Owen Daniel is the youngest guest we’ve ever welcomed to our “06880” podcast.
The Weston High School senior balances schoolwork* with performing, songwriting and producing music events.
His songwriting draws inspiration from artists like Noah Kahan, Lewis Capaldi and Olivia Rodrigo, blending introspective lyrics with an acoustic sound.
This fall, Owen heads to Berklee College of Music in Boston. Before he goes — and the world learns about him — he stopped by the Westport Library, for a wide-ranging chat.
It was a great morning. My only regret is I forgot to ask him to bring his guitar.
Click here or below to hear Owen’s take on his life, his music, and the performing and recording world in general.
*Though as a 2nd semester senior, that’s probably now just an abstract concept.
Here’s some stop-the-presses info: Inklings News — Staples High School’s newspaper — has won a Gold Crown Award. That’s the highest given by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.
The honor was for hybrid (print and web) news coverage.
This is the third time Inklings News has received this distinction, and the first in consecutive years.
Inklings News is also the only high school organization in New England to receive this recognition for both print and web coverage this year.
The award honors the work of last year’s (2024–’25) Inklings News web and paper staffs, including:
Editors-in-chief: Nina Bowens, Lily Hultgren
Creative cirectors: Alex Gaines, Olivia Signorile
Paper managing editors: Katherine Phelps, Mia Bomback, Angelina Matra
Associate paper managing editors: Cici Petrosinelli, Lily Rimm, Anna Kercher, Demi Sasson
Web managing editors: Rachel Olefson, Samantha Sandrew
Social Media Managers: Audrey Curtis, Poppy Harrington
Congratulations to all — including Inklings News advisors Joseph DelGobbo and Mary Elizabeth Fulco.
Over 30 years ago, a concerned group of parents with learning disadvantaged children created a group called Our Vision. Their goal was to provide a rich, meaningful life for them, in a society that offered few programs to help.
Today, Our Vision members participate in summer, fall and winter Special Olympics games. Weekly training in track and field, swimming, bowling and bocce has resulted in many medals.
There are outings to community theater, pizza parties and dinner shows. Every Saturday, members take a bus to the Westport Weston Family YMCA, for sports and gym activities, swim training, social games, and arts and crafts projects.
Our Vision also participates in the Special Olympics fundraiser. This year’s event is April 11 (11 a.m., Jennings Beach, Fairfield). Anyone can participate (or, more warmly, cheer).
Donations can be made online here, or by check to “SOCT/Penguin Plunge,” 4 Cross Highway, Westport, CT 06880. Write “Our Vision/Peter Bradeen” on the memo line.
The next Veterans Benefits Luncheon is tomorrow (Thursday, March 26, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.), VFW Post 399).
It’s open to all veterans as part of an ongoing effort to check in on all veterans’ welfare, and connect them with the benefits and support they earned.
Representatives will answer questions, and provide information on services and assistance available to veterans.
RSVPs are encouraged (but not required). Email vfw399ct@gmail.com, and include the number of attendees, or call (203) 227-6796.
PS: If you’re not a veteran, but know one: Please pass the word!
VFW benefits luncheon.
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On Saturday, the Staples Service League of Boys (SLOBs) will help stock Homes with Hope’s Gillespie Center food pantry.
They’ll be at Big Y from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Most needed items include pasta and pasta sauce, peanut butter, jelly, mac ‘n’ cheese, canned foods (tuna, chicken, salmon), and laundry detergent.
Aretha Franklin was born on this date in 1942. She died in 2018.
Elton John was born in 1947. He’s still going strong.
(Speaking of spring cleaning: As you’re plowing through your to-do list, please don’t forget to click here, to help support “06880.” Our hyper-local blog depends on our readers. Thank you!)
As director of programs and events for the Westport Library, he’s neck-deep in preparations for this year’s Verso Fest.
But last week he walked downstairs, sat on the Forum stage, and gave us a behind-the-scenes look at the 5th annual music/media/and more festival.
Alex described not only what’s happening, but how. Who chooses the musicians and panelists? How is each day’s schedule balanced? Who is the target audience, how are they reached, and what are their reactions?
Alex’s interview offers a very cool look at a very cool event. Click here or below to see.
PS: Want to learn more about VersoFest ’26, with Wyclef Jean, Ani DiFranco and a lot more? Click here!
So it was natural for the Staples Players director to choose “Merrily We Roll Along” as the spring 2003 production.
Former media teacher Jim Honeycutt taped it — and all of Roth’s shows.
This week, in our chronological look back at highlights of past productions, we bring you that memorable “Merrily.” Click here or below to see.
PS: This year’s spring show — “Urinetown” — debuts Thursday (March 12, 7 p.m.). It runs Friday and Saturday (March 13 and 14) at 7 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday (March 14 and 15) at 2 p.m. Click here for tickets, and more information.
I hate to ask for funds. But the NPR/PBS model is the only way to continue to tell stories about the people, places and past of this town; to bring you news and photos, and to do all the back-end stuff no one ever sees but that takes all of my time, 24/7/365.
Someone congratulated me on 17 years of “06880” — then said, “Sorry I missed your contribution day. I’ll send a check next year.”
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Whether you remember that first post or discovered us yesterday, we hope you enjoy our 5 a.m. lead story; the morning Roundup and evening Pic of the Day; features like Unsung Heroes, Friday Flashback, online art gallery and Photo Challenge, plus breaking news and much more, throughout the day.
“06880” is your 24/7/365 hyper-local, full-service blog. We haven’t missed a day since we began, way back in 2009.
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Some readers pay $50, $100 or $365 a year. A few pay more.
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They read “06880” every day. They love it. But for whatever reason — forgetfulness, not realizing our funding model, the thrill of getting something for nothing — they don’t contribute to Westport’s most popular source of news, events, features, profiles, history, and bad parking jobs.
Reader support allows “06880” to survive and thrive. It pays for internet hosting, computer software and IT help, insurance, freelancers — and the salary of the founder and executive editor, yours truly.
I’m 17. Well, my blog is, anyway. (Photo/Pam Einarsen)
“06880” is a labor of love. For 17 years I’ve researched, written, edited, taken and cropped photos, monitored the comments section, and answered your emails.
Along the way I’ve posted over 20,200 stories. I’ve publicized your organizations and fundraisers; helped you through blizzards and hurricanes; written about you and your kids; made you smile, cry, think and act.
With “06880”‘s growth, this is now my full-time, 8- to 10-hour-a-day, 7 days a week job.
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And tomorrow we go back to our regular programming.
Christina Scherwin is the chief operating officer at the Westport Weston Family YMCA.
She’s perfect for the role.
A 2-time Olympian in the javelin for her native Denmark, Christina competed in the 2004 and ’08 Olympics. She was a finalist at the 200t World Championships.
In 2002 she was inducted into the NCAA Hall of Fame. Christina has also served on the Danish Olympic Athlete and World Athletics Commissions.
The other day, Christina and I chatted at the Westport Library about her years as a competitive athlete, her work at the Y, and much more. Click here or below, for our wide-ranging conversation.
Amanda Doyle and her daughter Niamh are probably not the only 2 Westporters at the Winter Olympics in Italy.
Amanda and Niamh Doyle, at the Olympics.
But Amanda is probably the only one who posted a video that went viral.
Her clip from the US-Switzerland women’s ice hockey game — of the entire arena singing John Lennon’s “Imagine” — racked up over a million views and 71,000-plus likes, in just one day.
It looks like a great moment. And Amanda’s comment about the true spirit of the Olympics — uniting “beyond borders, languages and differences” — is pure gold.
PS: The hockey game was especially fun for Niamh. She goes to Coleytown Middle School, and plays for the Shoreline Sharks.
PPS: The US won, 5-0.
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Dominique Johnson is running for re-election.
The 143rd District state representative — serving parts of Westport and Norwalk — and deputy majority leader says she is not taking donations from lobbyists.
The veteran theater educator and director, Staples High School graduate, Emergency Medical Service leader and all-around good guy will be honored May 17.
Schoke Jewish Family Service will present him with its Community Service Award.
JFS says, “With more than 30 years of experience across the arts and public safety, he brings a powerful blend of creativity, leadership, and service to every role he undertakes.
Frimmer is deputy chief of Weston Volunteer EMS, and a tactical emergency casualty care and EMS Instructor.
He served on the board of Temple Israel, and is on its Security Committee. During the pandemic, he was the congregation’s COVID response point person.
Frimmer was a producer of “John Proctor Is the Villain,” and is on the producing team for “The Hunger Games” in London. He has earned kudos for his work as director of Coleytown Middle School’s Company drama program.
He serves on the board of the Westport Country Playhouse, and co-chairs its Development Committee. He holds master’s degrees in teaching and educational theatre from NYU.
A reminder: WestportREADS’ keystone conversation is this Thursday (February 19, 7 p.m.)
Eiren Caffall — author of this year’s selection, “All the Water in the World” — chats with Catherine Shen, host of Connecticut Public Radio’s morning talk show and podcast, Where We Live, about Caffall’s thriller about a flooded future, and a family fighting not to be drowned by a changing world. Click here for more information.
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We’ve posted photos of horses at Sherwood Island State Park before, in our “Westport … Naturally” series.
But the images never get old. Here’s a shot from yesterday:
(Hey hey! Time to pony up. If you appreciate “06880” — your hyper-local 24/7/365 blog, bringing you everything you need to know about your town — please click here to support our work. Yee-haw!)
WWPT-FM is the best high school radio station in the country.
That’s not just my opinion. Staples’ “PT” earned that John Drury Award honor last year — to go with similar “Best High School Radio Station in the Nation” trophies in 2011, ’17 and ’18.
WWPT 90.3 picks up plenty of other Drury trophies each year too, for everything from news features and public affairs, to sports and radio dramas.
The station draws a wide audience. Live sports are particularly popular. They’ve launched the professional careers of sportscasters like D.J. Sixsmith, Eric Gallanty and Cam Manna.
Celebrating at the 2010 John Drury Awards ceremony (from left): advisor Mike Zito, and students Eric Gallanty, DJ Sixsmith, Brendan Rand and Jake Chernok.
But listeners may not realize that WWPT is more than 50 years old.
Or that a radio station featuring Westport teenagers stretches back to the Eisenhower administration.
Pam Docters knows.
And now anyone who pays $9.03 0n Amazon (yes, the price is deliberate — get it?!) can read all about that storied history.
Docters — a 1978 Staples graduate, and proud ‘PT alum — has just published “Radio Whoopie at Compo.” The slim, 49-page paperback tells the story of the station, in the words of those who were there. And with an impressive number of archival photos.
It focuses on the late 1950’s through ’80s. The pioneers who Docters spoke with were the most fervent WWPT alums, she says.
The story begins with Stuart Soroka. He hung a speaker outside his bedroom window on Wake Robin Road, and hosted a “radio show.”
That evolved into a 100-megawatt AM station — called WWPT, for “Westport” — at 1160: “The Sound on the Sound.”
Soroka, Gordon Joseloff and others broadcast from the YMCA and Compo Beach, with a transmitter the size of a cereal box.
Teenagers at Compo Beach, listening to “The Sound on the Sound.”
They attracted the attention of the New York Times, World Book Encyclopedia, Scholastic Magazine — and the Federal Communications Commission, which reluctantly shut them down.
Soroka — a 1961 Staples graduate — went on to became a noted Boston weatherman. Joseloff had a career as a CBS News correspondent, then served 2 terms as Westport’s first selectman.
This July 1961 New York Times story alerted the FCC to the existence of the unlicensed radio station.
In 1968, Keith Satter and others built an AM transmitter that broadcast throughout Staples, from what had once been a storage room. WSRB — for “Staples Radio Broadcasting” — is believed to be the first high school radio station in Connecticut.
In the early 1970s it evolved into WWPT-FM. At 110 to 330 watts, it was the 12th high school radio station in the country.
The designer of the original 1970s logo is unknown. It’s still used today.
Docters uses interviews with former staff members like Dennis Jackson, Mark Potts and Larry Perlstein to describe the growth of the station: its antenna at the old Nike missile site on Bayberry Lane; live broadcasts from the Yankee Doodle Fair, and of Candlelight Concerts; coverage of Board of Finance, Board of Education meetings; an interview with former Stapleite Charlie Karp, who had played with Jimi Hendrix but was excited that his new band’s music was being played on “this little station.”
In 1975, WWPT sponsored a fundraising concert in the Staples auditorium with the James Gang, and an up-and-coming English musician named Peter Frampton.
On Election Day 1977, ‘PT scooped all the other local media with the local results. Station members headed to polling places across town, and called in the results via pay phone.
Marta Flanigan waits for election results, in the WWPT studio.
Chuck Davis and Neil Hartman built a robust sports department. WWPT aired football, soccer, basketball and baseball games. They scored press passes from the Yankees, Giants, Knicks, Whalers (and Bridgeport Jai-Alai), and interviewed top athletes.
Davis went on to work at Sports Illustrated; Hartman headed to Comcast SportsNet. Another member, Jon Stashower, became a noted ESPN radio anchor.
Photos in Pam Docters’ book show (top to bottom) Chuck Davis and Neil Hartman interviewing Cosmos soccer stars Giorgio Chinaglia and Pele, respectively.
Thanksgiving fundraising marathons became legendary. With pitches from famous New York DJs like Don Imus, Cousin Brucie and Murray the K, plus celebrities like Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford, Jim McKay, Dave Winfield, Jack Lemmon and Ben Vereen, students raised thousands of dollars each year.
1977 fundraising marathon poster.
WWPT was a formative experience for Docters, and her love for it is clear in her book.
She tells “06880” about her long days at the station. “We were in the lower 9 building, away from everything. We never, ever saw an adult. We were independent, and responsible. We MacGyvered everything. Fixing the tower at 11 p.m., whatever — we made it work.”
Docters remains “in awe” of her predecessors. “They were there before anyone, in radio. It’s phenomenal what they did. You couldn’t recreate that today. There are so many rules and regulations now.”
40 years after graduating, 1978 WWPT members (from left) Malcolm Doak, David Schaffer, Laurel Rech, Chuck Davis, Doug Meny and author Pam Docters enjoyed a tour of the 2018 studios.
She knows “Radio Whoopie at Compo” will not be a big seller. That’s fine.
Docters just wanted to preserve WWPT’s remarkable history. She donated copies to the Staples and Westport libraries, and current station advisor and radio production teacher Geno Heiter.
That’s right: Radio is now a legit Staples class.
It’s come a long way from the outlaw transmitters at the beach and the Y; closed-circuit broadcasts that could only be heard in the cafeteria; then gangs of teenagers hanging out all day and night, playing records and planning shows and fixing transmitters.
Pam Docters is proud of the role she played. Dennis Jackson, Larry Perlstein and all the others she interview for her book are too.
And in that great radio station in the sky, Stuart Soroka and Gordon Joseloff are listening and smiling too.
(“o6880” regularly covers Staples High School, Westport teenagers, our town’s history — and much more. If you enjoy stories like these, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
Allyson Stollenwerck is an 8-year veteran of Westport’s Board of Finance, including service as vice chair.
She spent 2 decades at international non-profits, managing multimillion-dollar budgets. She began her career as a corporate securities lawyer, and served as counsel to the Deputy Attorney General of the United States.
Allyson is a graduate of Stanford University and Yale University Law School, and has lived in Westport for 23 years.
Last week, we chatted at the Westport Library. Our conversation ranged from the Board of Finance — what it does, how it does it, what the public should know about it — along with specific spending items, the capital forecast and more.
We also spoke about Allyson’s life in Westport, and her life beyond the BOF. Click here or below, to learn more about this important board, and this longtime member.
Click here to help support “06880” via credit card or PayPal. Any amount is welcome, appreciated — and tax-deductible! Reader contributions keep this blog going. (Alternate methods: Please send a check to “06880”: PO Box 744, Westport, CT 06881. Or use Venmo: @blog06880. Or Zelle: dwoog@optonline.net. Thanks!)
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Whether you remember that first post or discovered us yesterday, we hope you enjoy our 5 a.m. lead story; the morning Roundup and evening Pic of the Day; features like Unsung Heroes, Friday Flashback, online art gallery and Photo Challenge, plus breaking news and much more, throughout the day.
