Three Song Stories

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...

 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, magazi...

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 brough...

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 bassis...

A return to the very first (Pilot) episode of Three Song Stories with Co-creator, producer, and sometimes host, Richard Chin Quee.  Richard is FM Station manager at WGCU where he and Mike Kiniry make Three Song Stories, and this episode was the prototype for our show, today.

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 en...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 pi...

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 t...

Gabe McCauley is an Emmy-winning writer, actor, director, and storyteller who says he is driven by a singular purpose: to shape the culture of tomorrow through the power of film.  As founder of lilDRAGON and Soul Feather Studios, Gabe has built a creative legacy across genres and formats, from network TV to indie film and the feature film Heaven Bound. He’s directed nine seasons of national televi...

Sean Dietrich is Known to many or most as Sean of the South. He's Sean is a columnist, novelist, and stand-up storyteller known for his commentary on life in the American South. His work has appeared in Newsweek, Southern Living, Reader's Digest, Garden & Gun, and his column appears in newspapers throughout the U.S. He’s published fifteen books, makes the Sean of the South Podcast, and has app...

Alexis Aggrey is a director and producer who has worked with public television, cable TV, and museum clients for more than 15 years, creating documentary content that educates and inspires. In 2016, she produced three galleries of media on African American History and Culture for the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. She formed The Aggrey Company in 2019, it’s a production company she describes as a...

Jeannine Joy is the President and CEO of United Way of Lee, Hendry, and Glades Counties. She began her journey with the organization in 1995 as a Campaign Associate and has since held several leadership roles, including Vice President of Resource Development and Marketing, before assuming the CEO position in June 2019. Over her 30-year tenure, Jeannine has helped raise and distribute more than $24...

Scott Fais is host of Florida Road Trip produced by WUCF in Orlando and broadcast on PBS stations around the state including WGCU. Prior to joining Florida Road Trip in late 2023, Scott spent two decades in Central Florida as a television reporter, producer, and director. He hosted Florida on a Tankful for about a decade on News 13 in Orlando and Bay News 9 in Tampa. SONG 1: “Holiday Road" by Lind...

Abraham Joseph is co-founder and CEO of a brand new app called “BoomBox” that he’s created with a team of current and former FGCU students - he himself is currently an MBA student at FGCU. With a background in psychology and a passion for music's connective power, Abraham has transformed his personal experiences of disconnection into a platform that fosters genuine connections through shared music...

Salem Ilese is a singer-songwriter who’s probably best known for her singles “Mad at Disney” and “PS5” both of which went viral relatively early on in her career. She’s sung at venues including Outside Lands, The Forum, and The Hollywood Bowl, and has toured multiple times throughout Asia. She’s worked with artists like Demi Lovato, and Gwen Stefani.  Salem began her songwriting career at the age...

Stella Cole is a singer who has preformed at Carnegie Hall and Madison Square Garden, and in 2023, she worked with Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, touring the country, as well as Australia and New Zealand. She’s now released two albums independently with Grammy-winning producer Matt Pierson – one called simply “Stella Cole” and the other “Snow!” which featured a duet with Glee TV and Broadway...

Koura Linda is Founder & CEO of Space Dream Productions, an independent film, music, and media production company that is “grounded in the idea that all storytellers are ambassadors of humanity.”  Following a sudden and critical medical event, Koura was forced to reevaluate her life and she decided to move forward with her physical limitations and disabilities by creating an accessible space f...

Nick Berg is an American-Iranian author who was born in Tehran in 1967 to an Iranian mother and an American father, experiencing Iran’s vibrant culture and its political upheavals. His novel, Shadows of Tehran , mirrors his life through the protagonist, Ricardo, reflecting Nick’s struggles with identity, betrayal, and redemption. Nick moved to the U.S. when he was 20 and served in U.S. Army Specia...

Jason Chapin was a producer on the documentary film “Harry Chapin: When In Doubt, Do Something” which told the story of his father’s musical career and humanitarian work. And he is a producer of the soon-to-be-released “Cat’s in the Cradle 50th Anniversary Celebration” - it’s a film about the Harry Chapin’s #1 hit song that continues to impact countless lives around the world on so many levels.  J...

Zach Smith is the owner and operator of Ceremony Brewing in Bonita Springs. After nearly a decade of teaching in Collier County Public Schools, Zach's passion for the hospitality industry led him to open Ceremony Brewing in in 2021. Growing up, Zach often felt like an outsider. He was raised by a single, working-class dad and they didn’t have the luxuries that people often associate with Naples. A...

John Greene is a three-time leukemia survivor, who has channeled his grit into fundraising and advocacy for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, walking alongside others on the long road of recovery. Outside of work, he chases mountain trails, grilling the perfect steak, spending just enough time in the pool, watching Philly sports, and finding the next Phish jam — sometimes from the stage with hi...