Category: Non-Music News

News and features on a variety of topics

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Non-Music News

The Shack Attack: an overview of Shackathon 2009

With a busy schedule of new concerts this year such as the Hear Here Compilation shows and the new Fridays on the Lawn Series, WKNC was unsure that it’s now three year old shack would stand again in the Brickyard for Habitat for Humanity’s yearly Shack-a-thon. However, after combating a plethora of disgusting (and probably undiscovered) spiders who had taken up residence in the structure as it sat in DJ Mystery Roach’s backyard, WKNC’s leading team of engineers (consisting of three humanities majors and two actual engineers) managed to bring the beloved Shack back to N.C. State (in quite a few pieces).

Here are some of the pictures of the building process:

The conception of the shack’s design and actual construction came from, NC State graduate student and WKNC engineer, John Jernigan. The shack itself is constructed to look like a giant boom box, complete with it’s own retractable cassesst door that opens automatically when you hit a built in eject button. One of the new and most popular features this year for the shack, however, was the addition of a roof. As I had experienced last year, Shack-a-thon always seems to conjure up the monsoon rain storms which can catch a very cold and tired deejay by surprise in the middle of the night. Needless to say, we were glad to have it when flash flood rains hit the Triangle late Tuesday night.

Although the shack building officially started for student organizations on Sunday, overnight participants weren’t required to spend the night in the shack until Monday. WKNC, however, was the exception. With a booming new set of trainees eager to jump into the fray, staff members manned the shack on Sunday night and have been alternating two hour shifts all week.

During the day, WKNC deejays asked (and sometimes begged) for donations to support the Habitat for Humanity cause. Donors received various KNC apparel like WKNC koozies, stickers, cds, and WKNC t-shirts. One of the new features this year was wireless live broadcasting from the Brickyard, which aired in the early hours of Wednesday morning.  Eye on the Triangle’s own Saja Hindi and myself walked the bricks to speak with the various organizations who were participating this year, including Men Against Rape, Caldwell Fellows, and Inter-residence Council.

Now with only two days left of Shack-a-thon, WKNC looks forward to the Shack-a-thon live music performance by local band, The Pneurotics. Show begins at 7 p.m. and is open to public. The Pneurotics will be performing right next to WKNC shack and will hopefully be giving a live wireless broadcast interview to yours truly, DJ Special K, before the show.

Click here to listen streaming live

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Non-Music News

EOT05 Health Care 9/21/09

Since President Barack Obama’s election into office, health care reform has been a topic of heated debate among Democrats and Republicans. So this week’s Eye on the Triangle focused on this issue in several of our segments, giving both the Democratic and Republican perspective, as well as opinions from around the University and opinions from locals. If you missed the show, you can listen to the clips below, and you can also get more information on our interviewees and topics here. And if you are tired of hearing about the health care debate (though our segments are unique and a must-hear!), be sure to at least check out our Wolfpacker of the Week segment.

VIP:
Thanks to some of our friends’ connections in the political scene, Eye on the Triangle’s Adam Compton and Saja Hindi spoke to U.S. Congressman David Price (D), serving N.C. district 4, and the spokesman for the North Carolina Republican Party Jordan Shaw by phone about each of the party’s stances on the proposed health care reforms.

N.C. GOP Chairman Tom Fetzer was scheduled to do an interview but canceled at the last minute due to a pending knee surgery.

You can watch a N.C. GOP video here on criticisms of the proposed reforms. You can also read a response from the N.C. Democratic Party on the president’s health insurance reform speech here.

Associate Professor of Public and International Affairs Steven Greene also gave his Eye on the Triangle his own analysis of the health care debate, a topic he has been discussing in his classes this semester.

We also replayed Soundbytes from Sept. 7’s EOT about students’ opinions on health care reform.


COMMUNITY CANVAS
EOT’s Kelly Reid talked to local musician and licensed insurance holder Alex Maiolo about his role in leading HINT, Health Insurance Navigational Tool, which is part of the Future of Music Coalition, where according to Maiolo, “policy and law and music all sort of intersect – that’s where we are. Things that happen on Capitol Hill that affect musicians, that’s what we’re interested in.” Maiolo said his focus is on the health care crisis in the musicians’ community.

HEAR THIS
This segment was not free of a health care reform spin either. EOT’s Jacob Downey interviewed Mike McDonald, organizer of the Tom Cushman benefit concert scheduled for Sept. 27, from 3 p.m. to about 2 a.m. at White Collar Crime . Cushman, a local musician and veteran of the first Gulf War, was hospitalized for pneumonia a few months ago,  two weeks later hospitalized again due to lung failure and was admitted once again to the hospital last week. Eleven bands will be playing at the benefit concert to raise money for Cushman, who doesn’t have health insurance, to pay his bills. Read the Indy’s article for more.

The song clips played in between segments of the show all came from songs from bands playing at the concert.

WOLFPACKER OF THE WEEK

Wolfpacker of the Week, 2005 alumnus in English Language, Writing and Rhetoric Ben McNeely talked to us by phone about his new project, Modern Film Fest taking place Sept. 25 to 27. You can follow @modernfilmfest on Twitter for more information. Attached are some photos of the venue (courtesy Creative Commons, Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic) as well as the co-directors.

Check back for updates about next week’s show. Send your ideas, comments, questions, suggestions and complaints to publicaffairs@wknc.org.

Listen to episode 5.

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Non-Music News

The Shack is back!

WKNC will be participating in and will be broadcasting live during this year’s Shack-A-Thon to raise money for Habitat for Humanity.  Shack-A-Thon is an annual event organized by NCSU Habitat for Humanity. The goal of this event is to educate the campus community on the state of poverty housing in this country and abroad. Each year, student organizations build shacks on the brickyard and camp out there for a week, during which they ask students passing by to donate to their shack to raise money for Habitat for Humanity. All funds are then donated to build homes in Wake County and abroad. In previous years, over $25,000 was raised in spare change during Shack-A-Thon.

Here are some pictures from past years of Shack-A-Thon:

WKNC’s shack will be located in front of Harrelson Hall. Come out and visit and help us raise money for Habitat for Humanity. There will also be WKNC merch for sale all week long as well as prize giveaways.

To find more information about NC State’s Shack-A-Thon click here and to find out how to donate to Habitat for Humanity click here.

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Non-Music News

EOT04 Raleigh v. Durham 9/14/09

Monday’s episode of Eye on the Triangle focused on the Raleigh-Durham divide and how various people view the two cities, in addition to a couple of segments on SPARKcon, and more.

VIP:
In this week’s VIP segment, Adam Compton interviewed Durham Mayor Bill Bell and Caitlin Cauley spoke to Triangle residents Josef Komenda and Rachel Nabors. I also spoke with our resident Triangle expert, who many of you may remember as WKNC’s general manager last year, Kyle Robb, about the history of the two cities and what he thought about Caitlin and Adam’s interviews.

HEAR THIS:
In Hear This, Kelly Reid gave listeners a sneak preview into the SPARKcon music lineup.

For the full lineup of MusicSpark events, click here. To also listen to an interview Kelly conducted with Telekensis, check out this blog post.

COMMUNITY CANVAS:
In Community Canvas, Mike Alston gave listeners a look into SPARKcon arts, and interviewed Sarah Powers, who works with Visual Art Exchange, to talk about the call for artists at ArtSpark.

WOLFPACKER OF THE WEEK:
Jacob Downey sat down with the student of the week, Scott Richardson, former membership president of the N.C. State Chapter of Toastmasters. Richardson discussed his involvement with the organization and the leadership opportunities it provided him with.

SOUNDBYTES:
Caitlin Cauley went around campus asking students what they thought about the University’s athletic program.

Send all your comments, suggestions and nominations for Wolfpacker of the Week to publicaffairs@wknc.org, and check out tomorrow’s blog post about next Monday’s show at 7 p.m.

Listen to episode four.

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Non-Music News

Eye on the Triangle Preview: 9/14/09

Are you a Raleigh or Durham resident? Do you feel like there’s a distinctive divide between the two cities? Is Durham trying to be something it’s not? Is Raleigh overdoing it? Why is the airport called Raleigh-Durham and not Durham-Raleigh?

Are you interested in SPARKcon’s arts? What about music?

How about opinions on the University’s athletics program? Do you want to hear what other students have to say about it? Would you like to listen to a story from a fellow student about something awesome?

If you answered ‘yes’ to one or more of these questions, then you should tune into Eye on the Triangle Monday night from 7 to 8 p.m. to learn about the latest news, arts, music and various opinions on issues that matter to you.

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Non-Music News

EOT03 Student Government 9/7/09

Eye on the Triangle’s Labor Day show hopefully gave some of you something to listen to on your drive back from your various vacations. For those of you who missed it, you can listen to the segment’s podcasts. This week’s episode covered a variety of topics, some of which will continue to come up throughout the year, so stay tuned.

VIP:

In this week’s VIP, Saja Hindi interviewed Student Body President Jim Ceresnak, a newcomer to the Student Government scene, about what it was like to be a student leader during a time of uncertainty at the University, following the resignations of the University’s top officials. Ceresnak also spoke about the year ahead and the projects he hopes to push for the student body. To get an insider’s look on Ceresnak and his past, check out Technician’s profile on the new student body president when he first got elected.

Adam Compton interviewed the student body’s vice-president, more commonly known as the Student Senate president, Kelli Rogers for EOT’s VIP segment. Rogers, unlike Ceresnak, has been working in Student Government on what may have seemed to be the logical path to Student Senate president, from student senator her freshman year to Student Senate pro temp last year, to more involvement in between.

HEAR THIS:

This week, we gave you an extended version of Hear This, filled with interviews from Zach Terry about the Bike MS Benefit Show at Cat’s Cradle and information about Snuzzfest benefit concert at the Local 506. The Bike MS Benefit Show (to battle Multiple Sclerosis) featured Last of the Great Side Show Freaks, Tomahawks, Lafcadio and Zach Terry. Snuzzfest is a benefit concert for Snuzz who is uninsured and has to have lymphoma treatment. It featured, among others, Tres Chicas and the Desmonds.

WOLFPACKER OF THE WEEK:

Jacob Downey sat down with Russell Spencer Gentry, a junior in anthropology and history who is preparing for his role in the production of Amadeus in Thompson Theatre Sept. 18 to 20 and Sept. 23 to 27.

SOUNDBYTES:

And in this week’s Soundbytes, Caitlin Cauley and May Chung interviewed students around campus to see what they thought about the health care debate. The responses may seem somewhat surprising.

Tune into next Monday’s show at 7 p.m. about the Raleigh-Durham divide, and email us at publicaffairs@wknc.org if you have any ideas, gripes or want to suggest someone for the Wolfpacker of the Week.

Listen to episode three.

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Non-Music News

EOT02 Hillsborough Street 8/31/09

If you missed Monday’s episode of Eye on the Triangle, no need to fret!

Here’s a brief rundown of the segments for the week with a link for the podcast at the end (although you should definitely tune in live from here on out to listen to some exclusives like music clips throughout the show).

VIP:
This week, Adam Compton interviewed Nina Szlosberg from the Hillsborough Street Partnership about the renovations project. For more information on the renovations, you can follow ninaszlosberg on Twitter.

Saja Hindi also interviewed Kevin Jennings, owner of Urban Food Group and of Frazier’s and Porter City Tavern on Hillsborough Street, about how the construction has been impacting the businesses during this already tough economic time.

HEAR THIS:

Rachel Sloan interviewed an employee from Schoolkids Records, Eric Tschudi, about how the business is faring with the decline in record sales, even after its move on Hillsborough Street. Kelly Reid also previews Monday night’s Old Bricks show at Slim’s.

COMMUNITY CANVAS:

Mike Alston interviewed visual artist Ryan Cummings about his work, especially on the Hear Here compilation CD cover.

STUDENT OF THE WEEK:

This week, we featured Logan Sayles, senior in graphic design and co-president of the Design Council. Sayles talked about the life of a design student, the projects he’s worked on and the notorious design school Halloween Bash. Also, check back here for photos Wednesday.

SOUNDBYTES:

Caitlin Cauley interviewed students around campus and brought you audio clips of their answers to this week’s question: Do you use Twitter, and what do you think of it? The answers may be surprising to some.

And, as always, send in your comments, suggestions, gripes and complaints to publicaffairs@wknc.org. We may even read your response live if you so desire.

Don’t forget to tune in again next Monday to WKNC 88.1 for Eye on the Triangle from 7 – 8 p.m. EST or listen online at wknc.org.

Listen to episode two.

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Non-Music News

EOT01 Introduction 8/24/09

Eye on the Triangle, WKNC’s weekly public affairs program, made its debut Aug. 24. The show is split up into several segments – a news rundown for the week, VIP interviews, local music, local arts, student of the week, and soundbytes. The following is a break-down of each of the segments and what they featured last week. Be sure to listen to the podcasts of the segments if you missed out last week, and don’t forget to tune in tomorrow from 7-8 p.m. for another episode!

  • VIP: Public Affairs Director Saja Hindi and VIP Correspondent Adam Compton interview Chancellor Jim Woodward and Provost Warwick Arden to discuss topics ranging from the officials’ vision for the University to budget cuts to a day in the life of their respective posts.
  • Hear This: Local Music Director Adam Kincaid interviews Audio Production Consultant Mikey Perros on Hear Here!, the new local music compilation featuring brand new songs from 17  bands from Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill.
  • Community Canvas: General Manager Mike Alston interviews Sarah Schroth with the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University about the Picasso and the Allure of Language” exhibition on view from Aug. 20 through Jan. 10, 2010. To hear more about Picasso’s 60 works from 1900 to 1969, tune in tonight!
  • Student of the Week: Lianne Gonsalves speaks about her experience in Honduras this summer, interning for the State Department. You can also click to see some of the pictures from her trip below.

  • Soundbytes: Correspondent Caitlin Cauley interviews people around campus about how the Hillsborough Street construction is affecting them.If you have any comments, suggestions or questions, don’t hesitate to shoot us an e-mail at publicaffairs@wknc.org

Listen to EOT01.

Categories
Non-Music News

EOT01 Introduction

Eye on the Triangle is a weekly public affairs program from WKNC 88.1FM. In this inaugural episode, Public Affairs Director Saja Hindi and Adam Compton interview VIPs Chancellor Jim Woodward and Provost Warwick Arden to discuss topics ranging from the officials’ vision for the University to budget cuts to a day in the life of their respective posts.

Hear This: Local Music Director Adam Kincaid interviews Audio Production Consultant Mikey Perros on Hear Here, the new local music compilation featuring brand new songs from 17 bands from Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill.

Community Canvas: General Manager Mike Alston interviews Sarah Schroth with the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University about the Picasso and the Allure of Language exhibition on view Aug. 20 through Jan. 10, 2010.

Wolfpacker of the Week: Lianne Gonsalves speaks about her experience in Honduras this summer, interning for the State Department.

Soundbytes: Personnel Director Caitlin Cauley interviews people around campus about how the Hillsborough Street construction is affecting them.

Categories
Non-Music News

NCSU Chancellor Resigns

Our friends at the Technician newspaper have been very busy, after North Carolina State University Chancellor James L. Oblinger resigned this morning.  For updates throughout the day, turn to TechnicianOnline.com.