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The Newsroom

Hosted by WHQR News Director Ben Schachtman, the program will be an opportunity for local officials and reporters -- the people who make news and the people who report it -- to talk about the issues that affect our community. According to host Ben Schachtman, "Our goal is to have candid, in-depth conversations about the topics that concern our listeners. It will be a chance to dig a little deeper into the news." From WHQR Public Media in Wilmington, NC. Contact us at Newsroom@whqr.org

Latest Episodes
  • On today's show, Rachel Keith talks to Duke University assistant professor Dr. Justin Leroy about his new book, The Lowest Freedom — Racial Capitalism and Black Thought in the Nineteenth Century. We discuss American history in the context of prominent Black authors like Wilmington’s own David Walker, along with Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells.
  • Slowly but surely, plans have been moving forward to replace the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge with a new, tolled bridge. As that plan becomes much closer to a reality, the unpopular toll isn't the only concern. On today's show, two Wilmington city council members share their thoughts on the process, and how things might proceed differently.
  • On today’s show, Rachel Keith sits down with me to unpack her latest reporting on over a dozen resignations from Cape Fear Community College's nursing program. Plus, Port City Daily’s Brenna Flanagan stops by to discuss New Hanover County Schools' town hall and the latest on North Carolina’s film incentive program
  • On this episode, WHQR's Benjamin Schachtman and Rachel Keith dig into the latest season of the Scene on Radio podcast. Co-hosts John Biewen and Chenjerai Kumanyika took a long, hard look at why people are upset with the news, what’s really wrong with our media ecosystem, and how things might be different — and better.
  • This week, on The Newsroom, reporters Sofia Dinka and Kelly Kenoyer dig into the current status of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, after a private company’s bid got rejected last month. While the specifics for the replacement aren't nailed down, a toll bridge is looking more and more likely. We'll look at the history of 1898 with Reporter Rachel Keith and how it was framed by the media at the time. She attended an educator’s summit in Wilmington that made that history come alive. And we'll look at Kelly Kenoyer's top stories in the past five years before she leaves WHQR and Wilmington.
  • On this edition of The Newsroom, author Lauren Collins joins us to talk about her newest book: They Stole A City: Wilmington’s White Supremacist Coup and the Families Who Live with its Legacy, a project that took her a decade to write.
  • Earlier this year, 21-year-old Edilberto Espinoza Sierra was killed by law enforcement officers in a downtown Wilmington parking deck. WHQR's Aaleah McConnell digs into the decision not to charge officers involved in the shooting and the family's ongoing search for justice.
  • On today's show, Kelly Kenoyer discusses her months-long investigation into alleged morale issues in Wilmington City Hall. And Rachel Keith sits down to discuss her recent reporting on the Upperman family’s decision to stop supporting UNCW scholarships over the university’s anti-DEI policy, plus her recent efforts to track the $20 million nursing pipeline grant.
  • This year's WHQR luncheon guest was Tamara Keith, Senior Political Correspondent and co-host of the NPR Politics Podcast. Keith spoke about covering the president, the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and her new series, Swing Shift, a long-term project to document the perspectives of voters in swing states. Keith also took questions from our audience and sat down with WHQR News Director Ben Schachtman.
  • WHQR News Director Ben Schachtman revisits his conversation about Juneteenth with Joe Conway, former chief equity and inclusion officer for the City of Wilmington and currently director of community engagement at UNC Health. Three years later, what's changed about the holiday, and how the nation is dealing with identity and history?