Three Song Stories

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. 

Episode 243 - Tritonal

DJs Chad Cisneros and David Reed are the halves of the Austin Texas-based music duo Tritonal. As they have released five studio albums, including their latest Coalesce earlier this year.

Chad and David host the show Tritonia on Sirius XM Electric Area, they were #65 on DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs of 2012, and one of MTV Clubland's "10 Artists to Watch in 2013"

Episode 242 - Mike Braun

Mike Braun is managing editor at WGCU working with our reporters to dig deeper and add context to stories affecting Southwest Florida. In his career in print media, he's been a general assignment reporter, copy editor, Sunday edition editor, designer, and chief of the design desk.

In 1985 he convinced the editors that he could fill a page weekly with news about hunting, fishing and conservation topics, and did just that as de facto outdoor editor for the next 20 years in addition to his regular duties. 

Mike then moved to southwest Florida and joined The News-Press in 2005 as a front page designer and then moved back to reporting in 2011.

Episode 241 - Jon Shain

Jon Shain is a veteran singer-songwriter who combines improvised piedmont blues with bluegrass, swing, and ragtime, and is the 2019 winner of the International Blues Challenge in the solo/duo category. His most recent solo disc, Gettin’ Handy with the Blues: A Tribute to the Legacy of WC Handy, was released in 2018.

In 1989 he founded the Chapel Hill-based folk-rock group, Flyin’ Mice and their spin-off group, WAKE. They released four CDs and played up and down the East Coast until the late 90s.

He then went solo, and has since released ten albums of his own folk-blues compositions.

Episode 240 - Jenny Lapham

Jenny Lapham is a mental health advocate and sociology fangirl who leverages her personal and professional expertise to change how we talk about mental wellness. Jenny has led an unconventional life full of chaos, magic and education. Her idea of a good time is obsessing over romance novels, crafting, and missing the 90s. 

Episode 239 - Judd Cribbs

Judd Cribbs was a writer, reporter and editor for 25 years before becoming a teacher.  He's worked as a digital teletext news writer and editor at WKRC-TV in Cincinnati from 1985 to 1993. After a brief time as a freelance reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer, he was an on-air television news reporter for WFTX-TV and WLWT-TV, also in Cincinnati, until 1998. Cribbs won a regional Emmy award in 1994 at WLWT. 

He moved to Florida in 1998 to work as a feature reporter for WINK-TV, becoming the managing editor there in 2008. He taught TV Production at Cape Coral High School in 2011-2012 before starting at FGCU in 2012, where he is currently an assistant professor in the Journalism Program.

We sat down with Judd on September 9th…19 days before Hurricane Ian made landfall about 35 miles from our studio in south Fort Myers.

Episode 238 - Cadence Bakker

Cadence Bakker is musician and a senior at FGCU studying Management, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship. She's been writing since she was six years old, and self-taught for piano, guitar, and ukulele. 

Episode 237 - Mike Swindle

Mike Swindle is Superintendent of Hendry County Schools. A former teacher in Hendry County, Mike was instrumental in growing the Career and Technical Education program that gives opportunities for students and adults in the Hendry region. 

He began his career as a public official in 2013 when was elected as a Hendry County Commissioner, and has been the schools Superintendent since 2020.

Episode 236 - Jason Teeters

Jason Teeters is an Industrial Organizational Psychologist. He's worked with the United Nations, the U.S. Center for Disease Control,  The Rockefeller Foundation, SecondMuse, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the NGO Movember, where he delivered the first ever mental health and wellness program for Black men.

Jason is currently Nurturing Lead at the Collaboratory in downtown Fort Myers, where he helps people overcome the emotional, psychological, and technical challenges to successful collaboration.

Episode 235 - Sheldon Zoldan

Sheldon Zoldan has been producing Song of the Day since about 2020. He describes it as part history, part trivia, and all music. In it, he tells a short story every day that ties into music history or historical events and features a song.

Born in Youngstown, Ohio, Sheldon graduated with a degree in journalism from Ohio State University. In the late 1970s he worked as an editor at Ohio Magazine, which was founded and operated by the infamous Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler Magazine. Sheldon also worked at an experimental cable station called Qube that was kind of like interactive TV before its time.

He returned to print journalism and wound up at the News-Press as a business writer in 1986. He ended up a metro editor and retired from the paper in 2019.

Episode - 234 Andy Spaulding (AKA Alyssa Lemay)

Andy Spaulding is a Southwest-Florida based drag entertainer who performs as Alyssa Lemay, the “comedic, Broadway belting, bingo calling alter ego” of Andy. Originating from Canton, Ohio, Andy is a graduate of Ashland University, with a Bachelor of Music in Music Education. 

His alter ego Alyssa has held many titles, including Miss Cape Coral Pride in 2020. Alyssa is frequently a guest judge for local competitions, both drag and non-drag events and often hired to emcee large fundraising events for area charities.