Friday, Sept. 2 on “The Local Beat” is the first live program since July and it is jammed full of some amazing guests.

Last year we had Independent Weekly Music Editor and Hopscotch Music Festival Curator  Grayson Currin on the program for a full three hours to talk about the first ever Hopscotch. This year we toned it down a bit and Grayson, along with Hopscotch Marketing Director Greg Lowenhagen are coming in for one hour from 5-6 p.m. Join us as we chat about this year’s festival from the eyes of the men behind it.

At 6 p.m. local hip-hop act Kooley High is dropping in for the first time in quite awhile. The group is playing at Kings Barcade with King Mez, HaLo, and Drique London. The show is all ages and cost $1, with the starting time planned for around 10 p.m. I’ll be catching up with Kooley High and talking hip-hop.

The final hour of the show will belong to Hunter MacDermut, aka The Tourist, who is releasing a brand new 12 track album Sept. 3 at Marsh Woodwinds in Raleigh. Scott Phillips (of Goner, Monologue Bombs, and about 20 other local bands) will be opening and the show at 8 p.m. Hunter and I are going to talk about the new album and the show and spin some tracks off of it.

As always “The Local Beat” starts at 5 p.m. and runs through 8 p.m. every Friday evening on WKNC. Listen live here and be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and ReverbNation!

It’s another flashback on “The Local Beat” Aug. 12 as we dive into the vault once again to uncover some great interviews from the past year. This week, however, we are not dropping too far back as we relive some interviews from the past couple of months.

The first hour will be our interview with Kelly Reid and Suzie Hook from Sound Situations, recorded in June. Sound Situations is a fantastic new local music based interview and performance TV program on the Raleigh Public Access Channel. So far the show has several new episodes under its belt. Kelly and Suzie joined me to talk about the new show and what plans they had in store for it.

At 6 p.m. we will rehash and interview with one of my favorite local bands: I Was Totally Destroying It. IWTDI came on “The Local Beat” back in April to discuss their newest album, Preludes, which was being released at the time. John and Rachel are always fantastic guests and I have yet to have a dull conversation with the duo.

The last hour was one of my all-time favorites in recent memory with The Small Ponds and Filthybird. Both bands played at Marsh Woodwinds on May 20, which turned out to be my favorite show from Spring 2011. Both groups have a lot of new material which the Small Ponds played live for us in studio.

As always “The Local Beat” starts at 5 p.m. and runs through 8 p.m. every Friday evening on WKNC. Listen live here and be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and ReverbNation!