Three Song Stories

Episode 263 - Robert Van Winkle

Robert Van Winkle is Community Outreach Ambassador for the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra, but is still often recognized as the former Chief Meteorologist for NBC-2 in Fort Myers. He’s also a U.S. Navy Veteran and worked as a meteorologist on the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. 

After a 31-year career on television Robert “retired” and moved to Arizona to take care of his Mom when she was diagnosed with cancer. After returning to Southwest Florida, he worked a number of jobs including Real Estate, Substitute Teaching, and even Naturalist on Whale Watching tours in Sitka, Alaska. 

Episode 262 - Teen Edition: Kristen Noble

Kristen Noble is a 17-year-old Senior at Cypress Lake High School.

As a musician, Kristen released her original debut album, “Lyrical Therapy” in October of 2022. It’s on all streaming platforms and as of this recording it has accumulated more than 400,000 streams on Spotify. 

She's also participated in many music ensembles and groups, including "The A Cappella Group," at Cypress with whom she recorded original songs on two albums and won Outstanding Arrangement for her original song "Simple Math." 

Episode 261 - Dan Bern

Dan Bern is a singer-songwriter whose songs have appeared in numerous films and TV shows, including original songs for the film “Walk Hard — The Dewey Cox Story”. He's released 30 albums and EPs, and played thousands of shows across North America and Europe over the course of his life.

Episode 260 - (4 and) 5 Year Review

Mike, Richard, Tara, and Jared gather to reminisce about the last two years of guests, songs, and stories in our (usually) annual review! Join us for 9 song stories, a Dungeons and Dragons montage, and an encore of "Rock Talk" - Mike's Rock tumbling podcast".  

 

Episode 259 - Robin Young

Robin Young is host NPR's Here & Now. Robin is a Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker who has also reported for NBC, CBS, and ABC television and for several years was substitute host and correspondent for The Today Show.

Robin has received several Emmy Awards for her television work, as well as cable's Ace award, the Religious Public Relations Council's Wilbur Award and the National Conference of Christians and Jews Gold Award. She has also received radio's regional Edward R. Murrow award.

As an independent documentary filmmaker, she produced and directed the opening film for Marion Wright Edelman's White House Conference on Children and followed the rise of then unknown filmmaker John Singleton in the film "Straight From the Hood."

Her documentary "The Los Altos Story," made in association with the Rotary Club of Los Altos, California, won the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award and is now the backbone of a worldwide HIV/AIDS awareness initiative.

Episode 258 - Ryan Wolfgang

Ryan Wolfgang is Assistant Manager of Props at Universal Creative (as in Universal Studios) and has been in the prop and decor field since 2003, first working in the motion picture industry, starting out as an intern and then working his way up to Propmaster on feature films, commercials for international brands and other various video, photography, and TV projects. 

Episode 257 - Jeremy Hobson

Jeremy Hobson is an NPR Host, Journalist, and Producer who has worked in public radio for more than 20 years, most recently as host for Here and Now where he was for more than seven years. Prior to that he reported for and then hosted the Marketplace Morning Report.

Jeremy has also reported and hosted for public radio stations in Rhode Island, Cape Cod, and Illinois. And he spent time as a producer for All Things Considered, Day to Day, and Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!

He's also the creator and host of The Middle, a new show focusing on listeners, voters, and the marginalized in the "middle" of the country. 

Episode 256 - John McEuen

John McEuen is a banjo, guitar, mandolin, and fiddle player, and a founding member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. He has made almost 50 albums, that have earned four platinum and five gold records, multiple Grammy Awards and nominations, CMA, and ACM awards. 

John produced Steve Martin’s 2010 album, The Crow, which won a Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album.

He was inducted in 2017 to the American Banjo Museum Hall of Fame, and his popular Sirius/XM Acoustic Traveller Show is now in its 14th year.

He’s also an author - his bio “The Life I’ve Picked” was published in 2018.

Episode 255 - Alex Adams

Alex Adams is a theatre major at FGCU, with a background in musical theatre which began all the way back when she was 6 years old. She will be playing the role of Horatio in FGCU’s upcoming April production of Hamlet.

Episode 254 - Laura Ellis

Laura Ellis is Director of Podcasts and Special Projects at Louisville Public Media, WFPL. She’s a Peabody Award-winning producer who started her career in public radio as a talk show assistant. She’s managed WFPL’s podcast strategy as Senior Producer and Podcast Editor since 2018.

In her role as Director of Podcasts and Special Projects, Laura manages a podcast incubator designed to amplify important and diverse voices and stories in Louisville.

When she's not making radio, she's on stage or in a sound booth making theater, or singing old-fashioned music. 

Episode 253 - Evgeniya Radilova

Evgeniya Radilova is an award winning Bulgarian-American actress, filmmaker, model, fire dancer, teacher and more who calls New York City home. She has appeared in a number of prime time TV shows including: "Law & Order: SVU", "Limitless", "Elementary", "Sex&Drugs & Rock&Roll", "Spartacus", and most recently “Blue Bloods.” 

She recently won Best Actress and Audience Award Best Film at the Chelsea Film Festival for her latest project: a feature length film called Lost Cos.

At 18 she was cast in one of the biggest TV shows in Bulgaria called "Masters of the TV", which she co-hosted for three years every night on Bulgarian National TV. She then moved to New York where she graduated with honors from "The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Since then, she has appeared Off-Broadway and is a lifetime member of The Actors Studio. 

Evgeniya has her own production company, called “I Dare Productions” and she also dances with fire and creates shows all over NYC and LA's cabaret stages with her company Evgeniya Entertainment.

 

Episode 252 - Kirsten and Corey O’Donnell

Cory and Kirsten are co-hosts and co-producers of the “Florida Freakshow” podcast, which chronicles the many bizarre news stories that come from the Sunshine State.

Kirsten has been a college speech instructor, debate coach, television sports reporter, and now she's a marketing project lead for Aviv Clinics in The Villages. 

Cory has been a marketing professional and journalist The News-Press and Naples Daily News. He also launched the Southwest Florida Storytellers Project. These days he leads the marketing team for Owen-Ames-Kimball Company.

Episode 251 - Guest Music Roundup vol.3

We’re looking back at our collection of songs that musician guests have played for us at the end of their episodes. This episode's music guests are:

Dan Philgreen
Danny Black
Jon Michaels
Michael Pinckney
Ehren Gerhard
Mike Kennedy
Mike Patella

 

Episode 250 - Amanda Inscore

Amanda Inscore is an award-winning photojournalist who has been at The News-Press in Fort Myers since 2003. She was born in North Carolina and graduated from the University of North Carolina’s journalism school. Amanda's also a gymnast, a yogi, and a breast cancer survivor, and she enjoys traveling, hiking and chocolate.

Episode 249 - Dave Lapham

Dave Lapham became a professional guitar tech from 2003-2017, Touring the world with bands like QOTSA an MCR, and musicians Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains, Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, Peter Murphy of Bauhaus, Billy Idol and on and on…

Dave grew up in Dearborn, Michigan surrounded by rock and punk music of the 70’s and through the 90’s, setting the tone for the rest of his life.  As a kid he was into guitars, muscle cars, girls, BMX and skateboarding. 

Episode 248 - Tatum Bates

Tatum Bates is a sophomore Theatre major at Florida Gulf Coast University. She's acted in plays, musicals, and films produced all over Florida, and she also shows off her work in special effects movie makeup, on her TikTok. She's also the newest cohost on the Razzle Dazzle podcast.

Episode 247 - Guest Music Roundup vol.2

We’re dipping back into our collection of songs that our musician guests have played for us at the end of their episodes. It’s one of our very favorite things about this show. This episode's music guests are:

David Mayfield

Sergio Munoz

Max Hatt and Edda Glass

Billy Kemp

David Hintz

Cody Smith

Spencer "Duke Stamina" Elles

Katie Lyon

Episode 246 - Rendy Ramos

Rendy Ramos is a videographer, editor, and avid cinephile. He has worked on shoots including ESPN, music festivals on cruises, nationally broadcast dog shows, wedding films, and music videos. 

Rendy moved back to Southwest Florida in 2013 and was a Production Director for Waterman Broadcasting, the local NBC/ABC affiliate before shifting to Photojournalism and joining us here at WGCU developing content and stories.

Episode 245 - Guest Music Roundup vol.1

Whenever we have musicians on the show we ask them to play a song for us as that week’s parting tune. Over the years we’ve compiled quite a collection of songs, so today we’re putting some of them together for Volume 1. of our Music Guest Roundup.

Episode 244 - Dr. Ebony Green

Dr. Ebony Green has been a teacher, principal, district leader and is now nationally recognized champion for Equity at the Institute for Student Achievement, where she supports school districts nationally to ensure equitable outcomes for all students.

Ebony has taught as an adjunct professor at Mercy College, Pace University, and is currently serving at Bank Street College in New York City, and Fordham University where she teaches a course that examines the Impact of Prejudice.