Wayne Norman
500 episodes listed below
Willimantic-area conversations with practical local memory.
Wayne Norman Interviews keeps close track of what is happening around Willimantic and northeastern Connecticut. Conversations move from rail trails and hospital fundraisers to school budgets, youth sports, chamber news, child-safety work, and plain-spoken financial planning.
PRESS PLAY
Wayne Norman Interviews is a local interview feed centered on Willimantic, Windham, Coventry, Columbia, and the wider northeastern Connecticut community. It is grounded in ordinary public life. Guests arrive with updates, and the conversation follows the useful questions first: what is happening, who is involved, what it costs, where people should go, and why it matters now. The range is wide, but the scale stays local. Tom McGrath talks about Columbia open space, historical sites, the Hop River Trail, the Airline State Park Trail Alliance, the Willimantic River Trail, and improvements connected to disc golf and trail access. Windham Whippets Athletics Foundation guests explain how community supporters can help student athletes afford the extra pieces that school programs often cannot cover. Shawn Maynard brings hospital foundation updates on the Anne L. Card Memorial Scholarship, the Senior Seminar in Lebanon, the Frank D. Vasington Golf Classic, and programs connected to health needs. Chamber Chat adds a business-and-community layer, with Amy Brunette, L. Jordan Sherman, Nancy Pair, Sarah King, and Ginger Ginny appearing in a lively monthly segment that can move from awards to painting jobs to local commerce. Some episodes are civic in the strict sense. Coventry Town Manager Jim Drumm talks budget pressure, school infrastructure, public safety concerns, equipment replacement, and town meeting debates. Other segments are advisory, including Ralph Johnston on retirement planning and taxes or Liza Langevin on markets, inflation, oil prices, and conflict-related volatility. The show also gives space to prevention and public-service work, including the Windham Task Force to Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect and its Take Time to Play event. The tone stays neighborly. There is teasing, correction, repetition, and the occasional aside, but the program keeps returning to the public-useful point. It is best for listeners who care about community institutions, local names, town decisions, small businesses, school needs, health fundraisers, and the practical machinery of eastern Connecticut life.
Made for: Built for eastern Connecticut listeners who want usable local detail from local guests. It also suits anyone studying how small communities organize, fundraise, debate budgets, and keep institutions moving.
What sets it apart: The show preserves the texture of local radio instead of sanding it down. Its strength is patient, name-rich interviewing that lets community updates keep their dates, roads, committees, costs, and side stories intact.
Listen in to WILI 1400AM and 95.3FM live from Willimantic, CT! Missed an interview or want to re-listen? That's what we have this podcast for! For more information, check out our website at http://www.wili.com !
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Wayne Norman makes northeastern Connecticut's civic institutions, community groups and local personalities accessible through patient, practical radio interviews.
Wayne Norman Interviews turns a local radio microphone toward the people and institutions shaping northeastern Connecticut. Norman works through direct, practical questions, asking a town manager about school communication systems, a mayor about snow removal and UConn mascot…
A Husky has TSA PreCheck; Wayne Norman has the follow-up questions you would actually ask.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A small-town fundraiser with a real memory bank behind it.
The piece follows the Wyndham Whippets Athletics Foundation from a local need to something sturdier: a small group of people stepping in when the programs needed help with the extras, including sending two students to football camp.
A chamber roundtable that sounds like local business news told by the people living it.
This Chamber Chat lands less as a polished segment and more as a practical local bulletin board: the Northeastern Connecticut Chamber of Commerce introduces a new president, points toward an upcoming awards gala, and gathers people tied to the region's everyday business life.
A steady town-budget check that turns old intercoms and a street sweeper into plain civic math.
Coventry's monthly town-manager update stays locked on the budget fight. The town manager lays out why the plan comes in at 4.7 percent above last year, after years of tough cuts and resident pushback.
A practical market check-in that treats the Iran conflict as an investor question.
The episode treats the Iran conflict less like a headline and more like a market problem. Wayne Norman keeps the focus on what it could mean for investors and the financial outlook, while Liza Langevin stays with the practical effects: volatility, oil, inflation, and the way…
A steady civic update on reports, tax relief, and the practical work behind local grants.
This Town Talk episode stays close to the ground: a missing annual report, a 2024 Connecticut authorization for owner-occupied property tax exemptions, and the assessor's first pass at how that law affects assessed values.
A grounded campus mascot interview that leans on logistics more than heat.
Jonathan the 15th turns this interview into a practical look at what a campus mascot actually does day to day. The strongest details are the ones that make the work concrete: brought home in 2023 at 10 weeks old, strict training, TSA pre-check, cheese sticks, flights,…
Snow-day civic talk that knows the streets and routines by heart.
Mayor Meeting Monday centers on the kind of local-government talk that matters most when snow is already on the ground. Tom DeVivo and the host move from the storm itself to the practical fallout: parking bans, towing, broken mirrors, mailboxes, delayed trash, recycling, and…
Tom McGrath discusses progress on open space conservation and rail trails in Columbia, focusing on the 2026 Ride the East CT event and regional collaboration.
Rob Francis sketches the idea behind the Wyndham Whippets Athletics Foundation.
The host leads the chamber's monthly visit in a crowded studio.
This episode features an interview with Shawn Maynard, Executive Director of the Windham Hospital Foundation, discussing the Ann Card Memorial Scholarship for students pursuing healthcare careers.
Ralph Johnston, a CFP from Reservoir Financial, discusses the misconception that retirement readiness is about hitting a savings target and emphasizes the importance of converting savings into reliable monthly income.
This episode discusses the upcoming Take Time to Play community event organized by the Windham Task Force to Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect, featuring interviews with organizers about its purpose and activities.
Coventry's budget has everyone talking in town.
Financial advisor Liza Langevin of WHZ Strategic Wealth Advisors joins host Wayne Norman to discuss what the Iran conflict means for markets and investor portfolios.
Wayne Norman opens Town Talk as Wyndham's monthly review of 'accomplishments, issues, and celebrations,' then brings back Rob Zarnetsky, the Wyndham Town Manager.
Town manager Ryan Aylsworth discusses UConn basketball's Final Four run and coordination for campus celebrations.
Host Wayne Norman interviews Dale Acevedo about the restart of the Access Community Action Agency's mobile food pantry serving Northeast Connecticut.
Host Wayne Norman interviews Libby Tarleton about the upcoming Know Your Farmer Fair, a local event connecting farmers with the community.
Host Wayne Norman interviews Connecticut Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz about her NCAA brackets and the governor's proposal for free school breakfast.
Coach and players of Wyndham Tech boys basketball team discuss their state championship victory over Woodland.
Mayor Tom DeVivo discusses the town budget challenges and financial planning for Willimantic.
Town Manager Rob Zarnetsky discusses the town's response to a blizzard and the current budget process.
Amy DeMauro, Senior Vice President for Adult Behavioral Services at CHR Community Health Resources, announces that Heartwood Home — a new step-down residential facility for men recovering from substance use — will open in Willimantic by summer 2026.
Jonathan the 15th joins the host, with his Alpha Phi Omega handlers doing most of the talking.
Snow runs the show here.
This episode features a monthly chamber chat with members of the Northeastern Connecticut Chamber of Commerce, including discussions about recent events and an introduction to Zen Leaf Ashford, a cannabis dispensary.
This episode features an interview with Kit and Jamie Eves, the 2025 Romantic Willimantic Co-Cupids, discussing their recent activities, including attending a family-involved theater production of Pride and Prejudice.
Mansfield Town Manager Ryan Ellsworth discusses a freight train derailment involving liquid propane cars near the Willimantic River, with no leaks or injuries but a shelter-in-place advisory.
Wayne Norman interviews Jonathan Matthews about market updates and the impact of OBBBA on personal finances and taxes.
Interview with Eastern Connecticut State University's athletic director about receiving a lifetime achievement award and the unique aspects of Division III athletics.
Town Manager Rob Zarneski discusses the town's snow removal response to a historic storm.
Host Wayne Norman interviews the Torsolini family about Scramble the Duck's annual weather prediction event in Eastford, Connecticut.
Wayne Norman interviews local organizers about upcoming Valentine's Day events in Willimantic, including a chocolate festival, road race, and pop-up retail space.
Host Wayne Norman interviews organizers of the Olga Isis Plunge for Hunger, a community fundraiser in Willimantic, CT.
Host Wayne Norman interviews executives from Genesee and Wyoming Railroad about their operations, history, and infrastructure in the Northeast.
Host Wayne Norman interviews representatives from the Malley Matters Foundation about an upcoming pool tournament to raise awareness for suicide prevention and mental health services.
Host Wayne Norman interviews Steve Farino and Nancy McKinney about the Taste to Towns restaurant week collaboration between Mansfield and Willimantic.
An interview with local blues musicians Patty Tuite and Ramblin' Dan Stevens discussing their involvement with the Connecticut Blues Society, musical backgrounds, and upcoming live performance.
An interview with organizers of a Story Jam event, discussing the art of oral storytelling and an upcoming themed gathering.
Host Wayne Norman interviews Connecticut Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz about the state's severe cold weather protocol and a critical blood shortage.