“Next Stop: The Visit Luzerne County Podcast” is a new podcast that shines the spotlight on locals leading the area in entertainment, arts, sports, outdoors, tourism, and other excitement that make the region special.
Photo Credit — Submitted
WILKES-BARRE — Visit Luzerne County, a.k.a. the Luzerne County Convention & Visitors Bureau, launched new monthly podcast “Next Stop: The Visit Luzerne County Podcast” with the debut episode out Friday, December 13.
The podcast will be available on Spotify, YouTube, Visit Luzerne County’s website and social media platforms. The new show is hosted by Alan K. Stout, Executive Director at Visit Luzerne County.
“Next Stop: The Visit Luzerne County Podcast” will be recorded each month at the office of Visit Luzerne County, which is located inside the historic train station in Wilkes-Barre. Kyle Stratton, the membership and marketing coordinator at Visit Luzerne County, is producer for the new show. Its name is derived from the former train station, which served as the “next stop” for thousands of trains for more than 100 years.
“For decades, the building that now serves as our office was a ‘next stop,’ ” says Stout in a press released shared with The Weekender. “Now, with the podcast, our ‘next stop,’ each month, will be with someone from the Northeastern Pennsylvania that is involved with tourism, arts and entertainment, the outdoors, local history, sports, or anything that makes Luzerne County and NEPA a fun place to live and visit.”
Stout, a former newspaper journalist who still hosts a weekly radio show, has conducted thousands of interviews over the span on three decades. Two of his former weekly columns, “Meet” and “Up Close,” profiled people from throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania — not to mention he wrote many years for us at The Weekender!
“Even if it’s only for about an hour per month, it will be nice, with the podcast, to be able to bring some of that past experience to my current job,” he says, adding that the podcast is something Visit Luzerne has been considering for about three years. “It’s been on our to-do list for quite a while, but if we did it, we really wanted a quality production, with quality video, great audio, and graphics. When Kyle joined our team this fall, we knew we had someone that could work well with video and produce a quality podcast. He’s also doing great things with our new TikTok page.”
The first guest on “Next Stop” is Joell Yarmel, the executive director of the F.M. Kirby Center.
“The podcast is really all about the guests,” says Stout. “We’ve got some very talented, very good people here in NEPA that see Luzerne County as a great place to live and visit, and we look forward to shining a light on them, their work, and what they bring to the community.”
