The 200-voice Warren County High School choir and a dramatic narrative of the remarkable Christmas truce in World War I will be among the locally originated radio specials this week on WCPI 91.3.
Other seasonal programs will include a celebration in music from the historic Liberty Cumberland Presbyterian Church and a festive holiday concert by McMinnville’s Silver & Gold Band. And the weekly news and documentary program “Focus” turns its attention to the nativity as three local church leaders share their thoughts on the spiritual dimensions of Christmas.
The WCHS choir, whose “Sounds of the Season” concert Thursday night was recorded for the WCPI broadcast, has grown to some 200 student members after its creation just three years ago under the direction of music teacher Kennette Dixon. The program will feature a number of solo singers, as well as the entire ensemble.
Exactly 100 years ago this week, as warring nations of Europe settled into a bloody stalemate in the early months of The Great War, officers and soldiers cautiously crawled out of their muddy trenches and ventured into the killing zone that separated them. Moved by their shared Christian faith and yuletide traditions that transcended language and nationality, enemies met between the lines and joined in a Christmas celebration, sharing cigarettes and cognac and passing around photos of loved ones back home.
As a live performance feature of its recent Nativity Festival, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in McMinnville recreated in spoken word and music the extraordinary scene of the Christmas truce. The half-hour program on WCPI 91.3 was directed and voiced by Michael Armstrong-Smith, a native of Liverpool, England. The 2005 movie “Joyeux Noel” (Merry Christmas) recounts the one-day suspension of hostilities before the gunfire started again following Christmas. 
WCPI’s Faith and Values Panel, composed of a rotating number of representatives from various churches in Warren County, explores the theme “what Christmas means to me” on this week’s half-hour “Focus” program. 
Members of current interview panel are Miriam Crawford of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; Jeff Page, pastor of Locust Street Church of God; and Don Spencer, minister of Centertown United Methodist Church and Short Mountain UMC. The interview host is 91.3 volunteer Bill Zechman, a lifelong member of Central Church of Christ.
The locally produced programs will start Sunday with the WCHS choir’s “Sounds of the Season” at 12:15 p.m., followed the Liberty Cumberland Presbyterian musical at 2 p.m. The Silver & Gold Band yuletide concert airs at 4 p.m. and the afternoon concludes with the Christmas truce narrative from the McMinnville LDS Church at 5:15 p.m.
“Focus,” with its thought-provoking conversation among three local Christian leaders, will debut Tuesday at 5 p.m., to be repeated Wednesday, 10:25 a.m. and 10:30 p.m.
All the broadcast specials will be repeated on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at the following times: Silver & Gold Band, 12:30 p.m.; WCHS choir, 2 p.m.; Liberty Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 3:30 pm; and the Christmas truce narrative, 4:30 p.m.
Non-commercial public radio 91.3 WCPI is owned and operated by the Warren County Education Foundation, an IRS 501(c)3 entity funded in part by donations from local business organizations and individuals. The station receives no on-going government support, leaving it free to broadcast programs with religious content as well as political and societal analysis and critique. Except for a minimal staff of salaried technicians, the station is operated on a day-to-day basis by unpaid volunteers.
“We are very happy to be able to bring these Christmas programs to the community through non-commercial, public-access radio,” said Dr. Norman Rone, Warren County Education Foundation president. “It’s especially gratifying to bring our own local musicians, singers, ministers and church laypeople to the large audiences made possible by radio.   We’re proud of our community and its many talented, capable and thoughtful people, and our radio service is pleased to share in this way in celebrating the season.”