AFP produces TV spot for 2012 Business Showcase
Augusta Free Press produced the TV commercial spot for the Greater Augusta Regional Chamber of Commerce 2012 Business Showcase.
The spot will air on WHSV-TV3 and Comcast. The 2012 Business Showcase is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 9, from 1-5 p.m. at the Best Western Waynesboro Inn & Suites Conference Center. Read more
Local TV show ready to hit the big time
The “Virginia Dreams” of a group of local country-music artists will soon take “Center Stage” on national TV.
“What we hope to do is showcase our local talent to the world,” said “Virginia Dreams Center Stage” host Tim Spears, who announced today that the country-music TV showcase will debut on RFD-TV in January.
RFD-TV is beamed into 42 million households across the United States via cable and satellite TV.
“For every star that comes in, at one time they were a local talent somewhere,” said Spears, who joined “Virginia Dreams Center Stage” in 2009.
The show got going a year earlier with a Christmas TV special put together by Nelson and Rose Swartz, the owners of the Harrisonburg Auto Mall. With the initial success of the Christmas special, “Virginia Dreams Center Stage” spun off on its own as a showcase for local Shenandoah Valley talent broadcast on the Harrisonburg-based ABC affiliate WHSV.
Spears in the program’s second season started mixing in big names like Linda Davis, T. Graham Brown, Janie Fricke and Helen Cornelius with the local talent.
The formula has proven successful.
“The show has just taken off,” said Spears, citing the show’s 6.7 local Nielsen rating as evidence of the foothold that “Virginia Dreams” has gained as it heads toward its fourth season on WHSV.
In a nice little personal twist for Spears and the cast, “Virginia Dreams Center Stage” will serve as a lead-in for reruns of the country-music TV classic “Hee Haw” when it debuts on RFD-TV on Sunday nights in January.
“I used to sit with my granddaddy and watch ‘Hee Haw’ on Saturdays and Sunday afternoons,” Spears said. “Sitting back as a 12-, 13-, 14-year-old kid, watching the stars, Buck Owens, Roy Clark, so forth, on ‘Hee Haw,’ and knowing I wanted a career in country music, I never expected to be tied to their show on national television.”
Business owner steps up to benefit Meals on Wheels
Rocky Simonetti saw a story on WHSV this week about the difficulties being faced by the Staunton Senior Center getting drivers to volunteer to deliver meals through its Meals on Wheels program due to high gas prices.
And then he did something about it.
“Gas is getting so high – three dollars and five cents a gallon now – it probably costs them twenty-five, thirty dollars a week to deliver that food. If they’re on fixed income, they haven’t got that extra money like that to do that. So I thought that by donating the money for the gas, that would give more people who could go deliver the food for them,” said Simonetti, the owner of Rocky’s Gold and Silver in Weyers Cave, who has donated $12,000 to the Meals on Wheels programs in Staunton/Augusta/Waynesboro and Harrisonburg/Rockingham areas to provide gas money for the delivery people.
The donations – $1,000 a month for the next year – will go to the United Way of Harrisonburg-Rockingham County and be distributed Meals on Wheels programs in the Greater Augusta and Greater Rockingham regions.
Simonetti told WHSV that he hopes his donation will spur others in the local business community to partner with local agencies coordinating Meals on Wheels deliveries.
Links
Edited by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
AFP Business.com Editors’ Blog
- Networking
- Chamber stuff
- Radio/TV interviews
Blog by Chris Graham
AFPBusiness.com
AFPBusiness.com editor Chris Graham blogs on a recent guest visit to a BNI networking group in Harrisonburg, the latest news on the issue involving former Greater Augusta Regional Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Ben Carter and what Augusta Free Press Publishing can do to get you in front of TV cameras to promote your business for free.
Chris’ blog on AFP Business.com is linked here.
AFP editor on TV3, WINA to talk about Chamber controversy
Staff Report
AFPBusiness.com
AugustaFreePress.com editor Chris Graham appeared on WINA’s “Charlottesville-Right Now!” with Coy Barefoot on Tuesday to talk about the controversy over the firing of Greater Augusta Regional Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Ben Carter.
You can listen to the interview here courtesy the Charlottesville Podcasting Network.
Graham was interviewed on Wednesday for a story on the Chamber news by WHSV-TV3 news. We have the web video of the story here courtesy TV3. Read more
AFP editor on TV3 talking Election Day
WHSV-TV3 interviewed AFP editor Chris Graham on Monday as part of its Election ’09 coverage. Graham was interviewed in his capacity as the chair of the Waynesboro Democratic Committee talking about local efforts to get out the vote.
You can watch the video here. Read more
WHSV puts Children First
Posted by afp on September 12, 2010 · Leave a Comment
With the parking lots completely full, the event is still going strong after 14 years. The event not only has booths both inside and outside of the University Commons at EMU, but it also has horse and carriage rides for all the children.
“About five or six years ago, the event was rained out, so we needed a place that we could hold it rain or shine, and Eastern Mennonite is the perfect place for it,” said WHSV general manager Tracey Jones.
Volunteers from Wal-Mart donated their time on Friday to set up and Saturday during the actual event and Wal-Mart will make a donation of $5,000, which will go towards paying for the use of EMU’s facility and cleaning up afterwards.
The event was completely free for the children and their families. “Children First wanted to put on a free event for kids and give them a variety of things to do while they are here both educational and purely fun,” said Jones.
Children First Day included performances going on throughout the afternoon by the Dayton Dazzlers, JMU cheerleaders, Ronald McDonald, and Miss Virginia, among others. The event also included feeding cows, balloons, ring toss, a dunking booth and the Harrisonburg Fire Department was even there giving tours of the fire trucks to the children.
There were booths set up for games with prizes as well as painting. An assortment of food was also provided and free for the participants.
For more information on Children First, please visit www.whsv.com/childrenfirst.
Story by Jenny Hypes. Jenny can be reached at jenny.hypes@emu.edu.
Filed under Blogs · Tagged with harrisonburg virginia, whsv, whsv children first