As you may already know WUMB’s Evening Show host Michelle Briand will be moving on as of Friday, November 24th. All of us at WUMB are really going to miss her. Michelle has been an essential part of our Weekday lineup and we wish her all the best. Her heartfelt goodbye is below. Good luck in California Michelle! You can continue to listen to Michelle until Friday, November 24th.

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Special Kind of Sadness and a Tragic Set of Charms

I hate saying goodbye.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way…

The rumors are true, which, I guess, makes them facts?  Notwithstanding, if you’ve ever listened to me for any period of time, you know there are 2 things I miss every day of my life: my grandmother and living in Los Angeles. While I’ll never be able to hug my grandmother again, a plum opportunity to move back to California dropped in my lap a couple of weeks ago.  So, I will be leaving Boston and WUMB at the end of November.

I wish I could tell you that I am not crying while I write this but I am. I wish I could tell you how much working at WUMB has meant to me but I don’t know if the words exist.  So, I will start here:

When I started at WUMB in January 2018, I had no idea what to expect. I had been a listener for years but being behind the board is always a completely different story. Over the course of a couple of weeks, I realized that working at WUMB was going to be much more than just a radio gig, it was going to be school in the very best way.  From reflecting on history repeating itself through modern interpretations of Woody Guthrie songs by the Dropkick Murphys to philosophical commentary on the state of the world from artists like the Felice Brothers, every night has been a learning experience. It’s not just the intellectual piece that’s kept me going, there’s deep emotion in almost everything we play.  When I hear Mary Gauthier singing the songs of veterans or Anthony D’Amato describing a lonely person whose tears flood the neighborhood, I am overcome with emotion no matter how many times I play them.

The best part though? When someone comes up to me and says, “I’m a lesbian and Brandi’s song ‘The Mother’ makes me feel seen because she sings about how her daughter is hers but doesn’t look like her.”. Or, “You played music from Paul Simon and that comforted me during a really hard week.”.  Or something light like, “I had no idea Dan Auerbach’s ‘Malibu Man’ is actually about Rick Rubin.”. I love that our music means something to you, that it brings you joy, peace, inspiration, and introspection. I love that you too connect with the kind of artists who are trying to interpret this crazy world for us. I love that you all love this music as much as I do.

I don’t know what my next radio step will be but I know I will never work anywhere as culturally significant as WUMB. To say I am deeply grateful to you for spending the past 5+ years with me would be an understatement.

Thank you so much and please know I WILL MISS YOU SO MUCH!

~Michelle Briand