Three Song Stories

Sandra Viktorova is a familiar voice to WGCU listeners and viewers - she joined us here in 2022 on the radio side as a host and then helped launch our TV news magazine program Southwest Florida In Focus as host and senior producer—the show won a regional Emmy in its first year and just recently went from one to five nights a week. 

Sandra earned a National Edward R. Murrow award for her documentary film, Dream School: A Jou...

Gareth Rockliffe is a fine art photographer, filmmaker, songwriter, and creator of the award-winning short-film series called Contemplations, which blend his images and spoken words to explore themes such as love, loss, awareness, and connection. In recent years, that same reflective voice has found its way into his songwriting.

SONG 1: Glenn Miller and his orchestra’s “Moonlight Serenade” released in 1944. https://youtu.be...

Robert William Green, Jr. (Mr. Green)  graduated  high school in Shreveport, Louisiana with a full football scholarship to Morris Brown College in Atlanta. He transferred and received a Bachelor’s degree in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Master’s degree in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. 

He came to Florida in 2003, and taught 7th grade World Geography at Bonita Springs ...

J Schwanke is Host & Creator of J Schwanke’s Life in Bloom, on PBS Create channels around the country. He’s been referred to by viewers as “The Bob Ross of Flowers” or even “The Mr. Rogers of Flowers”. He shows how to incorporate flowers into your life and enjoy a “flower lifestyle” - encouraging people to think beyond just arranging with flowers to crafts and recipes and beverages that include flowers.

J also makes the...

Laureen is a Billboard-charting songwriter with artist cuts across multiple genres. After graduating from Fort Myers High School, she earned her college degree and a master’s degree before moving to Amish country, where she worked as a Teacher of the Deaf. A prolonged personal health crisis ultimately prompted a pivot toward songwriting, leading her to Nashville. The very first song she wrote in Nashville, co-written with ...

Larry Ford (father of episode 75 guest Seth Ford) is a Grammy winning gospel singer who’s found audiences all over the world because of his truly commanding voice. Originally from Lubbock, Texas, Larry’s work has taken him to 49 of the 50 states -- and to as far away as South Korea and South America. He's also sang the National Anthem for the Boston Red Sox or Tampa Bay Lightning. 

Larry has attracted a legion of admirers w...

Marlin Miller is publisher of Plain Values, a quarterly magazine dedicated to the notion that faith-centered simple living within community is still possible today. Through it, he and his wife Lisa also operate the nonprofit Room to Bloom - they raise money to help families adopt kids with Down Syndrome and special needs. 

They also founded Juneberry Hill Schoolhouse - a multi-age, inclusive homeschool co-op one room school...

Matt Ross is an entrepreneur, author, and media executive. From 1989 to 2005, Matt led some major radio brands, including: New York’s Classic Rock Station, Q104.3 - and and its Hip Hop Station, Hot 97. He then invested in and became CEO of School of Rock. Under his leadership, School of Rock grew from 5 locations to 55.

In 2012, Matt founded One River School in Englewood, New Jersey with a mission to “Transform Art Educatio...

 Pam James has been a part of the WGCU Public Media team and family since 2013 - he’s been our Executive Producer of Content since 2020, leading our different teams across media platforms including radio and TV and how it all becomes digital these days. 

She began her career in 1995 as a TV producer for Kansas City Public Television (now KCPBS) where she created award-winning documentaries, magazine stories, interstitials, ...

John Joyce is host of the Solid State Podcast, it’s a weekly program devoted to all things tech. 

Born and raised in Fort Myers, John founded the computer firm Republic Technologies, while in college, and eventually merged it with CRS Technology Consultants to form one of this region’s largest IT firms which he is now CEO and Co-Owner of.

His partnership with the IT Disaster Resource Center brought connectivity back to South...

Jen Chapin was born and raised in New York in Huntington, Long Island - the daughter of Harry and Sandy Chapin. Over the years has produced a bunch of albums of her own music, including Open Wide, Linger, Ready, and Reckoning. She also put out a tribute album called ReVisions: Songs of Stevie Wonder. Recently she’s been performing with the J.Chapes Jazz Band which includes her husband, jazz bassist Stephan Crump.

Over the d...

Janine is an artist who has worked on The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell, and she did network work for shows including 20/20 and The View and things on PBS. She also produced a 4-hour watercolor course with renowned watercolor artist, Charles Reid.

A trip to Italy in high school illuminated her love for travel and experiencing other cultures. While living in Victoria, BC she entered the world of media pr...

Nancy Cote is Executive Director of Beacon of HOPE Pine Island, where she leads transformative efforts to strengthen education, recovery, and community resilience across Bokeelia, Saint James City, and Matlacha. Originally from Mexico but raised in California, Nancy has developed a deep understanding of diverse life experiences—from immigrants to combat veterans—thanks to her personal journey and professional background.

SO...

Andrew Bennett was born and raised in North Carolina, and then during high school, his dad’s job brought the family to Utah, where he attended college at Brigham Young University. He’s a lawyer who has called Southwest Florida home for the past 15 years. He and his wife moved to Naples in 2010 so he could attend law school at Ave Maria School of Law. They have three fully-Floridian kids ages 9, 11, and 13.  He mostly pract...

Charles Monroe-Kane is a Peabody award-winning radio producer who spent 24 years as a senior producer and interviewer for the national public radio show To the Best of Our Knowledge which WGCU aired on Saturday mornings until about a month ago when it ended at least in part due to recent funding cuts across the public radio world.

His 2024 audio documentary, “The Spirit of Jim Thorpe,” was awarded first place by the Indigen...

Sheri Castle was the host and producer of the Emmy-winning PBS cooking show The Key Ingredient - for three seasons. She’s also an award-winning professional food writer, recipe developer, and cooking teacher known for melding stories, humor, and culinary expertise. Sheri has authored a tall stack of cookbooks and her writing and recipes appear in a long list of publications, including her role as featured monthly columnist...

Rob Kovacs is a multi-award-winning video game composer, pianist, songwriter, and Twitch streamer who bridges the worlds of gaming and music. He’s known online as 88bit, and performs at major gaming events like PAX, MAGFest, and TwitchCon. 

Rob made history in 2005 when he was a senior in college when he became the first person to perform Steve Reich’s Piano Phase solo on two pianos at once…one piano for each hand…the piece...

Jason Colannino is a singer-songwriter who was born and raised on the Jersey shore but has called Boynton Beach home since the early 90s.

Jason has recorded four albums of his original songs: Since 1969, Piece of the Sun, Lost in Vacation, and his most recent A Hawaiian Music Tribute, which is a collection of cover songs by Hawaiian songwriters because in recent years Jason added the ukulele to his act after a trip to Hawai...