Five longtime hosts of folk radio programs have been nominated for Broadcaster (Folk DJ ) of the Year in the Third Annual Folk Alliance Awards.  The honoree will be named during a Feb. 20 awards program on the opening night of the 20th Annual International Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis, Tennessee that runs through Feb. 24.  The awards program will be broadcast live over XM Satellite Radio.

Nominees include Susan Forbes Hansen, who hosts the Sunday Night Folk Festival that airs from 7-10 p.m. weekly on WHUS (91.7 FM) from the University of Connecticut campus in Storrs; Ron Olesko, host of Traditions, airing Sundays from 3-6 p.m., and The Session, airing Fridays from noon to 1 p.m., on WFDU (89.1 FM) from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, New Jersey; John Platt, host of City Folk Sunday Breakfast, which airs from 8-11 a.m. on WFUV (90.7 FM) from Fordham University in the Bronx, New York; Mike Regenstreif, who presents Folk Roots/Folk Branches as a theme-or-interview-based segment on CKUT’s Folk Directions, Montreal, Canada’s only broadly defined folk and roots radio program (having hosted it as a stand-alone program until last August); and Rich Warren, host of The Midnight Special, which airs Saturdays from 9 p.m. to midnight on WFMT (98.7 FM) in Chicago, Illinois, as well as on XM Satellite Radio and is syndicated on radio stations across the country.  [Editor’s Note: Most times listed are Eastern Time.] 

Gene Shay, who has hosted and produced weekly folk radio shows in Philadelphia for the past four decades, was named Folk DJ of the year during the Second Annual Folk Alliance Awards Show last February. 

More than 2,000 people are expected to attend next month’s Folk Alliance Conference, which will include four days of panel discussions and workshops and four nights of artist showcases and feature performances, as well as a large exhibit hall and plenty of opportunities for networking and jamming. 

Folk Alliance (www.folk.org) aims to foster and promote multicultural, traditional and contemporary folk music, while strengthening and advancing organizational and individual initiatives in folk music and dance through education, networking, advocacy, and professional and field development.