WUNC-FM to cover festivities marking 100^th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first flight

CHAPEL HILL -- WUNC Public Radio will provide live coverage of festivities marking the 100^th anniversary of the first flight by Orville and Wilbur Wright on Dec. 15-17. The coverage will conclude with three hours of live programming focused on the re-enactment of the first flight from Kill Devil Hills, N.C.

Melinda Penkava, host of WUNC’s "The State of Things," will broadcast from Kill Devil Hills on the Outer Banks. Frank Stasio will co-host from WUNC’s studios in Chapel Hill. Coverage will include interviews originating from each location, plus listener call-in segments and special features such as readings of letters of the Wright Brothers.

WUNC is offering live coverage of the events to public radio stations nationwide. Broadcasts will be heard from noon – 1 p.m. Monday, Dec. 15, and Tuesday, Dec. 16; and from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Wednesday, Dec.17. Guests will include:

• James Tobin, author of "To Conquer the Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight."
• NPR’s Noah Adams, author of "The Flyers: In Search of Orville and Wilbur Wright."
• Tom Crouch, senior curator/aeronautics division at the Smithsonian Institute’s National Air and Space Museum.
• Amanda Wright Lane, the great-grandniece of the Wright Brothers.

WUNC reporter Rusty Jacobs will report from the site of the re-enactment of the

first flight, which is scheduled for 10:35 a.m. EST Wednesday, Dec. 17. The first heavier-than-air controlled flight lasted 12 seconds, and covered a distance of 120 feet. There were three other flights that day. The final one, flown by Wilbur Wright, was the longest at 852 feet and lasted 59 seconds.

WUNC Public Radio is a service of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, broadcasting at 91.5 FM in the Triangle and Triad, at 90.9 FM in Rocky Mount/Wilson, and at 88.9 FM on the Outer Banks.

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Contact: Fred Wasser, (919) 966-5454, fwasser@wunc.org