Joe Kendrick
Program DirectorJoe Kendrick is program director at WFAE, where he oversees programming strategy, schedule development and content selection. He is responsible for shaping the station's overall sound, recruiting and developing on-air talent, growing audience engagement, and representing WFAE at community events and public functions.
Before joining WFAE, Kendrick served as director of programming and operations at WNCW in Spindale, North Carolina. In that role, he hosted on-air music programming, developed original content and produced live broadcasts from locations across western North Carolina. He also collaborated with NPR Music, appearing as a guest on World Cafe, producing videos for the Night Owl series, writing music reviews and serving as a guest panelist on New Music Friday.
In addition to his broadcasting career, Kendrick has extensive entrepreneurial experience. He owned and operated an Outdoor Lighting Perspectives franchise for 10 years before selling the business and transitioning to radio full time.
Kendrick studied journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he began his radio career as a disc jockey at WXYC.
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In 1966, Ed Bechtel was kicked out of college. Soon, he found himself using his Morse Code knowledge in his role as a Communications Technician on the USS Liberty, an unarmed communications ship that was monitoring the Arab-Israeli conflict in international waters. -
Rick Greene served in the Navy Medical Corps in the mid-1970s as a lieutenant commander. His first duty was as a surgeon aboard the USS Nimitz, the first Nimitz-class nuclear carrier. -
Jeffrey Kneisl served in the U.S. Navy, first as a ship's medical officer and later as an orthopedic surgeon, in San Diego and Oakland, California. -
Kevin Garcia served 22 years in the U.S. Army, from 2000 to 2022, as an infantryman posted at bases around the US and in Italy. He joined for what he calls "selfish reasons." -
Lizz Baxter’s grandfather was in the Navy and told her stories about traveling the world. That stayed with her. She also saw peers in her small town join up, and she wanted to see the world and have a way out of town. An Army recruiter promised her a station in Germany, and she enlisted at 17, becoming a culinary specialist. -
Michael Krueger served in the Air Force for 21 years as a command-and-control officer, also known as an air battle manager, in Korea, Italy and the U.S. Krueger encourages anyone interested in military service to pursue it as long as they have the right mindset. -
Neal Mims joined the United States Army in 1967 along with his best friend, who was No. 1 on the draft list, while Mims was No. 3 at the time. -
Shikina Tellis was in middle school when she saw an NJROTC unit at an exhibition drill. She gravitated to the “crispness and sharpness” of the exhibition and decided immediately that she would go into the service. A week after Tellis graduated high school, she enlisted. -
Tom Bolen was inspired to serve by his father, who grew up very poor in Mississippi but earned an appointment to West Point. Bolen became a field artillery officer in the Army, serving for 30 years in the U.S. as well as in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Fred Peterson served in the U.S. Coast Guard from 1952 to 1960 as a first class storekeeper (E6) on the icebreaker Mackinaw on the Great Lakes.He arrived in late winter, expecting easy duty because the ship was iced in. Two days later the crew announced they were leaving; the ship could break through 6 to 8 feet of solid ice. It was very loud.
