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.

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.

Two pure-bred dogs are selected from animal shelters and adoption centers in
the U.S. and England — a Bearded Collie (sheep herding) and a Bloodhound (scent tracking). With the help of trainers, they are each taught to hone their skills as working dogs, then tested, to judge their success. By the end of the film each dog will have a new home.

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.

Nature “Elsa’s Legacy: The Born Free Story”
Sunday, January 9, at 7 p.m.
2010 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of “Born Free” — a book and then a film that forever changed the way we think about wildlife. What has happened to lions since this story? And what has happened to the people featured in the film? What has “Born Free” taught us?

NOVA “Four-Winged Dinosaur”

7-8 pm, Tuesday, August 24^th

Imagine a moment from the age of dinosaurs frozen in time: primitive birds, bees, insects, early mammals, the first known flowering plants and of course, dinosaurs, all exquisitely preserved in fine-grained fossils from China’s Liaoning Province. Volcanic eruptions killed and buried victims quickly in this dinosaur Pompeii, capturing soft, fragile features not normally preserved in fossils – notably the feathers on animals that had never been known to have them before. Now, with state-of-the-art animation to bring this lost world to life, NOVA investigates the mysterious feathered dinosaurs that are challenging old ideas about the origin of bird flight. The central character in this drama is a strange little dinosaur with wings on its legs as well as its arms. The pigeon-sized microraptor is the smallest adult dinosaur ever found, perhaps the first known tree dweller. But could it really fly? Is it the key to understanding the origin of flight or merely an evolutionary dead end unrelated to the ancestry of birds? To help solve the riddle, NOVA assembles a team of top paleontologists, aeronautical engineers and paleo-artists to reconstruct microraptor and build a sophisticated model for a wind tunnel experiment. The results have surprising implications for long-accepted ideas about how winged flight began.

For more information, go to the NOVA website.

Repeats:
1-2 & 4-5 a.m., Wednesday, August 25
3-4 a.m. & 6-7 p.m., Sunday, August 29

7-8pm, Wednesday, June 23rd

Craig Ferguson hosts this star-studded 125th anniversary celebration of the Boston Pops, telling the story of the orchestra’s transformation from summertime entertainment for Bostonians to the national icon it is today. In the past eight decades the Pops has been under the leadership of just three conductors, Arthur Fiedler, John Williams and Keith Lockhart. This special features their work and interviews and/or performances by Audra McDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, Josh Groban, James Taylor, Vanessa Williams, Yo-Yo Ma, Wynton Marsalis, and Roberta Flack. Also featured is rare footage of favorite artists past and present, including Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Johnny Cash, Benny Goodman, Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis, Jr., John Raitt, k.d. lang, The Carpenters, and Patti LaBelle.

Repeats:
Thursday, June 24th, 2-3 a.m. & 8-9 p.m.
Friday, June 25th, 4-5 a.m.
Sunday, June 27th, 4-5 a.m. & 4-5 p.m.

The annual National Geographic Bee returns for the 22nd consecutive year with host and moderator Alex Trebek. The 2010 National Geographic Bee will feature 54 fourth- to eighth-graders vying for the Bee crown and the top prize of a $25,000 college scholarship and lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society.

KLRU has great programs for kids and great programs for adults, but it’s not easy to find programs that all family members can enjoy together. Each month, KLRU identifies a Family Choice program from our schedule that will interest and engage family members, ages 7 and up.

This month, KLRU features The Biscuit Brothers holiday specials starting at 5 p.m. on Sunday, December 20.

Musical Celebrations at 5 p.m.
Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Hispanic tradition, birthdays and other holidays and celebrations are explored after Tiny Scarecrow accidentally releases all the holiday melodies from Melody Garden. This song filled special shows how a “holiday” can be a good time to learn about other cultures and traditions and a great time to share your culture and traditions with others.

Merry Musical Christmas at 5:30 p.m.
The whole family will sing and laugh along with this heart-felt musical nod to traditional Christmas specials of the past. Join the Biscuit Brothers and company on Christmas Eve as they use music to celebrate on the magical, musical farm and try to cheer up Tiny Scarecrow who sits high atop Symphony Barn waiting for snow.