Fred Echols
Producer and ReporterFred Echols is a long-time member of the WVTF Music/RADIO IQ news department and produces news content as well as public affairs programs. Fred's career in broadcasting began in North Carolina's Triad before switching from commercial radio, where he'd held numerous positions including program director. He was a long-time host of All Things Considered on WVTF and Radio IQ, and listeners still hear him on Radio IQ news programs, including during Cardinal Conversations features. He's also heard during our on-air fund drives.
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Danville Community College will be adding aircraft maintenance training to its programs this fall. Graduates of the new program will help meet growing demand for maintenance technicians in aviation and other industries. Cardinal News reporter Grace Mamon is covering this story and she spoke with Fred Echols. -
Early stage planning is underway for a potential two-million-square-foot data center in Wise County. The proposed project would include a power plant.
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Almost all of Virginia's rural counties and many small and medium-sized cities that had lost population are now seeing more people arriving than leaving.
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Nearly half of Virginia's college graduates leave the state within five years of receiving their degrees, a circumstance that Governor Abigail Spanberger has identified as a point of concern.
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A bill in the Virginia Senate would allow state regulators to shift some costs away from Dominion Energy's residential power customers and have high-usage data centers pay them instead.
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The Ryan White Part B program helps clients pay for medication and needed services. Federal support was reduced last year and now state funding has been trimmed as well.
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A regional non-profit called The Blood Connection recently began operations in Virginia, serving Carilion and Sovah hospitals.
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Many people in Danville have never heard of Freedmens' Cemetery, where more than 1,500 Black residents are buried. But after decades of neglect, Freedmens' will be restored and maintained in the same way as two adjacent cemeteries that were historically unavailable to Black families.Cardinal News reporter Grace Mamon is covering this story and she spoke with Fred Echols.
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The new Virginia House of Delegates includes 43 women, the most ever in that chamber. Dwayne Yancey with Cardinal News spoke with Fred Echols about the gains women have made in legislature.
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The Rural Health Transformation Fund is administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid and will distribute $50 billion nationwide over the next five years. Half of that money is being granted on a competitive basis, and CMS officials were favorably impressed by several elements in Virginia's application for funding.
