalist Major General Thomas Hardwicke made a presentation on the creature at the Linnean Society in London. That is typically regarded as the moment the red panda became known in Western science. In his presentation, titled “Description of a new Genus of the Class Mammalia, from the Himalaya Chain of Hills Between Nepaul and the Snowy Mountains,” he argued that the animal be called a “wha,” explaining, “It is frequently discovered by its loud cry or call, resembling the word ‘Wha’, often repeating the same: hence is derived one of the local names by which it is known.

This summer, the Oregon Zoo welcomed a new resident last month as red panda Mei Mei gave birth to a cub! The baby red panda was born on June 18 to 4-year-old Mei Mei, who moved to the zoo last May, and father Moshu, 7, who arrived in November. The couple came to Oregon as part of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan for red pandas.

Check out videos below of the adorable little boy, and find out more about how you can help support endangered species and how the Oregon Zoo is handling the pandemic with Zoo-ming Virtual Encounters!