Chapelboro.com

The 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro news team are returning with the annual Forum On The Hill the week of Dec. 8! Tune in for 15 panels covering 15 different topics that shaped our community’s top stories and experiences in 2025, hosted by WCHL’s Aaron Keck, Brighton McConnell and Andrew Stuckey. Find the full schedule on Chapelboro, listen to 97.9 FM or stream the discussions live, and find each panel on-demand afterward!

The 2025 “Forum On The Hill” is presented by the Town of Chapel Hill, UNC Health, Wegmans, Coleman Merritt Murphy & Rainsford P.C., and The Law Office of Chris Barnes. Listen to the panels live on 97.9 The Hill WCHL the week of Dec. 8-12 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., or revisit them the day after on-demand at Chapelboro.com, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!

The post 97.9 The Hill’s “Forum On The Hill” – Preview appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

97.9 the Hill’s Andrew Stuckey fills in for Aaron Keck with the morning news. In this edition of the news, we learn the results of the first day of the filing period for 2026 elections. Highlights included Chatham County Sheriff Mike Roberson deciding to not run for reelection and instead pursue a seat on the Chatham County Board of Commissioners. We check the candidates in Orange County, hear from Jamezetta Bedford on her decision to run for reelection, and more. In Sports, the men’s basketball team gears up for a high profile trip to Lexington to face Kentucky, several athletes earn individual accolades, and more.

97.9 The Hill WCHL and Chapelboro.com are your headquarters for local news in Chapel Hill-Carrboro. Every weekday morning, 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck recaps the day’s news, from local government to business developments to UNC sports. Click here to listen back to all of Aaron’s daily news reports, which you can hear live during “This Morning with Aaron Keck” every weekday from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m.

The post The Morning News: Sheriff Roberson Not Running for Reelection, Basketball at Kentucky appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

UNC football ends its season with a blowout loss to N.C. State, 42-19, in a performance that feels like a microcosm of the whole season. 97.9 The Hill’s Brighton McConnell and Michael Koh debrief what went wrong against the Wolfpack, as well as the first season under Bill Belichick. They discuss the offensive woes and the defense’s regression against stopping the run, as well as look ahead to what the 2026 schedule holds for Carolina. Inside Carolina’s Tommy Ashley joins to provide prospective (and hindsight) on why expectations were high in Belichick’s first year vs. the reality of the season, as well as his sense of whether UNC’s investment into the football program will ultimately pay off. Plus: Michael and Brighton talk about what players and positions to prioritize keeping or refreshing this offseason and callers share their despair and optimism following the season in the closing “What In Tar-Nation?!”

The Carolina Football Hour is your home for football insights from the Tar Heel Sports flagship station! Reactions, analysis, special guests — plus, a space for post-game callers, fans and listeners can share their observations and contribute their own voice to the broadcast. Tune in Monday evenings at 6:00 p.m. on 97.9 The Hill WCHL and listen on-demand afterward on your favorite audio apps, like Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

The post N.C. State Buries UNC Football Along With The Heels’ 2025 Season — The Carolina Football Hour (Dec. 1, 2025) appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

97.9 the Hill’s Andrew Stuckey fills in for Aaron Keck with the morning news. In this edition of the news, we check the local government meeting schedule, learn about some feedback opportunities for Pittsboro residents, hear about an organization fostering difficult political conversations in person, and more. In sports, the UNC Football team’s season comes to an end, and more.

97.9 The Hill WCHL and Chapelboro.com are your headquarters for local news in Chapel Hill-Carrboro. Every weekday morning, 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck recaps the day’s news, from local government to business developments to UNC sports. Click here to listen back to all of Aaron’s daily news reports, which you can hear live during “This Morning with Aaron Keck” every weekday from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m.

The post The Morning News: Political Conversations, Downtown Pittsboro, Football Season Ends appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Amelia Riggs stopped by Live & Local last week, following the release of her new album “Creature.”

Listen to the album and purchase it on Bandcamp.

Riggs (née Al) has been a major figure in the Triangle’s music scene for a decade – but this is her first album as Amelia, after coming out as transgender four years ago. Until this summer, she’d been releasing music as Riggings – including 2024’s “Egg,” which along with “Creature” are the first two parts of a planned trilogy.

But the inspiration for “Creature” struck first.

“The album took a couple of years to write and a couple of years to record,” Riggs says. “This one was inspired by this amazing essay by Susan Stryker, ‘My Words to Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of Chamounix,’ about the reclamation of trans rage and the reclamation of rage as fuel and rage as rebirth…

“I read it all in one night, and I emailed her the next day: ‘Hey, I want to make an album inspired by this thing. Do I have your permission to do this?’ And within a few days I get an email back that said ‘yeah, go for it – just give me a copy when it’s done.’”

Stryker is a major figure in transgender theory and activism, and “My Words,” written in 1993, is a seminal work of trans thought. In it, Stryker identifies with Frankenstein’s monster, “torn apart and sewn together again,” viewed as unnatural and therefore horrifying, hounded, ostracized, and filled with rage at being hounded and ostracized. But rather than wanting to be seen as normal, Stryker chooses to embrace her own Other-ness, to reclaim the words ‘creature’ and ‘monster’ not as slurs or insults but as points of pride. (A “creature,” she points out, is simply a “created being,” while the word “monster” derives from a Latin word meaning “divine portent,” a “messenger and herald of the extraordinary.”) And rage itself, far from being negative, can serve as fuel, “the force that moves me,” the “enlivening power of darkness” that enables Stryker to assert herself as herself, against a world that seeks to exclude and impose and suppress.

Click here to read Stryker’s essay.

In “Creature,” Riggs uses Stryker’s insight as a starting point for her own story. Her speakers proudly declare themselves a “miracle of modern medicine,” emerge, fully formed for the first time, with a sense of confusion and wonder (“How am I walking? How does this spine work? How does my heart pump now?”), seek and find the human connection that Frankenstein’s creature never could (“You draw me beautiful – so much I think it’s true”), and finally embrace their own lives and truths amongst a herd that wants to shut it down. (“Given that I’m upright, given that I’m here…why does it matter how I’m walking around? I’m just happy to be out in the sun.”) The process is bloody, violent, and angry, but also positive and affirming – not in spite of the blood and the violence and the rage, but alongside them and because of them.

Follow Amelia Riggs on Instagram.

“I love being trans,” Riggs says. “It’s the greatest thing to have happened to me, finding out that this is who I am and this is how my body works. It has given me much more autonomy over my body. It’s given me much more autonomy over my brain. And it’s allowed me to meet so many wonderful people…

“(But) they’re coming for trans people, so rage helps,” she adds. “Rage helps so much.… It’s so interesting when people who presumably are on your side are like, ‘well, you shouldn’t be so outspoken, you shouldn’t be angry. It’s not good decorum.’ And my response to that is: they hate us anyway. They hate us anyway, and they want us to die. What good is trying to be nice to people who have a knife to our throat? If they already have a knife to our throat, you might as well grab the knife with your teeth and use it on them.”

The cover of Amelia Riggs’ “Creature.”

Riggs brings those powerful lyrics to life with her signature sound – dissonant yet soothing, atonal yet melodic, fuzzy yet clear – and an assist from poet Gion Davis and actress Athena Sadler, who read portions of Stryker’s essay along the way. And Stryker’s not the only author whose work gets checked: Riggs also cites Gretchen Felker-Martin’s cathartically bloody genderfluid horror novel “Black Flame” as well as Vladimir Nabokov’s classic “Pale Fire” – which, like “Frankenstein,” features a central character who’s driven by a mad desire to impose his own phony worldviews on the lives of others.

Eviscerating that phoniness – no matter what it takes – is at the heart of what “Creature” is about.

“I feel like there are a lot of people who, for either very good or very evil reasons, feel like the goal is assimilation, to be seen as ‘normal,’” Riggs says. “(But) tearing away the parts of yourself that make you you, in order to make yourself more pleasing to look at, pleasing to talk to – it’s wrapped up in a lot of self-loathing. So I choose not to assimilate. And that’s okay. You don’t have to. You can live your life and do your best to surround yourself with people who don’t care what you look like, how you talk, how you think, how you feel. You can surround yourself with empathetic, kind, good people. You should do that…

“People have a problem with sincerity…but there is still time. You can do whatever you want with your body and figure out what works for you.”

Amelia Riggs is playing live Saturday, December 13, at Perfect Lovers in Durham, starting at 7:30 along with Frank Meadows.

Amelia Riggs stopped by Live & Local to discuss “Creature” and play three songs: “Creature4Creature,” “Talons,” and a cover of Geese’s “Taxes.” Listen:

The post A Proud ‘Creature’: Live & Local with Amelia Riggs! appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Lisa Sorg

This Week:

Randy Voller

Come on up to the porch to have a chat with Randy Voller — former mayor, real estate developer, musician, man-about-town and more — in a recurring conversation and slice-of-life program presented by VRC Limited. If you love great conversations and amazing anecdotes, then come on up and join us…On the Porch!

The post On the Porch: Lisa Sorg – Environmental News appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

EJ Wilson and Joey Powell get you ready for kickoff of the season finale as the Tar Heels head to Raleigh for a date with NCSU. Up-to-date info and analysis to the same standard that you’ve come to expect from Inside Carolina.

The post INSIDE CAROLINA LIVE 11/29/25 – NC STATE PRE-GAME appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Deborah Stroman speaks with 97.9 The Hill News Director Brighton McConnell on Friday, Nov. 28. The Thanksgiving holiday delivered several exciting games — like UNC women’s basketball winning over South Dakota State, men’s basketball falling to Michigan State, and a trio of NFL matchups. Stroman shares her thoughts on Courtney Banghart’s team’s performances of late, including a triple-double by Indya Nivar, and details where she believes Hubert Davis’ team fell short vs. the Spartans.

Dr. Deborah Stroman — who is a UNC professor, sports businesswoman, former basketball player, and columnist — chats with 97.9 The Hill’s Brighton McConnell each week about the world of sports. Click here to listen to their past conversations on the latest sports headlines and impact in the game, on culture, and for business.

The post Thanksgiving Sports Recap, Including Tar Heel Basketball and NFL — Stroman On Sports (Nov. 28, 2025) appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Voice of the Tar Heels Jones Angell joins Aaron to preview Saturday’s regular-season finale, as Tar Heel football takes on NC State. Carolina football may be nearing the end of their regular season, but UNC basketball season is still ramping up – so Jones and Aaron also talk basketball, with the Heels coming off their first loss of the season at the hands of Michigan State.

97.9 The Hill WCHL and Chapelboro.com are your headquarters for local news and local voices in Chapel Hill-Carrboro. Every weekday morning, 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck chats with government officials, UNC scholars, business and nonprofit leaders, area musicians, and others in our community as they share their thoughts, their experience, and their expertise on the central issues of today. Click here to listen back to all of Aaron’s conversations – and tune in to “This Morning with Aaron Keck” at 7:30 a.m. on 97.9 The Hill to hear those conversations live.

Listen:

The post On Air Today: Jones Angell on NC State, Michigan State, and the Surprises of UNC Football appeared first on Chapelboro.com.

Trending today: the autograph-collection market is roiled by a massive forgery scandal, with four million fake items out there on the marketplace. Victor soapboxes on how autograph collecting is one of his pet peeves – but Aaron is stuck on the logistics of one man singlehandedly forging four million items. (Also, Aaron’s own fake autograph story.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back to all our past What’s Trending segments – and tune in to “This Morning” on 97.9 The Hill every weekday at 7:45 to hear What’s Trending live on the air.

What’s Trending is made possible by Dynamic Electric. Listen now:

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