President of Isothermal Community College, Walter Dalton was guest on this segment of 'The Friday Feature' to recap 2019 at the school and look ahead to the future. Dalton discusses ongoing studies and expansion with new buildings here in Rutherford County and new growth coming to the Polk campus. This interview originally aired Dec. 20, 2019. Posted by Host and Producer of WNCW's Friday Feature Interview of the Week- Paul Foster, Senior Producer, News Director, and Morning Edition Regional Host

Grey Eagle, Asheville bartender and photographer Sandlin Gaither had the idea to write a book after years and experiences of serving, listening, and talking with his patrons. His book is called "Crazy Things People Say In A Bar" and is built on the strange, curious and colorful quotes of those who have had a bit of alcohol. What else could a reader ask for?

For many years this downtown Asheville venue has hosted concerts, conferences, trade shows, sporting events and more, attracting attendees from all over western North Carolina. What had been known in recent years as the U.S. Cellular Center has now become 'Harrah's Cherokee Center Asheville' - the same Harrah's that oversees Harrah's Cherokee Casino in North Carolina. The Center's General Manager Chris Corl was our guest and he talked about what has happened and previewed news about exciting additions for the future.

Staffers at Isothermal Community College, in Spindale NC - home to WNCW, were honored to welcome guest speaker, Jeffrey Blount, retired veteran director of NBC News programs like the Today Show and Meet The Press. Blount worked with the network for more than 30 years and is also an author, an award winning documentary script writer, and winner of an Emmy. Blount is traveling across the country to talk about his latest book, The Emancipation of Evan Walls, and to share thoughts on issues involving race and social justice. During his visit here, he spoke to local high school students, ICC staff, and community members about his early years, his career, mentoring and the power of education. Blount kicked off the college's celebration of Black History Month with his riveting speech at the college's Foundation for Performing Arts Center. The interview first aired on Feb. 7, 2020. Posted by Host and Producer of WNCW's The Friday Feature, Paul Foster- Senior Producer, News Director, and

Representatives from The Alzheimer's Association - Western North Carolina Chapter made a return to The Friday Feature to talk about a community forum event in the region, while reminding anyone dealing with a loved one who has the Alzheimer's disease, that they want to provide support. Guest was Denise Young- Program Manager of the association. This conversation was first presented on Feb. 21, 2020. Posted by Host and Producer of WNCW's Friday Feature Interview of the Week- Paul Foster, Senior Producer, News Director, and Morning Edition Regional Host

Described as a funny story of love and redemption, BRIGHT STAR , the Steve Martin, yes that Steve Martin, and Edie Brickell musical is being presented by Tryon Little Theatre. The same musical that's been on Broadway and presented by theatre groups across the nation, now takes the stage in Western N.C. - near the actual location where the story is depicted. TLT lead actors in the show, Hannah Searcy (Alice) and Ryan Holub (Jimmy Rae) were interviewed. Aired originally on Feb. 28, 2020. Showtimes for BRIGHT STAR are as follows: Showtimes Thu Mar 5, 2020 | 7:30PM Fri Mar 6, 2020 | 7:30PM Sat Mar 7, 2020 | 2:30PM Sat Mar 7, 2020 | 7:30PM Sun Mar 8, 2020 | 3:00PM Posted by Host and Producer of The Friday Feature Interview of the Week- Paul Foster, WNCW Senior Producer, News Director, and Morning Edition Regional Host

A program called 'Paradise Lost- How Climate Change Is Devastating Our Communities' will be held in the near future in Hendersonville, thanks to the efforts of C4: Citizens Concerned with the Climate Crisis. While a new date for the program is unknown at this time, this conversation will still be well worth your time. This Friday Feature is a discussion with Tony Dunn, a Fire Ecologist, who now lives in Western NC, but was in Paradise when a massive fire made this Northern California city literally disappear. The conversation first aired March 6, 2020. Posted by Host and Producer of The Friday Feature Interview of the Week, Paul Foster, WNCW Senior Producer, News Director, and Morning Edition Regional Host

One thing WNCW knows about is bluegrass, old time and true country music. It's a part of our electic music format which made this Friday Feature Interview of the Week even more special - when we learned all about the East Tennessee State University Bluegrass, Old Time, and Country Music Studies Program. Interviewed on March 20, 2020 was Program Director Daniel Boner. ETSU is passing on a legacy of music history that will help keep it going strong for the future. Posted by Host and Producer of The Friday Feature- Paul Foster, WNCW Senior Producer, News Director, and Morning Edition Regional Host

Thanks to Michael Greene of Boone, NC - a virtual dinner concert series, online, was organized as a way to help raise money for local restaurants, servers, and musicians in the Boone area that have been unable to work due to the mandatory closures of businesses because of the Coronavirus. This includes a Go Fund Me page set up to donate a little extra in the case someone can. Maybe this virtual idea spreads all over as a way to say thank you to someone for serving and entertaining all of us in the past. You can find them on Facebook @BooneRelief Posted by Host and Producer of The Friday Feature Interview of the Week, Paul Foster- WNCW Senior Producer, News Director, and Morning Edition Regional Host

Guests of this Friday Feature Interview of the Week were Megan Robinson, Executive Director of the Western NC American Red Cross and United Way of Greenville County, SC Executive Director Megan Barp. Both agencies are important, year-round organizations, with staff/volunteers that want to offer support and services, especially during the coronavirus crisis. However, these groups could use additional volunteers and donors to achieve full capacity. This conversation first aired on April 3, 2020. Posted by Host and Producer of The Friday Feature- Paul Foster, WNCW Senior Producer, News Director, and Morning Edition Regional Host

Facebook will be awarding financial support to over 30 local small businesses impacted by COVID-19. Policy Manager Diana Doukas was interviewed during this edition of WNCW's Friday Feature Interview of the Week to talk about this exciting news. Facebook, with a center located in Rutherford County, NC has partnered with groups across North Carolina to lend support in this crucial time of need. This discussion first aired on 88.7 FM on April 10th. Posted by Host and Producer of The Friday Feature- Paul Foster, WNCW Senior Producer, News Director, and Morning Edition Regional Host

Faculty, staff and some students with the College of Engineering and Technology at Western Carolina University are using 3D printers at the college's Rapid Center to develop visors for face shields for use by healthcare workers in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Patrick Gardner, Director of the WCU Rapid Center, was i nterviewed in this Friday Feature piece. The interview first aired on April 17, 2020. Posted by Host and Producer of The Friday Feature- Paul Foster, WNCW Senior Producer, News Director, and Morning Edition Regional Host

In this Friday Feature Interview of the Week we put the spotlight on PAL: Partners for Active Living, a group working with its partners in an attempt to remind citizens about the importance of their health, and to let people know about the many ways they can take advantage of outdoor adventures in Spartanburg, South Carolina. PAL Executive Director Laura Ringo shared the latest on the non-profit group, and also talked about COVID-19 and its effect on PAL. The interview originally aired May 1, 2020. Posted by Host and Producer of The Friday Feature- Paul Foster, WNCW Senior Producer, News Director, and Morning Edition Regional Host

Connecticut Senate Democratic leaders say United Technologies’ decision to move its headquarters to Boston in its merger with Raytheon will have little effect on the state’s economy.

Governor Ned Lamont says United Technologies will continue to expand and hire new workers in Connecticut despite its merger with Raytheon. The company plans to move its headquarters to Boston.

Long Island’s pharmaceutical industry now makes up one of the region’s largest employers of manufacturing jobs. That’s according to a report released this week by the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency.

Two major Connecticut banks announced Tuesday they will merge in a $759 million deal.

Long Island has one of the fastest-growing tech markets in North America. That’s according to the U.S. Commercial Real Estate Services Group.

The labor markets in both Connecticut and Long Island grew tighter in June. Unemployment in Connecticut is at a 17-year-low, and Long Island is at an almost 30-year low.

A state-funded report on New York’s tourism economy says visitors spent $6.1 billion on Long Island in 2018.

New York, Connecticut and six other states have sued the Securities and Exchange Commission for ignoring the will of Congress and failing to protect mom and pop investors.

Legislation introduced in New York this week expands tax exemptions for small businesses.

Columbus-based Nationwide Insurance plans to require coporate office employees in Columbus, Des Moines, Scottsdale and San Antonio to work from home permanently.

Logan County Sheriff Randall Dodds says he is laying off 21 staffers, includuing deputies and jail guards starting on May 2.

Delaware County Sheriff's deputies say they have solved the 36-year-old murder of a teen.

The Ohio School Boards Association says voters Tuesday approved a smaller percentage of school tax issues on the primary ballot than in the previous primary election.

Just under 25 percent of Ohio's registered voterscast ballots in Tuesday's primary election, which was postponed from March due to coronavirus concerns.

Manufacturing, construction and distribution companies can reopen today , with employees wearing masks and observing cleaning and social distancing rules. State lawmakers are also coming back to work this week, and one has proposed a bill to open the state immediately while shutting down the authority of the governor and his health director.

All but five of the state's Motor Vehicle Bureaus closed March 19 in response to the coronavirus pandemic, but Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted says they could open later this month.

Following a nearly billion dollar drop in the state's economic picture, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine plans to cut $775 in state spending over the next two months.

Ohio is among the top states for several agricultural crops and for food production and processing. But while farming is considered an essential business under the various shutdown orders, it's a tough time for those who run the state's 76,000 farms. Statehouse correspondent Jo Ingles has more.

Ohio’s secretary of state says an election day with in-person voting is still the plan for this fall, but he’s suggesting some changes in case concerns about coronavirus keep voters away. A key voting rights group agrees, but wants to go further.

Republicans in the Ohio House have approved a bill that would limit the power and length of public health orders on coronavirus that their fellow Republican, Gov. Mike DeWine, has been issuing through Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton. Statehouse correspondent Karen Kasler reports the bill reflects a split in the GOP on how to restart the economy that could carry over into the future.

Salons, barbershops and outdoor dining can begin to reopen May 15th, under guidelines being released today by Governor Mike DeWine, and restaurants and bars can fully reopen by May 21. But he says reopening Ohio carries a risk.

One of the largest fireworks displays in the Midwest will not take place this year due to coronavirus concerns.

Ohio State University has agreed to pay nearly $41 million into a fund for the sexual abuse victims of a now deceased team doctor.

Non-essential businesses that were closed during the past month due to COVID-19 are now starting to reopen. But as Statehouse correspondent Jo Ingles reports, some worry that’s happening too quickly without proper safeguards.

Tory Bilski could have called her well-written and witty memoir of riding horses in northern Iceland “Wild Horses of the Midnight Sun,” but in naming it “Wild Horses of the Summer Sun,” shows her writing creds: the alliteration effectively plays on the popular image many people associate with this starkly beautiful land of lupine fields and black volcanic sand banks – not to mention Johnny Mercer’s lyrics in that old jazz standard, “Midnight Sun.” Like Mercer, Bilski evokes a nostalgic warmth for what is gone but indelibly remembered because it was so affecting. In “Wild Horses of the Summer Sun” the love is for Icelandic horses and the country, not far from the Arctic Circle. An unusual destination when Bilski started going years ago, having heard about the horses from a woman who owned a horse farm in the Berkshires. The marvel of this moving, funny, episodic narrative is that Bilski turns living on a horse farm in Iceland with other women for a week every June into a universal story

For their celebration of Beethoven's 250th birthday this year, the Fairfield County Chorale is performing one of his most famous works, the Emperor Piano Concerto with soloist Ilya Yakushev, and one of Beethoven's least known sacred works on Saturday, March 7 at the Norwalk Concert Hall. Kate Remington talks with Artistic Director David Rosenmeyer about what makes each of these two works so special.

Christopher Larkin's score for Hollow Knight is one of the most beloved soundtracks in recent games. I talked with arranger David Peacock and pianist Augustine Mayuga Gonzales about their project to adapt Chris' haunting music for solo piano. David says he appreciates Christopher's involvement in developing the arrangements. He says Chris advised him to use the lore of the game as inpiration for his arrangements. Augustine says he loved playing David's arrangements because they were challenging, but also allowed him to use his background as a classical pianist. The soundtrack is available through Bandcamp, and a vinyl release as well as a book of sheet music are also planned. Episode tracklist All tracks by Christopher Larkin, arranged by David Peacock and performed by Augustine Mayuga Gonzales Hollow Knight : Hornet; Greenpath; Resting Grounds; Dung Defender; Crossroads; City of Tears; Reflection; Radiance; Hollow Knight Follow Kate on Twitter Subscribe to Music Respawn in Apple

Before there was the Algonquin Round Table in New York in the ‘20s, a lunch group of literary bon vivants whose often quotable put downs would become famous, there was – and STILL IS – The Club, a unique London tavern assembly of intellectuals, started in 1764, that included some of the most dazzling verbal sharpshooters of the day. Their extraordinary, wide-ranging conversations, passionate arguments and often hilarious provocations and rejoinders have now been captured by the award-winning cultural critic Leo Damrosch. Called “ The Club: Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped An Age , ” this fascinating history will likely prove one of the most engaging, enlightening and delicious books you’ll come across in a long time. Damrosch wears his scholarship with ease and grace, including references, as he genially corrects or adds ironic commentary to the private lives and public careers he celebrates. As the title has it, he follows the arcs of the humbly born Samuel Johnson and of

There are celebrations of Beethoven's 250th birthday all over the world this year, but close to home, Musical Masterworks in Old Lyme is presenting every string quartet by Beethoven in two sets of three evening performances by the Ehnes Quartet beginning on Friday, March 13th. Kate Remington talks with series Artistic Director Edward Aaron about the concerts, which he'll be experiencing from the inside out as the cellist with the Ehnes Quartet.

Mutazione , a quirky game created by the studio Die Gute Fabrik, has one of the most laidback soundtracks ever. From his very relaxed studio on Sardinia, Alessandro Coronas created a wonderful mix of low-fi, accoustic and synth sounds to accompany young Kai on her voyage to save her grandfather on a very unusual island. Mutazione has been in development for ten years! Alessandro says the initial concepts remained from the beginning. They included the magical seeds the player can select for their various healing properties and musical sounds. That allows you to create your own soundtrack, too. Alessandro is also the sound designer for the game, so he was able to grow the music out of the sounds of the game world. He says working with the small team of Die Gute Fabrik, and especially artist Nils Deneken, was a wonderful experience because of the freedom and synergy they all had. The four-hour soundtrack, which includes extended suites adapted from the musical cues, is available through

The sparsely-populated world created as the result of a plague in The Surge 2 needed a suitably dystopian sound for the music. I talked with composer Helge Borgarts of BowsToHymns who, with his colleague Thomas Stanger, crafted their music for the soundtrack that's inspired by the striking visuals and unique sound design by developers Deck 13. Helge and BowsToHymns also worked on the soundtrack for The Kraken , an expansion for The Surge 2 set during the 1980s on an aircraft carrier that's been turned into a cruise ship. Helge says it was really fun to recreate a grunge rock sound from some of his 1980s heroes. The Surge 2 Soundtrack, including the Kraken expansion is available in Apple Music, and many other sources. Episode tracklist : All tracks composed and performed by Helge Borgarts and Thomas Stanger (BowsToHymns) The Surge 2: Plane Crash; Infiltration; City Exploration; University; The Wall; Dangerous Harbour; Black Market; The Escape (feat. Alina Lesnik, vocals); Kraken Electro

It’s a matter of fact that between 1840 and 1882 there were eight assassination attempts on the life of Queen Victoria, but in his suspenseful novel “The Darwin Affair,” Tim Mason adds a ninth, in 1860, and makes the target Prince Albert. The date is important: it’s just months after the publication of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” and concomitant with the Oxford University Museum debate on evolution featuring those famous antagonists – biologist and anthropologist Thomas Huxley and Anglican Bishop Samuel Wilberforce. Prince Albert wants to give Darwin a knighthood. No way say fierce evolution deniers in Parliament and powerful members of the clergy, and so they conscript a sinister anti-evolutionist to kill the prince and thus head off what would otherwise be seen as royal approval of a theory that threatens The Great Chain of Being: the way things are, have been, and must be forever. Little do they know that their hired man, the wraith-like creature with the disturbing

Lumote is a dreamy puzzle platforming game created by the tiny team of Luminawesome. Composer and sound designer Paul Ruskay describes it as "a science fair project" because they designed a completely new way of generating the graphics with a program that's normally used to place the music at the appropriate moment in a game. The art style is flowy, and as the little blobby Lumote moves through the world interacting with the various flowers and little "dumb-bats," or batteries, the whole environment feels like it's underwater. Paul used that as inspiration, as well as the way nature films are shot and edited to create his playful, ambient soundtrack. Paul says he was thrilled to have a chance to add music and sound design to the genre of puzzle platformers, including games he really admires, like Portal. He says working on this soundtrack felt like unexplored territory, as it did when he wrote the music for the iconic Homeworld series of games. Paul's soundtrack is available with the

Ori and the Will of the Wisps by Moon Studios continues the adventure begun with the beloved Ori and the Blind Forest. Will of the Wisps takes Ori on an emotional journey as he searches for his new friend, Ku. Gareth Coker, who also scored Blind Forest , told me that writing the score for Will of the Wisps gave him plenty of fresh ideas because of all of the new characters in the game. Gareth was part of development of Will of the Wisps since the game's beginning, which gave him plenty of time to finetune themes for each of the new characters. Gareth worked with some outstanding musicians, including Kristin Naigus, who plays 21 different wind instruments on the score, and vocalist Aeralie Brighton, whose voice was so memorable in Ori and the Blind Forest. The digital release of Gareth's soundtrack is over three hours long, and follows the story arc of the game. A vinyl release by IAM8Bit is planned as well, and because LPs hold fewer minutes of music, Gareth describes it as "composer's

He didn’t at first appreciate the scare and chose to stay in the crowded city. And he hadn’t at the start stockpiled food or self-isolated or realized the extent of the contagion. But he did come to acknowledge the horror and the “brutal courage” of those who tried to help. “He” was Daniel Defoe. The time was 1722. The occasion, the publication of “A Journal of the Plague Year,” three years after Robinson Crusoe. In the “Journal” Defoe is looking back 57 years to when The Great Plague hit London, one year before The Great Fire would destroy just about anything that was left. Ironically it was probably the fire that helped finally destroy the vermin carrying the infecting bacteria. Writer, merchant, at times spy, Daniel Defoe created in the “Journal” a chronological first-person narrative of the epidemic in the voice of a middle-class tradesman, a saddler. Defoe would have been 5 when The Plague broke out, so his gripping on-the-scene account, augmented by research, must be considered

The Stamford Symphony Orchestra has launched its very own video channel as a way for the musians to connecct with audience members from around the world. Kate Remington talks with Music Director Designate Michael Stern about the diverse videos on the channel, and the most recent project featuring musicians in the orchestra and soloists of next season coming together to perform Amazing Grace , dedicated to all healthcare workers in Fairfield County on the frontlines during the COVID-19 crisis.

At this year's (now postponed) Game Developers Conference, composer and sound designer Oda Tilset planned to present a session about how incorporating music created by a computer's Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool. Oda tells me that AI-generated music is really helpful to generate ideas that a composer might not have thought of. For musicians and composers who are just getting their feet wet with computer-generated music software, Oda reccommends Noknok Audio , which is very flexible and easy to use. One of the murkier aspects of using AI to create music is who owns the end product. Oda has studied numerous user agreements for sharing audio and music, including SoundCloud and there's no clear answer. She says the best part of using AI is that it's like having a collaborator without those painful discssions about whose ideas are better! Episode tracklist All tracks composed by Oda's computer AI, modified in her digital audio workstation. Thanks to Dick Roberts for production