Kristi has been with WVPB since May 2022, serving as the Marketing and Communications Manager. Kristi is a WV native, growing up in Jackson County. She holds a B.A. in Communications from Glenville State College (now Glenville State University) and a M.A. in Communications from West Virginia University. Before coming to WVPB, Kristi has worked in marketing, advertising and public relations for various organizations including United Way, Verizon and WV Tech.
To commemorate Veterans Day in West Virginia, West Virginia Public Broadcasting (WVPB) proudly releases a new documentary about the life of Medal of Honor recipient, Woody Williams titled, Woody Williams: An Extraordinary Life of Service. The show will air Saturday, Nov. 11, at 8 p.m. on WVPB. You can also watch the program on WVPB Passport and our YouTube channel.
Updated on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023 at 10:30 a.m.
Watch Saturday, Nov. 11, at 8 p.m. on WVPB
CHARLESTON,WV: To commemorate Veterans Day in West Virginia, West Virginia Public Broadcasting (WVPB) proudly releases a new documentary about the life of Medal of Honor recipient, Woody Williams titled, Woody Williams: An Extraordinary Life of Service. The show will air Saturday, Nov. 11, at 8 p.m. on WVPB. You can also watch the program on WVPB Passport and our YouTube channel.
The front of the Gold Star Families Memorial Monument in Charleston, West Virginia.The back of the Gold Star Families Memorial Monument in Charleston, West Virginia.
Photos courtesy of Jan Kunicki/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
The documentary chronicles the life of Hershel ‘Woody” Williams, America’s last living World War II Congressional Medal of Honor recipient. William’s life was dedicated to God, family, country and perhaps above all, service. In 2022, Williams passed at the age of 98, and would lie in honor at both the West Virginia State Capitol and the US Capitol.
“Woody Williams: An Extraordinary Life of Service has been a great project for our video production team and showcases their talent in telling West Virginia’s story,” commented Interim Executive Director Eddie Isom. “We hope everyone learns about Mr. Williams’ commitment to his community that went way beyond his military service. We hope this hour-long documentary is an inspiration to others.”
The documentary shares how Williams at the age of 85, formed the Woody Williams Foundation, dedicated to honoring and helping Gold Star Families. Through the work of the foundation, there are now Gold Star Families Monuments in every state.
You can watch and stream this and other award-winning shows online at wvpublic.org, on our YouTube channel, or by downloading the WVPB app. It’s free and available in the Apple App Store or via Google Play – just search for West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
Bob Thompson’s annual holiday jazz celebration is back! The event is at the West Virginia Culture Center Theater Thursday, Dec. 14, and Friday, Dec. 15.
Special Guests Vocalist Maria Muldaur and Trumpeter James Moore Join Annual Holiday Celebration
Thursday, Dec. 14and Friday, Dec. 15, 2023
CHARLESTON, WV: Bob Thompson’s annual holiday jazz celebration is back! For over 30 years, Joy to the World has been delighting audiences with old and new holiday favorites.
The event is at the West Virginia Culture Center Theater Thursday, Dec. 14, and Friday, Dec. 15.
Joy to the World is presented by West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from the West Virginia Lottery.
Doors will open at 7:30 p.m.
All seats are general admission and are available online at Eventbrite or at https://mountainstage.org/.
“I’m looking forward to our 31st edition of Joy to the World,” shares Bob Thompson. “And I’m really looking forward to working with Maria Muldaur. Most of us know her from her classic hit, ‘Midnight at the Oasis,’ but she brings with her a history of being immersed in many genres of American roots music – Blues, early jazz, gospel, folk and New Orleans music are all part of her rich heritage. When you add trumpeter James Moore to our band, and we’ll have all the proper ingredients for a great Holiday party!”
Early-bird tickets are $25 when purchased before 10 a.m. Friday, Nov. 24. Tickets will be $30 from Nov. 25 until the day of show. Joining Thompson on stage is his long-time band: Timothy Courts on drums, Ryan Kennedy on guitars, John Inghram on bass, and special guest vocalist Maria Muldaur and Special Guest James Moore on trumpet.
Maria Muldaur is best known worldwide for her 1974 mega-hit “Midnight at the Oasis,” which received several Grammy nominations. Her 55-plus year career could best be described as a long and adventurous odyssey through the various forms of American Roots Music. Maria has toured extensively worldwide and has recorded 41 solo albums covering all kinds of American Roots Music, including Gospel, R&B, Jazz and Big Band. She has now settled comfortably into her favorite idiom, the Blues. In September 2019, the Americana Music Association awarded Maria “The Lifetime Achievement Americana Trailblazer Award” for her lifelong work of covering the depth and breadth of American Roots music.
The world-renowned jazz pianist Bob Thompson is the Mountain State’s best-loved musician and ambassador of jazz. Since 1991, he has been a pianist, and regularly featured artist, on WVPB’s syndicated radio show, Mountain Stage, distributed by NPR Music. For 30 years now, he has also been co-producer and host of Joy to the World, a holiday jazz show broadcast on public radio stations nationwide. In October 2015, Thompson was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame. He makes his home in Charleston, West Virginia, and has enjoyed a long and active career as a performer, composer, arranger and educator. Learn more about his work at colortones.com.
Watch and listen for last season’s show coming in December on WVPB radio and television.
The public is invited to join Us & Them podcast host Trey Kay for a deep discussion on journalism and trust in the news media.
Updated on Oct. 17, 2023 at 12:30 p.m.
Join us Thursday, Oct. 19 at 4 p.m. in the Atrium of Marshall University’s Drinko Library
HUNTINGTON, WEST VIRGINIA — The public is invited to join Us & Them podcast host Trey Kay for a deep discussion on trust in science.
“Diminished Trust: How Do We Restore Faith in Science?” Thursday, Oct. 19, at 4 p.m. in the Atrium of Marshall University’s Drinko Library. Kay will talk with Dr. Jonathan Zimmerman, University of Pennsylvania’s education historian and author of “Whose America? Culture Wars in the Public Schools”; Dr. Habiba Chichir, Marshall University’s biological anthropologist; and Dr. Adam Franks, MD, Associate Residency Director for Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine.
The event is free and open to the public and includes an audience Q&A segment with preference given to students. The live event will be taped for use in a future episode of Us & Them. The event is co-sponsored by Marshall University’s John Deaver Drinko Academy, the West Virginia Humanities Council and West Virginia Public Broadcasting, the broadcasting home of Us & Them.
Last month, Kay and his team hosted a “Diminished Trust” event at West Virginia University that focused on waning public trust in journalism and the news media. Kay says, “Trust is in short supply in America these days. Across the board and across the political spectrum people seem to lack trust in our government… in many of our agencies and organizations – even in each other. That’s why our Us & Them team is staging these conversations to encourage citizens to consider how long our society can sustain this erosion of trust.”
“The current diminishment of trust in science is one expression of anti-intellectualism, a longer trend in our culture, and one which waxes and wanes,” says Dr. Monserrat Miller, Executive Director of Marshall’s John Deaver Drinko Academy. “Diminishing trust in science, though, is something that we need to explore and discuss because it poses a range of dangers from public health to cynicism about the idea of truth itself.”
Us & Them’s guests for this event include:
Dr. Jonathan Zimmerman is Professor of History of Education and the Berkowitz Professor in Education at the University of Pennsylvania. A former Peace Corps volunteer and high school teacher, Zimmerman is the author of “Whose America? Culture Wars in the Public Schools” (University of Chicago Press, 2nd ed.) and eight other books. Zimmerman is also a columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer and a frequent contributor to the Washington Post, the New York Review of Books, and other popular publications. Zimmerman taught for 20 years at New York University, where he received its Distinguished Teaching Award in 2008.
Dr. Habiba Chirchir is a biological anthropologist and anatomist. Her research focuses on understanding the relationship between changes in skeletal anatomy and behavior by investigating trabecular and cortical bone. She conducts comparative analyses of anatomical features in fossil human ancestors, modern humans, other primates and non-primate animals including dogs and big cats using CT imaging. Chirchir earned a BA from the University of Nairobi, an MA from New York University, and a PhD from George Washington University. Chirchir is a research associate at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.
Dr. Adam M. Franks is a family medicine physician at Marshall Health, and a professor and vice chair of the department of family and community health at Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. Franks’ practice provides full-spectrum care for children and adults, including obstetric and gynecologic care. His research areas include COVID-19 protocols, opioid monitoring protocols, and blood borne pathogen exposure monitoring protocol adherence.
Trey Kay is the creator and host of Us & Them, a podcast/radio program distributed by PRX that airs on West Virginia Public Broadcasting. Kay’s passion for reporting on culture wars began in his hometown of Charleston, W.Va., with “The Great Textbook War” (2009), a radio documentary. He followed that award winning work with “The Long Game: Texas’ Ongoing Battle for the Direction of the Classroom” (2013), which he researched as a Spencer Fellow for Education Reporting at the Columbia Journalism School. He’s produced for This American Life, The New Yorker Radio Hour, Marketplace, American RadioWorks, Morning Edition, Inside Appalachia and PBS Frontline. Kay also taught at the Columbia Journalism School, Marist College and at the State University of New York at New Paltz. He splits his time between New York’s Hudson Valley and West Virginia’s Kanawha Valley.
***Editor’s note: A previous version of this news release incorrectly stated the Marshall event would be a discussion on journalism and trust in the news media. The Marshall event will be a deep discussion on trust in science.
West Virginia Public Broadcasting (WVPB) received four w3 Awards from the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts during their 18th Annual ceremony.
CHARLESTON, WV: West Virginia Public Broadcasting (WVPB) received four w3 Awards from the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts during their 18th Annual ceremony. Receiving thousands of entries annually from across the globe, the w3 Awards honors outstanding Websites, Online Marketing, Web Video, Mobile Sites and Apps, Social, Podcasts, and Emerging Tech created by some of the best digital content creators across the industry.
“West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s video department always produces award-winning stories that have meaning and showcase the best in musical entertainment,“ states Eddie Isom, WVPB Interim Executive Director. “We’re proud of their hard work and are excited to see it recognized not only on TV, but in digital media as well.”
GOLD AWARD
Edible Mountain (General Video – Environmental & Sustainability) Edible Mountain
SILVER AWARDS
Blue Demons: A West Virginia Legacy (Genera Video-Sports) Blue Demons
Blue Demons: A West Virginia Legacy (General Video – Documentary – Short Form) Blue Demons
West Virginia Music Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony 2023 (General Video – Live Streaming) WVMHOF 2023
Mountain Stage (General Video – Live Streaming) Mountain Stage
The w3 Awards honors creative excellence on the web, and recognizes the people behind award-winning Websites, Online Marketing, Web Video, Mobile Sites and Apps, Social, Podcasts, and Emerging Tech. In honoring the best of the Web, the w3 Awards is the first major digital competition to be accessible to the biggest agencies, the smallest firms, and everyone in between. Small firms are as likely to win as Fortune 500 companies and international agencies.
The w3 Awards is sanctioned by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts, an invitation-only body of top-tier professionals from acclaimed media, interactive, advertising, and marketing organizations like Walt Disney Studios, Lippe Taylor, Meta, Publicis Sapient, Netflix, IBM, NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, LG, and Wired Magazine among many others. For more information about the w3 Awards, please visit www.w3award.com.
You can watch and stream Edible Mountain, Blue Demons, the WV Music Hall of Fame Ceremony and other award-winning shows online at wvpublic.org, on our YouTube channel, or by downloading the WVPB app. It’s free and available in the Apple store or via Google Play – just search for West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
The podcast is available every Saturday at 8 a.m. Visit our podcast page to listen to our latest episode and learn what happened this week in West Virginia.
New weekly podcast highlighting stories featured on West Virginia Morning
CHARLESTON, WV: West Virginia Week is a new, web-only podcast from West Virginia Public Broadcasting that looks back at the major news of the week. The podcast is available every Saturday at 8 a.m. Visit our podcast page to listen to our latest episode and learn what happened this week in West Virginia.
WVPB will be rotating hosts from the newsroom, adding their unique sound to the podcast. For daily news, don’t miss West Virginia Morning at 7:43 a.m., Monday-Friday on WVPB Radio, our live stream at wvpublic.org, or through the WVPB mobile app.
“West Virginia Week gives us a way to reach a new audience with some of our most important stories from the week before,” said Eric Douglas, West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s News Director. “Our job is to tell West Virginia’s story to as many people as we can reach, and this gives us a chance to reach them on their schedule.”
You can also watch, listen, and stream this and other award-winning broadcasts by downloading the WVPB app. It’s free and available in the Apple App Store or via Google Play Story – just search for West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
The public is invited to join Us & Them podcast host Trey Kay for a deep discussion on journalism and trust in the news media. The event will be held on Sept. 20 at Reynolds Hall on West Virginia University’s campus in Morgantown.
Join us Wednesday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. in Reynolds Hall on the WVU Campus
MORGANTOWN, WV — The public is invited to join Us & Them podcast host Trey Kay for a deep discussion on journalism and trust in the news media.
“Diminished Trust: How Do We Restore Faith In The News Media?” will take place Wednesday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. in Reynolds Hall on the West Virginia University (WVU) campus. Kay will talk with special guests Raney Aronson-Rath, editor-in-chief and executive producer of PBS Frontline, and June Cross, director of the documentary journalism program at the Columbia Journalism School.
The event is free and open to the public and includes a Q&A section for attendees with precedence given to students. The live event will be taped for use in a future episode of Us & Them.
The event is co-sponsored by WVU’s Reed College of Media, the WVU Division of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, the West Virginia Humanities Council and West Virginia Public Broadcasting, the broadcasting home of Us & Them.
Kay says the premise of the episode is right in the title. “Do you trust what you hear reported on the radio, read online or in print, or see on television?” Kay asks. “What does a lack of trust in our “Fourth Estate” mean for democracy in America? In the Mountain State? In Morgantown? At a land-grant university like West Virginia University? Is this lack of faith in the watchdogs of news an existential threat to who we are? How do we regain this trust? These are critical questions today.”
Us & Them guests and host are respected in their fields:
Raney Aronson-Rath is the editor-in-chief and executive producer of Frontline, PBS’ flagship investigative journalism series, and is a leading voice on the future of journalism. She oversees the program’s acclaimed investigative reporting on air and online, and directs the series’ editorial vision — executive producing more than 20 in-depth documentaries each year on critical issues facing the country and the world. At a time when broad skepticism of the news media has reached new highs, Aronson-Rath has cemented her program’s reputation as a source of trustworthy and consistent investigative journalism. Under her leadership, Frontline has won every major award in broadcast journalism including Peabody Awards, Emmy Awards, and, in 2019, the first Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Gold Baton to be awarded in a decade. Frontline has been honored with myriad other journalism awards including Overseas Press Club Awards, Scripps Howard Awards, and in 2020, for the first time in the series’ history, the Nieman Foundation’s Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism and the Peabody Institutional Award. She led an ongoing charge for transparency in journalism – through the Frontline Transparency Project, an effort to open up the source material behind the program’s reporting. She served as the sole public media representative on the Knight Commission on Trust, Media, and Democracy, a blue-ribbon panel that published a landmark report on the causes and consequences of growing distrust in democratic institutions, including the press.
June Cross is Columbia University’s Fred W. Friendly Professor of Media and Society and director of the Documentary Journalism Program. She is a winner of the duPont-Columbia Journalism Award, a National Emmy and a 2021 Peabody Award. Her career has highlighted stories of the dispossessed and the intersection of race, politics and public health. She is best known for “Secret Daughter,” an autobiographical documentary made in 1996 which was later developed into a memoir by the same name. She began her career as an intern at The Boston Globe and PBS’ flagship station, WGBH. She went on to what is now PBS NewsHour, and then to CBS News, before obtaining a job as staff producer at PBS Frontline, where she worked for nine years. She joined the Columbia Journalism School in 2001 and received tenure in 2006.
Us & Them host Trey Kay speaks with a class of podcasting students at WVU‘s Reed College for Media Studies. These students will help Kay‘s team with the presentation of the live event that will focus on “restoring faith in the news media.” This event will feature Raney Aronson-Rath, editor in chief and executive producer for PBS Frontline, and award-winning documentarian June Cross. This event will be recorded and used in a future episode of WVPB‘s Us & Them.
Courtesy WVU
Trey Kay is the creator and host of Us & Them, a podcast/radio program produced by PRX for play on West Virginia Public Broadcasting. Kay’s passion for reporting on culture wars began in his hometown of Charleston, W.Va., with “The Great Textbook War” (2009), a radio documentary he produced with Deborah George. It was honored with Peabody, Murrow, and duPont-Columbia journalism awards. He later produced “The Long Game: Texas’ Ongoing Battle for the Direction of the Classroom” (2013), which he researched as a Spencer Fellow for Education Reporting at the Columbia Journalism School. In 2005, he shared in another Peabody for his contribution to Studio 360’s “American Icons: Moby Dick.” He’s produced for This American Life, The New Yorker Radio Hour, Marketplace, American RadioWorks, Morning Edition, Inside Appalachia and PBS Frontline. Kay also taught at the Columbia Journalism School, Marist College and at the State University of New York at New Paltz. He splits his time between New York’s Hudson Valley and West Virginia’s Kanawha Valley.
The taping at WVU is the first in a series of public Us & Them events focused on diminished trust in America. In October 2023, the show will travel south to Marshall University in Huntington for a discussion on trust in science.
