''The Thistle & Shamrock'' is a weekly American syndicated radio program, named after the national emblems of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, specializing in

Celtic music Celtic music is a broad grouping of music genres that evolved out of the folk music traditions of the Celtic people of Northwestern Europe. It refers to both orally-transmitted traditional music and recorded music and the styles vary considerab ...

. It is heard on 380

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

(NPR) stations, and is available internationally on WorldSpace via NPR Worldwide; according to NPR, ''Thistle'' is the most listened-to Celtic music program in the world. It has been produced and hosted by

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

native Fiona Ritchie since its inception in

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

Background

''Thistle'' began at

WFAE WFAE (90.7 MHz) is a non-commercial public radio station in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is the main NPR news and information member in the Charlotte region. The station's main studios and offices are at One University Place in the University C ...

, a newly established NPR affiliate in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

. At the time it went on the air in 1981, WFAE was licensed to the

University of North Carolina at Charlotte The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte or simply Charlotte) is a public research university in Charlotte, North Carolina. UNC Charlotte offers 24 doctoral, 66 master's, and 79 bachelor's degree programs through nine colle ...

(UNCC) and Ritchie was working as a volunteer, having returned there after spending a semester in 1980 there as a teaching assistant. Being a new enterprise in need of programming, WFAE invited Ritchie to create a program of Celtic music. It originally aired only locally, but became popular enough that it was picked up nationally on June 4, 1983. ''Thistle'' features traditional music, the singer-songwriter genre, and the Celtic music contribution to world music. In-studio guests comment on the music and contribute exclusive content, including NPR's first mp3 music download and live festival recordings. In the summer of 1990, Ritchie returned to Scotland where she continued to produce the program for NPR. Although WFAE is no longer licensed to UNCC and has switched to a mostly news-talk format, the Charlotte station continued to carry ''Thistle'' as one of its few music programs for several years.

Related products

Ritchie has also produced several CD compilations of Celtic music, and authored a volume on Celtic music for the "NPR Curious Listener's Guide" book series, published in 2005. In 2006, Ritchie launched Thistlepod, a free podcast from NPR featuring new-releases from Celtic roots. In 2013, Ritchie launched Thistle Radio, featuring the classics of Celtic music. In May 2015, Thistle Radio moved from NPR to internet based radio station SomaFM.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thistle and Shamrock, The American music radio programs Celtic music NPR programs 1981 radio programme debuts