Press release from WPVM 103.7FM Asheville:
Community radio station WPVM 103.7FM — featuring the arts and culture of Asheville, North Carolina — proudly announces its partnership with NCServes Western, a local division of AmericaServes. The non-profit organizations offer veterans, service members and their families access to a range of supportive sources from superior housing and emergency service providers to employment, recreation and fitness, health and well-being, financial capabilities and more.
Beginning with its premiere in February, each show of the ‘NCServes Western Veterans Radio Hour’ is presented live on the first Thursday of the month at 11 a.m. and rebroadcast on subsequent Thursdays at the same time. Each monthly production will present experts in specific fields important to veterans and their families. In March, to honor Women’s History Month, the program features “Women Veterans and Transition” with Marine Corps and Air Force veterans. Featured guest, Christy Shortridge, an Air Force veteran currently working on her master’s degree in social work, shared: “WPVM is giving us veterans an unstifled voice to speak to our brothers and sisters in a very candid manner that otherwise we wouldn’t have. We are so grateful.”
Guests planned for future shows include: Ashley Cole of Vaya Health on “Suicide Prevention”; Kristie Reisig of Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry (ABCCM) and Leigh Hackney of Homeward Bound speaking on “Housing Programs for Veterans”; John Mashie, executive director of the Veterans Healing Farm and Shannon Knapp, executive director of Horse Sense of the Carolinas; and a show planned later in the year with a number of veterans sharing their success stories.
AmericaServes, now in its fifth year, is the country’s first coordinated system of public, private, and non-profit organizations working together to serve veterans, service members and their families, easing the way for them to a full range of comprehensive services required for their particular needs. Brandon Wilson, managing director of Veteran Services of the Carolinas (VSC) and NCServes Western, divisions of ABCCM, notes that Buncombe County, North Carolina, is home to 19,908 Veterans; this is the largest veteran population in the western 26 counties which totals more than 90,000 veterans.
Following their mission of giving back to their much-loved Asheville community, managers of WPVM 103.7FM, Ms. Davyne Dial and Dr. Herbert Johnson, who acquired the FCC license for the not-for-profit station in June of 2015 (building the long-dormant station into a strong, positive voice of the community), consider it a privilege to broadcast the ‘NCServes Western Veterans Radio Hour’. The couple sees the program as a vital addition to their already notable lineup of informed show hosts well-versed in the fields of arts and culture, with a focus on vintage and regional music, as well as politics and current events—all covering subjects important to Asheville and the surrounding communities.
“It’s especially reassuring to know that women veterans and veterans’ families are being cared for and offered support services through NCServes Western,” remarked Ms. Dial, who is the daughter of a World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War veteran, as well as the former wife of a Vietnam War combat serviceman. “I’m happy that WPVM can play a part in focusing on these needs. In fact, I felt working with this group was nothing less than a sacred opportunity.”
Emphasizing its commitment to community and a vigorous downtown, WPVM studios are located in the historic Public Service/Self Help Building on Wall Street near the celebrated Grove Park Arcade. Setting the standard for community radio in Asheville, WPVM FM is the first to have live video on social media, with programs available to be heard and seen on Facebook. WPVM is available locally at 103.7FM; people anywhere in the world can listen on WPVMfm.org as well as with APPS from iTunes or Google Play; and via the new WPVM channel on Roku.
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