Tuesday, October 21st, 2025 // Forbes Avenue
The fourth week of October each year is Free Speech Week. This year, we were fortunate to spend some time with University of Delaware Communications Professor Jennifer Lambe while she was in Pittsburgh for the 2025 Eradicate Hate Summit.
This conversation covered a wide range of topics: How Pittsburgh’s reaction to the 2018 Tree of Life shooting differed from some politicians’ reaction to the 2025 shooting of Charlie Kirk; What the First Amendment does and doesn’t do; The importance of the First Amendment; How the economics of political campaigns and social media have helped make the “speech environment” radically different than when the First Amendment was enacted in 1791; and many other interesting topics.
The most important point Prof. Lambe made was that we need more true civil discourse between individuals, where we listen to each other and respect each other as people even when we disagree about politics, to help diffuse the divisiveness of our current political environment.
A very thought-provoking conversation.
Listen to the episode: Prof. Jennifer Lambe
Richard Gordon, host, audio editor, audio engineer, researcher
Recorded September 15, 2025; WRCT debut October 21, 2025
Tuesday, October 14th, 2025 // Forbes Avenue
This week on Forbes Avenue, we discussed the history of the West View with Andrew Bensch, a former archivist for the borough.
We started the discussion by going all the way back to the Native American tribes of the area. Then we talked about when Pittsburgh was on the frontier and followed the history of West View up til today! We also talked about the rise and fall of West View Park, which was an amusement park that competed with Kennywood throughout most of the 1900s. Tune in to learn a fun local history lesson over fall break!
Listen to the episode: Andrew Bensch
Abriana Bensch, host, audio engineer, researcher
Riona Duncan, audio editor
Recorded April 18, 2025; WRCT debut October 14, 2025
Tuesday, October 7th, 2025 // Forbes Avenue,Interviews
This week on Forbes Avenue, we’re airing a conversation WRCT’s Mandorichard (aka Richard Gordon) had with Peter Hay and Sali Zielachowski from Twin Vision Music Promotion about the current state of the music business.
Peter and Sali talked about Twin Vision’s role in helping independent radio stations like WRCT discover independent artists and new music; how the music and music radio industries have changed — and stayed the same; about different levels of success artists can have in the music industry; vinyl records; and other fascinating topics. You’ll even learn why it took The Beatles an extra year to find success in America!
Music fans, musicians, and radio fans will all enjoy this conversation!
Listen to the episode: Peter Hay and Sali Zielachowski
Richard Gordon, host, audio editor, audio engineer, researcher
Recorded July 28, 2025; WRCT debut October 7, 2025
