Bruce Sterling, President
Mr. Sterling has worked in archaeology for three decades, excavating prehistoric and historic sites in New England, the mid-Atlantic, the desert Southwest, Oregon, and the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. He made early contributions to battlefield archaeology through his work at Antietam Battlefield in Maryland. His archaeological pursuits brought him to Vermont in 1999, where he cares for a house on the Connecticut River with his wife, two children, a dog, and 2 cats. His obsessive interest in music drove him to join WOOL Radio in 2007 to host, as Border Pete, the show “Border Radio.”

John McCann, Vice President
Mr. McCann is a Nationally Registered Advance EMT since 2014, working on a local ambulance service. He has been working in EMS since 2008. He began his EMS career as a licensed First Responder working for LeFevre Ambulance. Currently he is a Volunteer on Bellows Falls Fire Department since 2014. He is a U.S. Air Force Veteran of Desert Shield/Storm (1986 to 1991). On an evening in August 2016, John and his girlfriend were walking around Bellows Falls, and happened to stop in at 33 Bridge St. WOOL Radio studio door was open. He talked with a DJ Host, and since he grew up watching a TV Show “WKRP in Cincinnati”, he was hooked. As they say, “the rest is history”. John hosts a weekly Radio Show, “Bringing Back That Smile” on Mondays from 4 to 6 pm.

Skye Payne, Secretary
Skye Payne grew up in a community theater group her parents helped found. Skye pursued dance, becoming an amateur ballroom competitor and then a professional dance teacher. Skye started a school for the LGBTQ community called OutDancing. In her day job as a psychologist, she was introduced to WOOL by her colleague and former Board member, Cheryl Gay Sherwin. Supporting WOOL and hoping to make a contribution to the community is being fulfilled by joining the Board.

Eric Kallio, Treasurer
Mr. Kallio is a Wireless Site Acquisition Project Manager in the cell tower industry and has been involved with telecommunications for about 30 years. Currently, Mr. Kallio leads the cell tower build project in Vermont to help bring sites into areas that the major wireless carriers will collocate onto to help improve cell coverage in rural areas. While in college, Mr. Kallio volunteered at WXPL 91.3 FM which is the college radio station at Fitchburg State University. Mr. Kallio resides outside of the Keene, NH area with his spouse and is the proud father of 2 daughters. Over the years, Mr. Kallio revisited his interest in radio and began his association with Black Sheep Radio in the fall of 2021. Mr. Kallio produces 3 shows at WOOL-FM being the Rise and Shine show on Wednesday morning, the Rest and Relax show on Wednesday evenings and is a rotating host for the show Where the Grass is Greener on Sundays.

Directors, alphabetically

Melissa Berry-Brown, Director
Ms. Berry-Brown, a resident of Bellows Falls and a lifelong Vermonter, is a classically trained musician and certified teacher, having studied at The New England Conservatory and received her degree in Elementary Education from Simmons College. She currently heads up the Administration team for an outsourced sales company representing emerging food brands.  Ms. Berry-Brown is a published poet, sings with the contemporary local chorus group Rock Voices, enjoys baking and doing her weekly radio show, “The Dish.”

Don Dawson, Director
Mr. Dawson has spent more than 30 years working in the music industry. WOOL seemed like a natural progression for his interests. A vinyl record collector, a music enthusiast as well as a local musician. He utilizes his personal record collection for his show “Vinyl Tap” to explore a wide range of genres, time periods, as well as musical cities around the globe.

Evan Parks, Director
Mr. Parks grew up in Vermont as a music lover, forming a DJ service and light show in high school for weddings, parties and school dances. He went on to get his FCC FM license at 16 and had his first job in radio at WVAY in West Dover Vermont for several years, where a lovely team of industry professionals showed him the ropes, back in the days of reel to reel, and cart machines. He holds a general class amateur radio license, and enjoys the technical aspect of radio science. He and his friend Jeff Ramen have a synthesizer duo called “Infinite Is”, which performed live sets on WOOL for a couple of years on a show called “In Synthesis With Infinite Is”. An archive of this show can be found on archive.org. Evan now hosts a weekly show every Friday at 5pm called “It’s Flocking Friday” featuring music, both live and recorded, local and worldwide, and guests from the area who are doing good things in our community. He is a live sound engineer volunteer at Stage 33 Live, which shares an address with WOOL.fm, and also at Springfield Area Public Access Television, and volunteers with various other organizations in his hometown of Chester Vermont, like the food shelf/Family Center, Chester Townscape, and Conservation Committee.

Erin Petrie, Director
Mrs. Petrie is a part-time musician and co-songwriter for several PA and NJ Rock bands and has been a backing band member for a Josie Music Award winning artist. Before relocating to Vermont some years ago, she also produced and hosted community radio station WDVR’s “Side Streets”, “Mainly Acoustic”, and “Celtic Sunday Brunch” shows. Erin works in IT, has two adult sons, and she and her wife now raise cats, dogs, chickens, and honeybees in the woods outside Chester, VT.

In memory of – Gary Smith, Director  1958 – 2023
Mr. Smith has been a member of the Board of Directors at WOOL since its founding in 2003. A veteran of the music industry, for 25 years he was owner of Boston’s Fort Apache Studios which, as production, management, and recording house worked with artists including the Pixies, Billy Bragg, Radiohead, Belly, Natalie Merchant, Juliana Hatfield, and Uncle Tupelo. In 2012, Smith started The Popolo Restaurant Group with two ex-directors of WOOL, and is its General Manager, helping to put regional growers in contact with consumers in a farm-to-table setting. Smith also promotes concerts and cultural events in the area. Popolo often works in tandem with WOOL. Smith is ex-president of Great Falls Community Broadcasting Company.