Hot Seat: Media Monday with Ron Klopfanstein

🎙️ This week on Hot Seat: Media Monday , we spotlight independent creativity, community, and perseverance across the Mohawk Valley. 🎬 Pete Colter , creator and producer of the upcoming retro horror anthology Carrion Creek , joins us to discuss bringing the series to life, launching its Kickstarter campaign, and why he's bringing back the classic 22-episode TV season. 🌮 Then we sit down with Sari...

This week on Hot Seat: Media Monday... ☕ Jeff Miller from Coffee, Tea & a Ph. D. joins us to discuss his innovative lecture series at The Tram, lifelong learning, and the history of segregation in Upstate New York. 🎵 Musical guest Citizen Lou returns with two original performances, including a song written especially for Hot Seat: Media Monday. 🎤 Lily Christopher and I speak with the childr...

This week on Hot Seat: Media Monday, Ron Klopfanstein brings together comedy, music, culture, creativity, and community. The episode features comedian Brandon Ciotti, who talks about stand-up comedy, joke writing, stage confidence, bombing, improv, and his upcoming comedy night at Players of Utica on June 27. Recording artist Amanda Marie, also known as Batmanda, joins the show to discuss her musi...

“Stories are what make us and shape us.” This week on Hot Seat: Media Monday , we celebrate Pride, creativity, identity, and the power of telling your own story. We take you to the Oneida County Pride Festival at the Clinton Arena, where the community came together for a celebration of diversity, inclusion, equality, and belonging. Then artist Lorraine Krameyer joins us with our own Jim Hale to ta...

Hot Seat: Media Monday on 95.5 FM The Heat 🔥 | S2:E36 This week: ⚡ Thomas Roy, the Oneida-Madison Electric Cooperative's 2026 Student Scholarship Award winner, joins us to discuss his recent trip to Washington, D.C., where he advocated for rural electric cooperatives and learned firsthand how grassroots organizations work with government leaders to address issues affecting local communities....

Hot Seat: Media Monday with Ron Klopfanstein on 95.5 FM The Heat 🔥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/o3OVMLZ-TqE This week’s episode brings together Pride Month, local history, original music, and a big-picture conversation about artificial intelligence, robotics, and the future. Ron opens the show with Ace Morreale of the Oneida County Pride Alliance for a conversation about Pr...

This week on Hot Seat: Media Monday 🔥 An exclusive interview with a juror from the Mid-State Correctional Facility beating death case. Plus: Real People Real Lives Podcast, Westmoreland’s Hometown Heroes, and a JavaScript Game Development Camp for students. Watch the full episode now. #HotSeatMediaMonday #MediaMonday #UticaNY #MohawkValley #LocalNews #CommunityStories

This week’s Hot Seat: Media Monday with Ron Klopfanstein on 95.5 FM The Heat 🔥 brings together community, culture, comics, summer movies, horror, and creativity. We open with a feature story from the Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Celebration at Parkway Recreation Center, hosted by the Midtown Utica Community Center. It was a beautiful celebration of food, music, dance, family...

Hot Seat: Media Monday S2:E32 — Catstock 6, May Day, CFLR Open Mic & Biker Brotherhood 🎥 Watch the full show here: https://youtu.be/2xuypWbh4vg This week on Hot Seat: Media Monday with Ron Klopfanstein on 95.5 FM The Heat 🔥 , we bring together music, animal rescue, workers’ rights, recovery, motorcycle culture, and community. We open the show with John Chesebro , who previews Catstock 6 , a...

This week on Hot Seat: Media Monday with Ron Klopfanstein on 95.5 FM The Heat 🔥, we explore resilience, grief, faith, history, science, creativity, and the power of sharing our stories. We begin at Grace Episcopal Church in Utica with a feature story on its rare Henry Holiday stained glass windows — priceless works of art connected to Helen Munson Williams and her daughters, Rachel Munson William...

This week on Hot Seat: Media Monday with Ron Klopfanstein on 95.5 FM The Heat 🔥, we move from myth and identity, to 4/20 community culture, to a deeply powerful conversation about trauma, healing, and survival. We begin with writer A.S. Galbraith, whose work explores fairy tale, folklore, queerness, neurodivergence, chronic illness, and life at the margins. We talk about why ancient stories still...

This week on Hot Seat: Media Monday with Ron Klopfanstein on 95.5 FM The Heat 🔥, we bring you a show packed with creativity, community impact, and local achievement. First, Photojournalist and AI Content Producer Jim Hale, Associate Producer Nick Phillips, and I take you to Utica University for a look at Armada, an early modern swashbuckling stage combat spectacle written and directed by Jim Drak...

This week on Hot Seat: Media Monday with Ron Klopfanstein on 95.5 FM The Heat 🔥 , we bring you a powerful episode about leadership, service, joy, and human dignity. First, I sit down with Cassandra Harris Lockwood — owner of 95.5 FM The Heat , CEO of For The Good Inc. , longtime activist, artist, journalist, and community leader — to talk about her life, her work, and receiving a Lifetime Achieve...

This week on Hot Seat: Media Monday with Ron Klopfanstein on 95.5 FM The Heat 🔥 , we bring you a show packed with heart, resilience, and voices from across the Mohawk Valley you need to hear. Associate Producer Nick Phillips brings you his first solo feature story for the show as he takes us to Utica Royalties’ Eid celebration in downtown Utica. Then we sit down with Kristy Russitano of Finding t...

This week’s 95.5 FM Hot Seat: Media Monday with Ron Klopfanstein on 95.5 FM The Heat 🔥 is now streaming! From neon lights and dance floors to history, health, and human rights — this episode covers it all. We take you inside the Electric Garden Dance Party at 16 Stone Brew Pub, where Cleo Qupid is building something special for the Mohawk Valley nightlife scene — and proving that yes, radio still...

What do the Oscars 🎬, Ukrainian Easter eggs 🥚, HBCU football 🏈, and a neon dance party 💃 have in common? They’re all on this week’s Hot Seat: Media Monday with Ron Klopfanstein on 95.5 FM The Heat 🔥 . 🎨 A look inside Pysanky egg-making at the Kirkland Art Center 🏈 Author Bruce “Moon” Martin on The Four Horsemen 🎧 Cleo Qupid’s Electric Garden Dance Party 🎬 Nabil’s Oscar wrap-up It’s all ab...

Ron is also joined in studio by Dave Roberts , author, adjunct professor of psychology at Utica University, and host of The Teaching Journeys Podcast . Roberts shares the powerful personal story that shaped his life’s work after losing his 18-year-old daughter to cancer in 2003. In a moving conversation about grief, resilience, and spirituality, Roberts reminds listeners that “we get through grief...

Sometimes the best stories come from the people you meet by accident. This week on Hot Seat: Media Monday on 95.5 FM The Heat, my husband Jim and I were having lunch at Wendy’s in Rome when we met the incredible members of Girl Scout Troop #20010. They were out selling cookies and learning real-world skills like leadership, teamwork, and even cybersecurity—all while raising money for a trip to Leg...

This week on 95.5 FM’s Hot Seat: Media Monday , I’m joined by Jermiko Thomas (author of the Adventures of Walter series) and JWatch (writer, poet, and community producer). Jermiko talks about his new fitness planner and guide , built around motivation, hydration, and structured goals for every level, plus his new ASL children’s book inspired by sign language being his first way to communicate. JWa...

💪🏾 Movement. Mental Health. Momentum. This week on 95.5 FM’s Hot Seat: Media Monday, we spotlight community, empowerment, and open conversations that matter. First, I sit down with Shawnda McDowell, founder of SistasNMotion, and Gaelon Woodard, Director of BrothasNMotion, along with Assistant Director Brother Kaseem, to talk about fitness, mental health, and the power of showing up for one anoth...

This week’s Hot Seat: Media Monday is about keeping culture alive — through language, craft, and community. I talk with Jen Rizzio (Gen X), creator of Curious About Welsh, about the Welsh word hiraeth and how learning Welsh became part of her healing journey through PTSD, neurological illness, and autism. Language as resilience. Creativity as therapy. We also visit the Oneida County NAACP’s Black...

This week on Hot Seat: Media Monday, we go behind the scenes with Soul Mine, the veteran R&B/funk band with over 20 years of experience. Vocalists Shelly Harris and Jenn Klemenz, along with keyboardist Fred Shattell, share their musical journey, influences from 60's R&B to 80's synth pop, and how they keep audiences energized with fresh, dynamic performances. We also celebrate a bi...

This week on Hot Seat: Media Monday, I sit down with author Peter A Colter to talk about his powerful new novel Home, plus his journey through writing, faith, creativity, and mental health. We also connect with Brian Lazore from Lazore Photography about content creation and social media, spotlight the grand opening of Utica Creative Reuse, and talk about JetLab Studios with Shane MagikVisions and...

This week on 95.5 FM’s Hot Seat: Media Monday , host Ron Klopfanstein takes listeners from community celebrations rooted in tradition to thoughtful conversations about creativity, identity, and compassion in the Mohawk Valley. The show opens with coverage of the Mohawk Valley Latino Association’s Three Kings Day celebration , a vibrant event filled with food, music, and joy that highlights the cul...

This week on Hot Seat: Media Monday on 95.5 FM The Heat, Ron Klopfanstein sits down with Nabil Khan and Cassandra Powers , the creators of the horror audio drama podcast Holiday Fear , to talk fear, storytelling, and the grind of creating something from scratch. The conversation digs into why horror works, how fear pulls people together, and what it takes to build a podcast through collaboration a...