WTSR Interviews: Recent Episodes
WTSR 91.3FM
Join the WTSR news team as well as the TCNJ student multimedia council and other student voices as they reach out to the community through the power of conversation and questions. There will be a variety of topics, covering local health, politics, non profits, environment, social issues, lifestyle, and the arts scene. If you have any tips or inquiries, please contact news@wtsr.org.
An interview with the band Robert's Basement, who performed at WTSR Underground Spring 2023!
The debut interview with the band t@b grrrl, who performed at WTSR Underground Spring 2023!
An interview with the band Late Cambrian, who performed at WTSR Underground Spring 2023!
An interview with the band AM Reflection, who performed at WTSR Underground Spring 2023!
An interview with the band Cherry Ridge, who performed at WTSR Underground Spring 2023!
Another interview with the performer ScottPine, who performed at WTSR's first ever Rocktoberfest 2022.
An interview with the band The Broken Vinyls, who performed at WTSR's first ever Rocktoberfest 2022.
An interview with the band The Carousers, who performed at WTSR's first ever Rocktoberfest 2022.
An interview with the band Loveseat Pete, who performed at WTSR's first ever Rocktoberfest 2022.
An interview with the band Jack and the Me Offs, who performed at WTSR Underground Fall 2022.
An interview with the band Mixolydian Dreamer, who performed at WTSR Underground Fall 2022.
An interview with the band Hit Like a Girl, who performed at WTSR Underground Fall 2022.
An interview with the band valentines day, who performed at WTSR Underground Fall 2022.
An interview with Eric Van Eck, Recovery and Prevention coordinator at TCNJ, about the Collegiate Recovery Program. For more information, you can check out their Instagram @tcnjcrc
An interview with the NJ-based band Pollyanna, whose new album "Slime" will be out June 17th!
An interview with the band Not Yer Baby, who performed at WTSR Underground Spring 2022.
An interview with the band The Lunar Year, who performed at WTSR Underground Spring 2022.
An interview with the band Grant Claytor, who performed at WTSR Underground Spring 2022.
An interview with the New Brunswick based band Objective Joyride, who performed at WTSR Underground Spring 2022!
Halloween weekend on WTSR, TCNJ alum Rob Rosiello shared a ghostly thriller called “The Broken Hollow Banshee”, starring local NJ actors! Rob studied both Communications and Theatre at TCNJ and was the president of All College Theatre. Rob went on to write many productions throughout his career, but his job came to a halt when the pandemic struck. While theaters were closed, he got the idea to start writing productions that could be produced for radio and recorded remotely by each cast member. Eventually, “The Broken Hollow Banshee” was born. The story follows a woman in the 1950s who inherits a house from her family, which she later learns they abandoned because of a Banshee haunting the house. CAST Ivy Pembroke: Stephanie Rogers Gladys Crenshaw: Nancy Vander Zwan Mr Pennington/Silas Pembroke: Larry Krevitz Darius Benn: Tim Anderson Abraham/Announcer/Nick Nightingale: Jim McIntosh Sister Mary Lucretia/Deirdre Pembroke: Sandra Hartman Carrie Belle Pembroke: Danielle Joy Foley Dr Margaret Pembroke: Meg Waldowski
DESIGN TEAM Playwright: Rob Rosiello Director: Nancy Ridgeway Sound Design/Music Composer: Jim McIntosh Visual Design: T. Mark Cole
An interview with musician Joe P, where we discussed growing up in New Jersey, his biggest inspirations, and his new EP "Emily Can't Sing".
An interview with musician Lisa Heller, where we discussed her new EP and single, working through the pandemic, and how music helped with her anxiety.
An interview with Sizzy Rocket regarding the growth of her music, advice for college musicians, and hints about new music.
An interview with the band this HOLY! rodeo, who performed at WTSR Underground in September 2021.
Games have always gathered family and friends for fun team building and a sense of community. Throughout the pandemic, games have especially reunited households and even have taken on unique forms for virtual play. Exploding Kittens, a popular card game series which has grown into an entire company, is on the forefront of collaboration and innovation in studying how people play. Josh Weaver, marketing manager of Exploding Kittens company, joins WTSR to discuss the process of developing their games, releasing their new game, Tacocat spelled backwards, and new trends they've noticed with outreach and entertainment during the pandemic.
After selling over 15 million copies, over 30 years, author and psychologist Dr. Gary Chapman has created a platform for discussing love as a choice and the multiple forms of communication and action it takes. Author of “The Five Love Languages,” Dr. Chapman discusses his research, his inspiration and examples of love languages, and notably, how these love languages reflect every type of relationship in life. Visit Chapman's https://www.5lovelanguages.com/ (website) for more information, more publications, or to take a quiz to discover your love language.
Through recent years, and especially during the Coronavirus, online dating has become more popular for young adults, due to its accessibility and innovation to connect in the virtual world. Check in with Meredith Golden, founder of https://spoonmeetspoon.com/ (Spoon Meet Spoon) and Darma. With a background in psychotherapy, Golden shares misconceptions and strategies about the online dating world and how we can best support ourselves and our friends in the new standard of meeting people.
After starting his career in finance, Dr. Travis Parry quickly realized there was not enough support and conversation about normalizing a healthy work-life balance. Now, as an author, professor, and spokesperson on work life balance, Dr. Parry joins us in discussion about how students can jumpstart this balance in their prospective careers, the myth of multitasking, and how to build better productivity and trust in our work and lifestyle. You can check out more information on his website at travisparry.com.
The WTSR News Staff (Nancy, Julia, and Zoyla) gathered during winter break for a fun chat over zoom about the 2020 Wrapped on Spotify Series, a statistical overview of listeners’ top songs, artists, and music preferences. We went through our personal lists and listening routines, discussing the role that music particularly played during 2020 and the pandemic.
WCRD Founder Robert Quicke joins WTSR Radio in preparation for The 10th Annual World College Radio Day on October 2, 2020 to talk about his personal experience and passion with college radio as well as the creation and legacy of the organization. Quicke is also general manager of WPSC-FM and a broadcasting professor at William Paterson University. While programming may appear differently for this year’s festivities, radio and student media are still vibrant and present to the modern age of producing art and a fresh perspective. (Originally aired September 2020)
Featuring a special roundtable discussion with the news staff: news director Nancy Bowne, assistant music director Julia Landi, and staff member Zoyla Pineda. The special focus of this episode will be focused on discovering new music. We carried out three methods (Spotify, articles and charts, word of mouth) of finding new music and will discuss our experience and results.
After extensive planning for a remote semester, the College’s faculty are adjusting to the reality of teaching classes from their homes. With new technology and changes to classroom management, professors reflect on how the first few weeks of the semester have been anything but typical. A few professors from The College share their insights into the semester. Here are excerpts from the full interviews with them. Dr. Steve O’Brien, interim dean and professor of school of engineering, (0:39) discusses the learning angles and challenges for STEM students. Dr. James Beyers, chair and professor of early childhood education, (9:39), approaches remote teaching as a real life application model for his future educator students, in preparing for the workplace. Dr. Joe Goebel, chair and professor of world languages and cultures and Spanish (22:59), especially recognizes technology challenges and embracing the behind the scenes work of all faculty and staff. (Originally aired October 2020)
Patrick Lavery is a TCNJ and WTSR alumni from 2009 who now works at Townsquare Media in Trenton as Afternoon News Anchor on New Jersey 101.5 WKXW-FM. Through his experience at WTSR, Patrick joins us today to discuss his inspiration and hardwork from college radio to professional radio.
Erin Vogt is a TCNJ and WTSR alumni from 2002 who now also works at Townsquare Media as a news reporter and occasional anchor on New Jersey 101.5 WKXW-FM. Through her background in journalism, Erin discusses how her education at TCNJ and WTSR helped her better connect with the local community and become a professional reporter.
Vin Ebenau is a 2014 college radio alumni from WHRT Radio at Sacred Heart University. He currently works as a reporter for NJ 101.5 as well as a News Anchor/Reporter for other Townsquare Media NJ stations at the Jersey Shore for 92.7 WOBM, 94.3ThePoint, 105.7TheHawk and Beach Radio 104.1. Today Vin joins us to talk about his experience in college radio and how it helped him gain the industry skills and to have fun every day in professional radio.
Students are on the forefront of a changing workplace amidst the covid-19 pandemic. As a part of our special reporting on how students’ perspectives on their career aspirations during the coronavirus, I am joined today with Robert Kick, a senior TCNJ nursing student and member of the TCNJ Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Robert discusses the student organization’s responsibility in the community, as well as insight he has learned through a real life application working in his clinicals as well as serving on his hometown EMT squad and fire house
Throughout this semester, virtual learning has made forming new friendships and connections on campus much more difficult. The Commuter Collegiate Union (CCU) at The College of New Jersey has been planning a virtual event that would allow people to have multiple, casual short interactions with diverse students across multiple organizations. The event is planned for Tuesday November 17th @ 8:30 p.m. Lauren Wright, a sophomore TCNJ student and vice president of CCU joined me to discuss the event as a casual way to provide students with the opportunity to connect and find new methods of improving social interactions in a remote semester.
During an unconventional football season in 2020, some NJ private high schools, such as Mater Dei in Middletown, are considering new strategies to strengthen their team, including collecting analytics through new softwares, such as Edjvarsity. Something banned in the NCAA and pro teams, analytics question traditional forms of collecting player stats by creating a play from multiple options of outputs. Originally reported from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/05/sports/football/high-school-football-analytics.html (The New York Times), Sports Reporter Ben Sphigel joins us to further discuss this change in the sports world and the response from the community.
Darrel Frater, a 2015 TCNJ School of Business alumni and current student in the MBA program, joins us today to discuss his career in entrepreneurship, including, TheClub, an app he has recently developed as a platform for DJs and musicians during the pandemic to host parties and events. With over 1,000 streamers and several influencers and endorsements, the app has widely grown throughout the community, with the influence based in his background from PromSocial, a prom planning app for teens. In a sponsored interview with The School of Business, we also discuss the current MBA program and combining lessons from the classroom into the industry.
Six students from TCNJ recently published a research paper on covid news coverage in a double-volume issue in the Spanish journal, Trípodos. The following students involved in this publication include: Suchir Govindarajan, Alexis Marta, James Sparano, Miranda Crowley, Abigail Lewis, Radhika Purandane, and Dr. Pollack, professor of communications and public health; all with varying backgrounds from communication, public health, and english. They originally published the first article on nationwide coverage of federal government responses to the coronavirus crisis, finding that the media manifests a disappointment in that the national government has not robustly protected the public. With most members present, we were able to discuss the research process, the career application into the real world, as well as working forward in their second installment of the project.
Nadia Vaeh IMA Vox Pop Winner and trailblazer for creating conscious pop, Nadia Vaeh has recently released a single, “Anxiety,” in order to build awareness about important mental health concerns as well as deliver music that connects deeply to an emotional state. Through her new release this fall, just in time for “spooky season,” Nadia Vaeh joins us today to discuss some of her other songs, influences in creating music, as well as connecting with fans and inspirations during the coronavirus. You can check out more of her music and background on her https://www.nadiavaeh.com/ (website.)
TCNJ Student Government and Korean Student Association present a new form of student communication and connection on campus. Alekhya Madiraju, VP for Diversity Equity and Inclusion for Student Government, and Gabriella Son, Vice President of Korean Student Association, present Middle Ground, a virtual forum on Zoom in which TCNJ students from opposite sides of the “table” will engage in intellectual conversations regarding political and social issues pertaining to the upcoming election as well as its effect on the student body. Students, who remain anonymous, will first identify with particular issues on a spectrum of strongly agree to strongly disagree while briefly explaining their positioning. They will then have the opportunity to challenge the ideas supporting other students' stances through a moderated discussion. All done remotely, Middle Ground will be published as an Instagram TV series on Student Government's Instagram page in the days leading up to the presidential election, beginning on October 21 through October 31. Each day will feature a segment of the Middle Ground discussion dedicated to a specific policy issue, such as "is universal healthcare feasible?" Akekhya and Gabriella joined me to discuss creating and preparing this first annual project, as well as a couple anonymous participants who share their reactions and reasons for joining this project.
The College of New Jersey hosted its first virtual fall career and opportunities fair for students to explore options for internships, jobs, and post-graduate plans. As students navigate and prepare for their future careers, they are also learning new software for networking and etiquette for the virtual sphere. Ms Shannon Conklin, the director of leadership and development at the TCNJ Career Center, joins us today to discuss the fair, future job coaching initiatives, and factors to consider in the hiring process.
Join us for a Zoom roundtable discussion with college radio alumni and industry professionals from 88.3 FM WBGO in Newark, NJ. Participants include Simon Rentner, host and producer of The Checkout podcast, Doug Doyle, the news and sports director at WBGO and iHeartRadio, Greg Bryant, host of Jazz After Hours and co host of Jazz United podcast, Brian Delp, host of Midday Jazz, and Michael Bourne, critic-at-large and host of Blues Break and Singers Unlimited. Topics include developing one’s vocation in media and the arts, career legacies, engaging with an audience, and transitions in technology.
Many students and employees are now faced with the reality of virtual classes and meetings held over video platforms, such as Zoom and Google Hangouts, during the Covid-19 pandemic. But how is this affecting our general communication and wellbeing in the workplace and education? Join us as Jayne Latz, a certified Speech Language Pathologist and founder of Corporate Speech Solutions, discusses some of her tips to improving body language, vocal presence, as well as how to prepare for the future of presentation and professionalism. Check out her website at https://www.corporatespeechsolutions.com/ (https://www.corporatespeechsolutions.com/) for more information about her upcoming publications and resources.
Prior to the beginning of the semester, WTSR News Director Nancy Bowne was able to interview President Foster, the President of The College of New Jersey, about making decisions for remote learning, new technological advancements, community outreach with the missives, as well as embracing leadership during uncertain times.
Over the summer, Arts ED NJ hosted the governor's awards, a program that recognizes teens and their artistic achievements. As an education initiative that works on policy and legislation for arts education in the New Jersey government, Arts Ed NJ has been busy assisting schools to implement the arts into virtual classrooms. Join news director Nancy Bowne as she talks with program coordinator Priscilla Hopkins-Smith and two high school governor's awards finalists, Jasmine Livingston and Jocelyn Jefferies, about practicing their art forms and their influence to continue to promote the arts during a pandemic.
While The College of New Jersey will have all remote classes for the fall semester, the Office of Student Involvement has been busy preparing virtual events for first year and returning students and to build a sense of community. Join news director Nancy Bowne as she discusses strategies, planning, and modern technology with TCNJ coordinator of student activities, Maria Haber.
The Trenton Health Team (THT) is a local organization in partnership with area hospitals and healthcare facilities with the state of New Jersey. Join news director, Nancy Bowne, as she talks to Greg Paulson, the executive director of THT, in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, as they discuss some challenges that Trenton faces right now and how it is keeping its strong community together through the arts.
The Sourlands of New Jersey is a precious sanctuary for indigenous wildlife and plants near Hopewell, NJ. But through recent infestations of the Emerald Borer Beetle, the ash trees, which comprises the abundant natural canopy over the Sourlands, is being threatened. The Sourland Conservancy is an organization that has formed a team to save the future posterity of the ash tree. Join news director, Nancy Bowne, for her interview with Laurie Cleveland and Carolyn Klaube, the executive director and the stewardship coordinator, as they discuss conservation efforts and plans for the future of the organization and outreach during Coronavirus.
On April 25 2020, WTSR was able to interview Total Recall, a Hardcore Metal band based in Milan, Italy. Through their strong friendship and a compilation of multiple other bands, the five members share a passion for crafting music and embracing the modern age of music distribution. Join news director, Nancy Bowne, on her conversation with the band members, as they discuss their band origins, creating music, and the impact of the Coronavirus on musicians and how you can help.