WBNX & students raise tons of food for needy
Monday, December 22nd, 2008Approximately 6,000 meals will be provided to area families in need, as a result of the seventh annual WBNX/Akron Middle Schools Food Drive. This year’s two-week campaign netted 7,660 pounds of non-perishable goods for the Akron-Canton Regional foodbank, boosting our program’s overall total to nearly 49 tons of food donations. That translates to more than 76,000 meals since the Food Drive partnership began in 2002, and ranks as one of the local Foodbank’s top annual holiday collection efforts. As an incentive, students and teachers compete against other homerooms and the other middle schools to see who can collect the most items. The winning class at each school receives a Gionino’s Pizzeria party, with the overall winning class featured in a WBNX promo on-air. Congratulations to Mr. Steve Frantz’s 6th-graders at Roswell Kent, who are #1 in the district for the fifth time in seven years, more than doubling the collections (1,192) from any other participating Akron classroom. And a special shout-out to Litchfield Middle School, which tallied 2,942 items overall. We’re proud of the sharing spirit these young people exhibit each holiday season, and are honored to be involved in such a worthwhile community project.


Two weeks from tonight, Northeast Ohioans can meet three major stars from Degrassi: The Next Generation in-person! Shane Kippel joins Mike Lobel and Melissa McIntyre at the milestone 150th
The WBNX crew has a busy Saturday fast approaching. As part of an all-new morning of cartoons, we’ll “flip the switch” on two World Premiere events: the debut of The Spectacular Spider-Man series, followed by the one-hour series finale movie special, The Batman: Lost Heroes. It’s a “new millennium Spidey,” the first animated take on the Marvel webslinger in nearly a decade. The three big-screen films with Tobey Maguire have, of course, snared well over a billion dollars in the meantime, so the superhero has his legion of fans. During the first seven episodes, our young Spiderman will face off with villains like Vulture, Electro, Green Goblin, The Lizard, Sandman, Rhino and The Shocker. One interesting footnote for trivia buffs: the only U.S. live-action Spiderman TV series, produced in ‘77, starred Nicholas Hammond—better known to most as eldest son “Friedrich von Trapp” in The Sound of Music movie. The Saturday crimefighting ends at noon, just as Akron’s 28th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade is stepping off on South Main St. at Cedar St. Scooby-Doo will join WBNX on-air personalities Ali and Melanie Murphy (Miss Ohio 2006) in the big event, which features marching bands, mascots, classic vehicles, leprechauns and all things Irish! An “I Wish it Were Spring” Farmer’s Market will also be held at downtown’s Lock 3 Park, and there’s an after-parade party (open to the public, with cover charge) at the Knights of Columbus Hall on Glenmount Ave.

