Each month, KLRU chooses a program for your family to enjoy together. This month’s Family Choice program is Nova‘s “Building Pharaohs Chariot“ where it captures over 60 years of remastered sequences in a series of three episodes.

Airs Wednesday, Feb. 6, at 8 pm

Around 3,600 years ago, reliefs in Egyptian tombs and temples depicted pharaohs and warriors proudly riding into battle on horse-drawn chariots. Some historians claim that the chariot launched a technological and strategic revolution, and was the secret weapon behind Egypt’s greatest era of conquest known as the New Kingdom. But was the Egyptian chariot really a revolutionary design? How decisive a role did it play in the bloody battles of the ancient world? In this film, a team of archaeologists, engineers, woodworkers and horse trainers join forces to build and test two highly accurate replicas of Egyptian royal chariots. They discover astonishingly advanced features, including spoked wheels, springs, shock absorbers, anti-roll bars and even a convex shaped rear mirror, leading one of them to compare the level of design to the engineering standards of 1930′s-era Buicks! By driving our pair of replicas to their limits in the desert outside Cairo, NOVA’s experts test the claim that the chariot marks a crucial turning point in ancient military history.

Each month, KLRU chooses a program for your family to enjoy together. This month’s Family Choice program is: Lords of the Gourd: The Pursuit of Excellence.

Sunday, October 30. 4-5 a.m. and 6-7 p.m.

The extreme gardeners who compete at the annual Cooperstown Weigh Off have one obsessive goal — to raise the biggest giant pumpkin in the world. These gurus of the gourd nurture their fruits through harsh weather, floods, animal attacks and even sabotage to produce glorious pumpkins of gigantic proportion. This program follows Joe Pukos and his fellow competitors through the final harrowing days of harvest and the journey across New York State with the bulging behemoths strapped into the backs of their pick-ups. Joe is a real contender — at least until last minute rumors circulate that another grower may be set to smash the world record.

Check out the only Giant Pumpkin Festival, “Floydada Punkin’ Days”  in Floyd County, Texas. http://www.floydadachamber.com/punkin.htm.

Each month, KLRU chooses a program for your family to enjoy together. This month’s Family Choice program is:
Secrets of the Dead “Silver Pharaoh”
Wednesday, May 18, 7 p.m.

The royal tomb of Pharaoh Psusennes I is one of the most spectacular of all the ancient Egyptian treasures – even more remarkable than that of Tutankhamen. So why hasn’t the world heard about it? What mysteries does it contain? And what does it reveal about ancient Egypt? The tomb was discovered filled with lavish jewels and treasure almost by accident in 1939 by the French archaeologist Pierre Montet while he was excavating in northern Egypt..The royal burial chamber came as a complete surprise no Egyptologist had anticipated a tomb of such grandeur in this area. Unfortunately, the tomb was found on the eve of World War II in Europe and attracted little attention. One of the most startling discoveries inside the tomb was the sarcophagus in which the body was held: It was made of silver with exquisite detail and craftsmanship. No other silver sarcophagus has ever been found and it is now recognized by many Egyptologists as one of the most exquisite artifacts of ancient Egypt ever to be found. The elaborate tribute within the tomb suggested it was the burial site of someone very important but as archaeologists, using the hieroglyphs inside the tomb, pieced together the identity of the pharaoh, they were left to wonder who Psuesennes I was and why he received such grand treatment. The investigation reveals political intrigue, a lost city and a leader who united a country in turmoil and became the Silver Pharaoh.