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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Guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, and sound engineer Caleb Vilca performs live in studio. Vilca is perhaps best known as frontman of the Southwest Florida-based alt rock band Perfect Sequence, but recently dropped a new solo single titled “HEARTBEAT,” that shows a different side of his musical creativity and influences. -
The second annual Fringe Fort Myers returns May 30 – June 2. The four-day festival includes a wide array of performances from independent, experimental and alternative artists from all over the world. We get a preview from festival organizer and founder Bill Taylor. We also hear from featured performer Keith Alessi about the true experiences that inspired his one-man show “Tomatoes Tried To Kill Me But Banjoes Saved My Life.” -
In this installment from the StoryCorps Mobile Tour visit to Fort Myers in Feb. 2024, Courtney McNeil interviews her mother Leslie McGowan about their family background, choosing a career path and their shared experiences as working mothers. -
The Southwest Florida Symphony’s final performance of the season, May 18, titled “70s, 80s & 90s Unplugged” features music inspired by the popular MTV Unplugged concert series. Ahead of the show, we will hear from composer, producer, arranger, conductor, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and music educator Andrew Lipke, who created the symphonic arrangements and who will serve as maestro and featured performer. -
In this installment from the StoryCorps Mobile Tour visit to Fort Myers in Feb. 2024, Catherine Cavin interviews her mother Theresa Calabro, about her childhood, getting an education, and motherhood. -
The Southwest Florida-based improv comedy team “Oops, We’re a Troupe,” will present a fully improvised long-form musical courtroom drama titled, “Disorder in the Court,” on May 11 at the Alliance for the Arts. Troupe members Julian and Lucy Sundby talk about the troupe, the performance, and mastering the art of improv comedy. -
The 14th annual Fort Myers Film Festival runs May 22-26, 2024. Over the course of the five-day festival, more than 90 films in a broad spectrum of genres will be screened, including the unconventional love story film “In Fidelity,” starring “Saturday Night Live” alum Chris Parnell. We’ll talk with Parnell about the film and get a broader preview of this year’s festival offerings from Fort Myers Film Festival founder Eric Raddatz. -
In this installment from the StoryCorps Mobile Tour visit to Fort Myers in Feb. 2024, Susan Olson Faust interviews her mother Margaret Dietrich Olson, 89, about her childhood in the Midwest and about what life was like for her own Czechoslovakian immigrant mother. -
The Americans for the Arts’ AEP6 (Arts & Economic Prosperity Study 6) finds that Lee County’s nonprofit arts and culture sector generated more than $135 million in economic activity in 2022 and supported more than 2,500 full time jobs. We listen back to our conversation from earlier this year exploring results of the study, and the case they make for more public support for the arts, in a conversation with Alliance for the Arts Executive Director Molly Rowan-Deckart, Florida Repertory Theatre Producing Artistic Director Greg Longenhagen, and local arts reporter and advocate Tom Hall. -
In this installment from the StoryCorps Mobile Tour visit to Fort Myers in Feb. 2024, Simone Monaco interviews her 6-year-old daughter Selah, about their family’s experience with Hurricane Ian, and aspirations for the future.
