NewsRadio WKCY - 107.9 FM
113 episodes listed below
Local work, local needs, local giving.
Business Break is a steady, interview-led look at business and community life around Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. Recent episodes center on local giving, nonprofit services, arts groups, disability support, housing needs, and the people keeping those efforts funded.
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Business Break is a local conversation show anchored in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Its center of gravity is practical community life. Chris Carmichael brings on nonprofit leaders, foundation staff, arts organizers, and service providers to explain what they do and what they need next. The show is especially attentive to Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. Recent episodes return often to the Great Community Give, using that fundraiser to introduce listeners to a wide range of local organizations. The result is part civic bulletin, part mission interview, and part donor guide. It is not flashy. It is useful. Guests describe programs in plain terms: services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, support for caregivers, emergency shelter and navigation work, legal help for families, theater with local artists, environmental projects, youth programs, summer camp, and community music. Business Break gives these subjects room to breathe without turning them into abstract policy talk. A typical segment starts with an event or organization, then works through mission, impact, budget pressure, volunteer needs, and donation details. That structure makes the show feel organized and neighborly. It also makes the episodes unusually concrete for anyone trying to understand the nonprofit landscape around Harrisonburg. The recurring Great Community Give coverage is a strong example of the show’s value: listeners hear not just that giving matters, but which groups are involved, what the money supports, and how the campaign works. Pleasant View, the Community Foundation, Open Doors, Blue Ridge Legal Services, Valley Program for Aging Services, Silk Moth Stage, Brethren Woods, and other groups appear as part of a wider local network. The tone stays warm, respectful, and promotional without becoming glossy. Business Break is best for listeners who want to know how local institutions operate and where community needs are showing up right now. It also works for donors, volunteers, business owners, and residents who prefer names, places, and next steps over broad inspirational language.
Made for: For Shenandoah Valley residents, donors, volunteers, nonprofit staff, and local business listeners who want practical context on community organizations. It suits people who prefer clear service details over national business commentary.
What sets it apart: Business Break stands out by treating local philanthropy and service work as the core beat, not a side segment. Its interviews connect mission, funding, and everyday logistics in a way that makes community action easy to understand.
Business Break - A Look At Business In The Shenandoah Valley
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Business Break shows how Shenandoah Valley nonprofits turn local fundraising into staffing, services, facilities, and greater community capacity.
Business Break follows Chris Carmichael into the operating realities of Shenandoah Valley nonprofits, using interviews with community leaders to connect fundraising appeals with budgets, staffing, facilities, and service capacity.
A giving drive meets a housing shortage; you hear what generosity can't solve alone.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A straightforward look at how local giving supports services, arts programming, and community strength.
The piece presents the Great Community Give as a local giving day rooted in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, with 158 participating organizations, a $2.5 million goal, and an early total above $190,000.
A civic giving day made concrete through local voices, dates, and next steps.
The episode presents the Great Community Give as a one-day community giving event backed by the Community Foundation of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County.
A practical look at how Open Doors links shelter, transition services, and private giving to keep the Navigation Center running.
Open Doors is framed as an emergency answer in Harrisonburg, with shelter cast as the life-saving work and the drop-in center plus resource programming as the longer-term lift.
A plainspoken local giving piece that traces where donations go and why they matter.
The episode presents Great Community Give as a practical local fundraiser and stays strongest when it points to real needs. It explains the Community Foundation of Harrisonburg and Rockingham as a hub that helps donors, nonprofits, and advisors direct giving, then grounds that…
A local giving-day conversation that links fundraising details to the pressures of caregiving.
Shenandoah Valley Business Break turns a local giving-day update into something concrete. It covers the seventh Great Community Give, the early donations already coming in, and the Valley Program for Aging Services work with caregivers.
Wednesday, April 22nd is still the anchor.
Chris Carmichael opens iHeart Communities by introducing the Great Community Give.
The episode opens with a Shopify ad and then moves to Open Doors and Harrisonburg's Great Community Give.
This episode features an interview with Lauren Jefferson about the 9th annual Great Community Give, a local fundraising event in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County that supports nonprofits and aims to raise $2.5 million.
This episode features an interview with Kevin Paluszak, CEO of Pleasant View Inc., discussing the organization's 55-year history of providing services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.
This special centers on Great Community Give and the organizations using it to raise money.
Shenandoah Valley Business Break opens on the seventh Great Community Give, then turns to the Valley Program for Aging Services' caregiver work.
This episode discusses the 7th Annual Great Community Give, a fundraising event for Harrisonburg and Rockingham nonprofits, highlighting prize incentives and community participation.
This episode discusses the Sentara RMH Wound Healing Center's work during Wound Care Awareness Month, focusing on chronic wound care, its importance, and factors like aging, diabetes, and obesity.
This episode discusses the Great Community Give, a local fundraising event in its fifth year, with program officer Amanda Bonfim covering goals, dates, and community impact for non-profits in the Shenandoah Valley.
This episode features an interview with Harry Reif of The Wishing Well, discussing the luxury concierge agency's 13-year success in travel, floral, and event planning services in the Shenandoah Valley.
This episode features an interview with Liza Borches, CEO of Carter Myers Automotive, discussing her recognition as one of the 100 leading women in the North American auto industry and her role in running a fourth-generation family automotive business.