Walter Sturdivant

Walter Sturdivant, who began his broadcast career at WCHL, has returned as the President and General Manager of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro radio station.

After receiving his BA degree in Broadcast Journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1981, Sturdivant joined WCHL and Tar Heel Sports Network as a reporter before accepting a job as news director for Curtis Media stations in Laurinburg.

Sturdivant now comes back to Chapel Hill from Beasley Broadcast Group where he was Vice President, General Manager for three of their radio stations and later VP/Director of Sales for their six-station group in the Fayettville area.

A native of Hamlet in Richmond County, North Carolina, Walter and his wife Derrell are the parents of two children, Jonathan and Mallory.

Zina Almers

Zina Almers has lived in Orange County for 24 years. After graduating from UNC in 1987, Zina found it very difficult to leave this great community. Zina brings 15 years of sales and marketing experience to WCHL. Prior to WCHL, Zina worked for The Herald-Sun Newspapers as The General Manager of The Chapel Hill Herald. She currently serves on the board of The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce. She is the former chairwoman of Orange County’s United Way campaign and has served as a board member of The Hillsborough Chamber of Commerce, Orange County Communities in Schools and The Chapel Hill/Carrboro YMCA. Zina lives in Hillsborough with her daughter, who attends Orange County Schools.

Aubrey Fox

Aubrey Fox has been a part of the WCHL sales team since 2003. Originally from Washington DC, Aubrey prefers the slower pace and friendly atmosphere of her home in Carrboro. "I feel very lucky to have a job that allows me to interact with the business owners of Chapel Hill and Carrboro. What a wonderful place to live and work!"

An English major, Aubrey received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington College in Maryland. When she isn’t selling advertising Chapel Hill-Carrboro’s News Talk and Tar Heels station, she enjoys spending time with her friends and family, telling jokes and being funny, hiking in the woods with her dog and her weekly Pilates classes.

Christy Dixon

Christy Dixon started working with VilCom during the Tar Heel Sports Marketing era. She moved to VilCom Interactive Media to continue her work with Goheels.com. Last year, she started learning everything she could to become one of those WCHLers she had heard so much about. Anything you need, anything you want to know, any praise or complaint you want to voice about WCHL, give her a call. She is the Station Manager - it's her job to listen to the community and work to put that feedback into action. In her free time, she is a wildlife rehabilitator. And speaking of wildlife, Milkitos, The Jenk, Blucas and The Pink Chicken are the light of her life. Yes, she is the crazy cat lady!

 Ron Stutts

To scores of Chapel Hillians, Ron Stutts is as essential to their morning routines as a cup of coffee. For a quarter century, Ron has awakened our community with interesting conversations, fascinating guests and a familiar voice. On Ron's show there's always sophisticated local humor and an occasional - but affectionate - jab at a public official.

He's sometimes irreverant, but never goes too far. If you want to know what's happening in our community, Ron's your guy!

Natasha Vukelic

Natasha Vukelic joined WCHL in September 2007. Vukelic came to WCHL from Orlando, Florida. In Orlando, Vukelic worked as a reporter/anchor at a News-Talk station. She also worked as an Associate Producer at an ABC affiliated television news station. However, Natasha is not a stranger to Chapel Hill. She received her BA degree in Broadcast Journalism from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2005. That’s right, another Tar Heel, that just couldn’t stay away from Chapel Hill for too long.

Natasha’s passion for reporting and telling a great story started when she was just a child. Well, actually, her traits for reporting started as a child. Her deep voice didn’t develop over the years, it has been with her since the day she started talking, and her mother never lets her forget it. All you have to do is ask, and the stories won’t stop. However, as she got older, her deep voice went to good use because she never stopped asking questions: in the classroom, at home, when talking to herself … questions constantly consumed her mind. By the time Natasha was in High School, an English teacher sat her down, and said between her deep voice and inquisitive nature, she should really consider a career in Journalism.

The following year, Natasha was the co-host of an educational television program in Baltimore, Maryland. In college, Natasha received a fellowship to report in Malawi, Africa. Her in-depth reports from Malawi earned several national awards from the Broadcast Education Association, and the Society of Professional Journalists.

According to Natasha, her love for journalism isn’t about reporting or asking questions, it’s about telling a really good story. Nothing makes her happier that putting together facts, sound, and making it come together in a way that keep people listening, and wanting to hear more. Natasha thinks reporting provides the opportunity to talk about the good, the bad, and the things that truly make a difference in everyday life.

Johnny Jones

Johnny’s official title is marketing manager, but the guy does so much more for WCHL.

Considered a “jack of all trades”, Johnny occupies his time implementing marketing and promotional campaigns; producing various commercials, on-air features, and specialty shows; engineering the radio station’s live remote broadcasts; serving as a liaison to local organizations; and mentoring college students in WCHL’s internship program.

A Howard University graduate (’03), Johnny lives by the motto that says, “…when you learn, you teach; when you get, you give”.

He is a Blue Ribbon Mentor-Advocate in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School System, a board member for the Orange County Rape Crisis Center, and a volunteer coach in Chapel Hill’s Rainbow Soccer league.

Johnny spends his free time with his wife, Angie, and enjoys traveling to different places when possible.

Jessica Simmons

Jessica Simmons, born and raised in Durham, is a 2007 graduate from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, with her Bachelors of Science degree in Public Relations.

After spending time in Winston-Salem at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in their Public Relations department she definitely has what it takes to help everyone get the job done and on time!! After working three and a half years as an office assistant at a personal injury law firm and being a full time student at the same time, Jessica is the definition of a hard worker.

In her free time she loves going to the beach, shopping, spending time with family and friends, and going out to dinner.

Jeff Hamlin

The Sports Director/Assistant News Director/Host of Live at 5/Webmaster/
part-time engineer/
part-time production lacky for 5 years, Jeff has a long history with WCHL. A full-time member of the station since it was (somehow) located at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, Jeff does play-by-play for high school football. He also hosts his own talk show, Cover 2 Sports, nightly, plus hosts Countdown to Tipoff, Off the Top Sports, and anchors WCHL's marathon football coverage on UNC Game Days.

A longtime observer of ACC sports, Jeff's favorite team will always be his beloved Appalachian State Mountaineers, who he did play-by-play for as a student in Boone. He's also a writer for the Chapel Hill News and MMAMadness.com. In his spare time, Jeff constantly fails at dating and keeps wondering whether Guns N' Roses will release Chinese Democracy before Duke makes a bowl game.

He lives in Durham.

Adam Rhew

Adam Rhew joined the staff of WCHL as a reporter in August 2005, with an emphasis on the Chapel Hill Town Council. In January 2006, he was named co-anchor of WCHL's Weekend News.

Adam is a student at UNC-CH studying broadcast journalism and political science, and will graduate in May 2008. He's spent time at WBT-AM in Charlotte and at CBS News Radio in New York. Adam has won a number of professional awards for his work at WCHL. Among those honors are a regional reporting award for his coverage of the 2006 Pit attack and a national reporting award for his coverage of the Apex chemical plant fire.

A rabid Tar Heels fan, Adam spends lots of time watching Carolina athletics. If you have a story idea, or just want to say hello, e-mail him at: arhew@wchl1360.com

John Stillman

Upon realizing the error of his ways, Stillman is back at WCHL after a ten-month hiatus.

After spending several months as a news/sports reporter, he moved to Fayetteville where he spent almost a year with ESPN Radio 1450 as a producer and sales associate. Having endured being away from Chapel Hill for as long as is humanly possible, he returns to WCHL as an account executive.

As WCHL’s token Republican, Stillman enjoys Carolina football, the Atlanta Braves, Toby Keith, Brad Paisley, and the philosophy of the Old West. His dislikes include Coach K and hippies.

He graduated from Carolina in May ’06 and lives in Chapel Hill.

Walter Storholt

Walter Storholt is in his third year with WCHL. He joined the station in August 2005 as a student intern in the news and sports department. He has served as Jeff Hamlin's color commentator for high school football for three years and play-by-play for high school basketball for two years. Walter can be found reporting for 'CHL at most Tar Heel football and basketball games.

Walter is also known around the station as 'W2' or 'The Deuce.' He and Johnny Jones ('The Slash') blog for WCHL's website during Tar Heel basketball games and both are regular guests on Jeff Hamlin's show, Cover 2 Sports.

In his junior year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Walter is majoring in electronic journalism with a primary focus on broadcasting. As a student, and with WCHL, Walter has received numerous national awards for sports and news radio broadcasting. Last summer he finished in the top five in the Hearst Foundation's National Radio News Competition in San Francisco, CA. Most recently, Walter was awarded four regional radio awards in the National Broadcasting Society’s student competition for best radio sports segment, program, play-by-play, and best news segment.

Born in Greensboro, NC, Walter lived there until his sophomore year of high school when he and his parents moved to the beach in the small town of Pine Knoll Shores. He cut his teeth in Morehead City's radio station, WTKF, as the play-by-play voice of high school football, board operator, and host of a teen-talk show called Youthpoints. Walter received invaluable experience under the tutelage of radio-great Ben Ball and editing extraordinaire Shane Willis. The two, along with the station's owner, Lockwood Phillips, helped pave the route for Walter to join the WCHL team.

Walter is absolutely in love with radio broadcasting, but he received his first opportunity in television as a member of a three man broadcast team for Carolina's men's basketball game against UNC-Asheville on national television on ESPNU on January 9. Walter is looking forward to working in both mediums as 2008 progresses, and is extremely excited about the upcoming summer. In July, Walter will travel, with several other UNC journalism students, to Beijing, China, to be a part of the 2008 Olympics.

Walter was thrilled with what 2007 brought him and the radio station, but he is excited to see what 2008 has to offer. He continues to live out his life motto, make each year even better than the last!

Brian LeBlanc

Brian has the Interstate system memorized. No, really, he does. And with that as a background, how could he do anything other than report traffic?

He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, but moved to North Carolina at the ripe old age of five, and even stayed put to go to college at that school down I-40 in Raleigh (no, not Meredith; the other college on Hillsborough Street). How he managed to wind up doing traffic on the UNC flagship station even after going to State is a mystery no one has quite figured out the answer to.

His spare time is spent reading maps (again, not kidding here) and going to Carolina Hurricanes hockey games. Brian lives in Raleigh with his wife, Laura, who knows better than to get up to do traffic reports at six in the morning. Hopefully, their kids will get her genes.

Meg Martin

Meg Martin could proudly claim the title of WCHL News Reporter as of January 2008. She interned in its newsroom for several months prior.

Meg says one of the best compliments she ever received came from a UNC journalism professor: "What you don't know about journalism you can learn. What you already have can't be taught." Meg's been working toward a journalism career since long before she graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in May 2007 ... although she didn't always know it. For as long as she can remember, one thing has captured her interest above everything else: people's stories. In fact, she decided to leave her hometown of Staatsburg, New York to attend UNC-Chapel Hill, to see new things and meet new people, right here in the southern part of heaven. She wanted college to not only be an academic experience but a cultural one. Needless to say, she fell in love with what she found: a classic college town embraced by a truly unique community. As a news reporter for WCHL, she's come to the wonderful conclusion that the pride of UNC students is equally matched, if not surpassed, by the passion and commitment of Chapel Hill-Carrboro residents. She says that regardless of the nature of any news story she produces, from conflictual to amicable, the message is always clear: people love Chapel Hill-Carrboro. And so does she.

Meg wants to thank 'CHL and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community for allowing her this opportunity to grow as a journalist and as a community member. She works everyday to provide fresh, relevant, timely, fair information to the local area. Reporting requires research, editing, writing and broadcasting, but at its core, she believes it's about listening to people and telling their stories. If you have a story to tell, she wants to hear it.