By Mike Stevenson | WRIU.org | February 15, 2026
“Punxsutawney Phil” saw his shadow on February 2nd (aka Groundhog Day) marking the prediction of six more weeks of winter.
The famous prognosticator emerged from his den at 7:25 a.m. into a clear, cold morning at Gobbler’s Knob to announce his 2026 forecast, contradicting hopes for an early spring.
“I’m as restless as a willow in a windstorm
I’m as jumpy as a puppet on a string
I’d say that I had spring fever
But I know it isn’t spring”
Our first in this series of WRIU staff Q & A’s is with Wayne Cresser, host of Picture This: Film Music on the Radio (Sundays at 6 – 8 pm). I had intended this piece to be published first day of Spring, but because I’m “restless as a willow in a windstorm, ” here ’tis.
[ FYI: Red Sox pitchers and catchers officially reported to JetBlue Park in Fort Myers last Tuesday! ]
Picture This …with linguini !
WAYNE CRESSER
Q: What are your “Words to Live By”?
“Hope is the thing with feathers” – Emily Dickinson
Q: What are your favorite Music Venues (indoor & outdoor)?
Outdoor: Red Rocks Amphitheater, Morrison, Colorado
Indoor: The Metropolitan Café, 165 Friendship Street Providence, RI
The Met Cafe
Q: When did you start listening to WRIU?
When I was a high school senior, my friend Bill Nelson had a show on 90.3 FM, and he was a year behind me at S.K.H.S., and this was a long time ago. I filled in for him a couple of times, playing a lot of Traffic, Procol Harum and stuff from Rod Stewart’s first solo album, along with a mix of British psych, folk and new trad: Incredible String Band, Duncan Browne, Bert Jansch, Pentangle, Fairport Convention, and Pink Floyd. I could go on, but I’ll just say, my first memories of hearing RIU have me and my friends in the middle.
Q: What are your 12 Desert Island Records?
- Nick Drake Box Set: Nick Drake
- Blonde on Blonde -Bob Dylan
- Rubber Soul -The Beatles
- Anthology II– The Beatles
- The Basement Tapes – Bob Dylan and the Band
- Younger Than Yesterday -The Byrds
- Sandinista -The Clash
- The Name of This Band is Talking Heads – Talking Heads
- 24 of Hank Williams’ Greatest Hits – Hank Williams
- The Velvet Underground – the Velvet Underground
- A Love Supreme – John Coltrane
- Job, a Masque for Dancing – Ralph Vaughn Williams
Q: What is your favorite team?
Boston Red Sox
Q: What is your favorite movie scene?
The Prater Wheel/Cuckoo Clock Speech in The Third Man (1949)
“I Was There When it Happened” – What are your 5 most memorable concerts?
“Womp bop a loo bomp a lop bam boom”
A Sunday afternoon at Radio City Music Hall when during a break in the taping of the 70s quiz show, Jackpot (which I and my under-unemployed college graduate friends were really into), Bob Hope and Jackie Gleason made a cameo appearance to plug Hope’s Christmas Special, which they were taping upstairs. Pinch me. Another memorable detail, we had seats right behind the show’s announcer, Don Pardo, who chatted us up between takes.
- The (Un)Holy Modal Rounders at Meehan Auditorium, Brown Spring Weekend, 1975. Opened for Firefall. Ha!
- Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel, 1995 – Little Richard, who received a key to the city from Mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci.
- The last show I saw at the Warwick Tent -The Kinks, July, 1995.
- The last time Joe Strummer played Boston-with his band, the Mescaleros, at the Roxy, late, 1999.
Q: What is your favorite ephemora in the WRIU studio?
The walls made out of CDs.
Wayne Cresser hosts Picture This: Film Music on the Radio each Sunday 6 – 8 pm on WRIU 90.3 fm