Entrepreneur Magazine reports that revenue from food trucks has nearly tripled, from $960 million to $2.7 billion, nationally over the last five years. And here in the Miami Valley, food trucks have become commonplace. Jayne Monat of Yellow Springs asked WYSO about the impact of Dayton area food trucks on the local economy in comparison with brick and mortar restaurants For this installment of WYSO Curious, we sent Community Voices producer Jason Reynolds out to eat.
Dayton, Ohio – the birthplace of Funk Music will celebrate the opening of the Funk Center and Museum on Friday. Funk music started flowing out of Dayton in the 70s – and scores of hit records became part of the American soundtrack. Groups like The Ohio Players, Heatwave and Parliament became household names. Today on Culture Couch, Community Voices Producer Renee Wilde gets a private tour of the center with a local musician whose band – called SUN - was part of Dayton’s funky scene back in the day.
The Funk Center and Museum, at 133 E. Third Street in Downtown Dayton, celebrated its grand opening on Friday. Find more information on the venue at thefunkcenter.org.
The actor John Lithgow has a one man show on Broadway called Stories by Heart. It includes reminiscences about his father, Arthur Lithgow, who was also an actor, and a theatre producer as well. In the 1950s, the Lithgow family lived in Yellow Springs, where Arthur was a professor at Antioch College. Starting in 1996, his son John played a lead role in a TV series called Third Rock from the Sun. The sitcom told the story of four aliens from another galaxy on a mission to investigate planet earth. Their leader, Dick Solomon, hid is true identity by posing as a college professor in a small Ohio town. In 2004, after the series ended, NPR’s Noah Adams interviewed John Lithgow about his father, and a theatre project at Antioch College known as Shakespeare Under the Stars - - and we thought you might like to hear that story again.
Fathers and sons exchange a lot by being together. Put a microphone in the hands of the son and he will have many questions. This month we offer two conversations from Dayton Youth Radio. Last week we heard from John Hahn, a teen and his father - a white family. They spoke about race and politics and this week, an African American father and son travel that same landscape.
On Saturday, February 24th at Memorial Hall, Dayton History once again hosts its annual Fight Night fundraiser. Dayton locals will battle it out in the boxing ring and to get the details on this year’s event we spoke with Jeff Brown, founder of the Brown Institute of Martial Arts in Centerville. He’s been training the athletes for their fights, and joining us in the conversation this year, Savannah Winfield with Dayton History.