John Davis
Host, Reporter, Assistant News Directorjrdavis@wgcu.org
John Davis has been a Reporter/Producer for WGCU since 2007. For more than a decade he served as the local host for NPR’s Morning Edition. He currently serves as producer and host of WGCU’s radio talk program Gulf Coast Life Arts Edition with John Davis. Prior to joining WGCU, he worked at WDUQ-FM in Pittsburgh, PA (now WESA) covering local government and general assignments. John studied journalism at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, before earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication from Florida Gulf Coast University. His work has garnered awards from the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania, the Radio Television Digital News Association, and a first-place award and “Best in Show” from the Florida Associated Press for his investigative work in 2011. Davis helped lead news team coverage around the clock during Hurricane Irma in 2017, which won a National Edward R. Morrow Award. More recently, his election and political coverage has garnered awards from the Florida Association of Broadcast Journalists.
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Pine Island artists Deb Zwetsch and Zan Lombardo have collaborated on a joint exhibition now at the Alliance for the Arts in Fort Myers titled, “We Contain Multitudes.” The artists join us live in studio to talk about the exhibition, their artistic inspirations and their artistic approaches, both collaboratively and as individual artists. -
We listen back to last week’s forum with City of Naples Mayoral candidates ahead of the March 19 election. The forum included all three candidates: incumbent Mayor Teresa Heitmann, current Naples City Councilman Ted Blankenship, and former councilman Gary Price. The forum was moderated by WGCU’s John Davis and Naples Daily News Executive Editor Wendy Fullerton Powell, and organized by the League of Women Voters of Collier County and the Collier Forum Coalition. -
Fort Myers-based artist Ananda War holds her first solo exhibition at DAAS CO-OP Art Gallery & Gifts titled “IS.” War is also a tattoo artist and owner of the Light Hand Tattoo & Healing Arts studio. Ahead of the exhibition’s opening reception, Feb. 2, War joins us in studio to talk about her creative process, her art and its connection to the metaphysical. -
The Southwest Florida Symphony’s next Masterworks concert, Feb 3, will feature Naples-based pianist Alexandra Carlson performing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, along with performances of Gideon Klein’s Partita for Strings, and Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8. We’ll delve into the program in a conversation with Maestro Radu Paponiu and the symphony’s community outreach ambassador Robert Van Winkle. -
The Wasmer Art Gallery at Florida Gulf Coast University hosts an installation titled “A Tenuous Framework,” Jan. 18 – Feb. 29. The installation comes from artistic collaborators and married couple Brent Budsberg and Shana McCaw. The exhibition continues the artists exploration of perceptions of history, ancestral memory, and psychological displacement. We take a deeper dive into the installation in a conversation with the artists and Wasmer Art Gallery Director John Loscuito. -
Surface pattern designer turned award-winning expressionist painter Kim McAninch now has an exhibition at the Alliance for the Arts titled “It Makes Me Wonder.” We talk with the Sarasota-based artist about the exhibit, her background, and her creative process. -
As state lawmakers convene Florida’s 2024 legislative session Tuesday, Jan 9, we take a closer look at bills legislators will be considering over the course of the 60-day session tackling a broad range of issues including healthcare access, voting, firearm regulation, child labor laws, minors on social media, the property insurance crisis, and public education. We’ll hear from University of Central Florida Political Scientist Aubrey Jewett, Ph.D., and Opinion Editor of the Sun Sentinel Steve Bousquet. -
The Southwest Florida Symphony kicks off 2024 with the second concert of this season’s Masterworks series. The performance features Grammy winning violinist and vocalist Charles Yang performing arrangements of songs by The Beatles and the Animals. The concert also includes a performance of perhaps the most well-known classical composition in modern times, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. -
Gulf Coast Life Arts Edition’s 2023 year-end music review is look back at some of the musicians featured on the program over the past year. We’ll hear original music from a broad spectrum of music genres as well as conversation with the artists telling stories about what inspired their songs. -
The Florida Repertory Theatre is performing Katori Hall’s play “The Mountaintop,” which serves as a fictional reimagining Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s last night before his assassination after delivering his historic “I Have Been to the Mountaintop” speech. We’ll hear from the production’s director, Ansley Valentine.
