1. Witchpolice Radio
2. The Reel Debaters
3. Barking Dog

As a fan of folk music since high school, creator and host Juliana Young started Barking Dog, a folk and roots show hosted on CKUW, in 2018 to fill a gap they saw in commercial radio.

Four years later, Barking Dog maintains a supportive listener base that returns each week to discover new music and musings on the history and politics intertwined with folk and roots music.

“I wanted to create an easily accessible show that brought together historical and contemporary recordings and explored how traditional music has changed over time,” Young says.

They’ve since partnered with producer Dylan Bodner to expand the show and cover a larger variety of folk musical traditions.

“Dylan’s helped broaden the focus of Barking Dog to include styles of music I’d never considered playing before,” Young says. “These styles might seem irrelevant to North American folk and roots music ... but once you actually play them side-by-side, it’s obvious how connected so many of these international traditions are.”

Barking Dog is notable for its well-researched and informative approach to radio. Fittingly, Young holds a master’s degree in folklore from Memorial University in Newfoundland. With Bodner, they search through resources such as the Smithsonian’s Folkways website and California state’s ballad index to discover new music to play each week.

“Researching the music each week also contributes to our knowledge of other artists. We might play a song by someone one week, then discover one of their major influences in our research and play that person’s music the next week,” Young says.

Powered by Young and Bodner’s evident love for folk music, Barking Dog shows no sign of slowing down. In the future, Young hopes to incorporate more themed episodes and interviews into the show.

Published in Volume 77, Number 12 of The Uniter (December 1, 2022)