“I’m going to devote this morning’s show to musicians who are based in France," says Crossing Continents host Gil Medovoy, "and I will start with the one musician I feel is probably, as far as world music is concerned, is very much at the top for me. His name is Thierry 'Titi' Robin (pictured, in a photo from his website). He started his musical career in the early ’90s. This is just about the time when I started delving into world music, and sharing it on the air.

“I was very much taken by what I’ve heard. He grew up in central France … his neighbors, his friends, many of them were Romani folks who lived in the area. As a young child, he engaged with this community very freely, and the results can be heard throughout his music.”

Crossing Continents, a world music show, covers the Middle East, the Mediterranean region, North Africa, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent, including traditional and contemporary music. Gil launched the program on KDRT six months ago, and hosts new episodes on Mondays at 10 a.m.

Bill Wagman has renamed his KDRT program, but doesn’t want anyone to forget his former co-host.

Bill co-hosted The Folk Brothers with Peter Schiffman each Wednesday at KDRT starting in September 2015 (the first show is still available in the archives!). And then this lovely run of programs ended, at least in that format, when Peter died in May 2023.

Bill is carrying on. The show is now called Sometimes Folk. Don’t read the name change as a turn away from folk music, Bill says. He might choose songs now and then that stray outside the mainstream — one of the things we do anyway here at KDRT — but as he says, “I can make an argument for a lot of music being folk.”

He says Peter’s influence continues to shape the program and the songs Bill chooses to play each week. Not that Bill is a novice about the music. He is known — among overseas musicians, even — for the house concerts he has hosted at his Davis home over the decades, and for his decades as a DJ at UC Davis station KDVS.

As long as Bill Wagman stays on the air, The Folk Brothers -> Sometimes Folk will continue to be a reliable hour of great music and community, and a bouquet of forget-me-nots on the table in memory of Peter Schiffman. Here’s the latest show.