In recognition of the exceptional public service provided by a trio of radio stations during Hurricane Helene — when nearly all other communication infrastructure had failed — the Town of Canton has named them grand marshals for the annual downtown Christmas parade.

It’s hard to know what to write about when my mind is swirling in so many directions, as I’m sure most of yours are as well. As someone said, not only were the effects of Hurricane Helene on a mountain region improbable, they were unimaginable.

During a recent morning drive to Asheville, I felt a yearning to listen to National Public Radio (NPR). Typically my phone automatically connects to Bluetooth and a random song from Spotify plays from the speakers.

In the winter of 1978, Terryll Evans was a ninth grader in Orlando, Florida. But, by March, she and her family would pack up everything and move hundreds of miles away to the mountains of Haywood County — an unknown landscape for the teenager. 

Another poll, another reality check for the media: Americans don’t trust us. The question that comes to mind, for me, is who does the public does trust for reporting the news? 

A Gallup poll released late last year revealed that 60 percent of Americans don’t think the media accurately and fairly reports the news, and 33 percent have absolutely no trust or confidence in the media. Finally, a whopping 27 percent have “not very much” trust in mass media (newspapers, television and radio).

Not far from Main Street in Canton and the bright lights of the nearby football stadium is an unassuming one-story commercial building along Pisgah Drive. With a couple of vehicles in the parking lot last Thursday evening, a lone light radiates from the front window of WPTL. 

Walking down the empty hallways of the WNCW studios on the campus of Isothermal Community College in Spindale, Martin Anderson passes by silent offices on his way to broadcast in front of a microphone for all of Western North Carolina to hear. 

It’s been a long, strange trip for radio host Pete Kaliner, who came into the industry just as it was beginning an era of dramatic change. In many ways, his 20-something year career in Western North Carolina broadcast journalism mirrors the ebbs and flows of the modern media waterline.

In terms of journalism and media in North Carolina, very few names are as recognizable as that of Frank Stasio. Host of the WUNC (North Carolina Public Radio) weekday program “The State of Things” (based out of the American Tobacco Historic District in Durham), Stasio and his platform have become a beacon of light for politics, culture, history and societal dialogue across the Tar Heel State. 

In almost every living American resides at least one sepia-toned memory embellished with song — that perpetual score to a first kiss, or a last dance.