After being delayed to accommodate the radio station’s recent move, 97.9 The Hill & Chapelboro.com’s annual Forum on The Hill is officially here.
Throughout the week of January 29, the series of panels covering major local topics with local leaders returns to the airwaves of 97.9 FM/1360 AM — and this year, with more panels. The event has expanded one hour each day, meaning three panels will happen from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. WCHL’s morning show host Aaron Keck, afternoon show host Andrew Stuckey and news director Brighton McConnell will serve as moderators over the course of 15 hours of community conversations.
The 2024 forum will begin with a day dedicated to different elements of housing in our community. Monday, January 29 will feature a panel on housing policy with elected officials and local government representatives. Following that, a panel on the local housing market and inventory will share perspectives from real estate professionals and nonprofit leaders. The day will close with a panel on the future of housing, including ways to build sustainably and assessing its role in other aspects of our community — featuring guests from UNC, the Chapel Hill Town Council, and more.
Tuesday, January 30, holds a trio of panels with different themes. Local leaders from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, Orange County Schools, and Chatham County Schools districts will discuss how students can see their futures while attending those schools, while local health professionals will discuss recent progress and gaps in addressing inequities in health. A variety of leaders from UNC’s campus will finish Tuesday by discussing the university’s path forward as it grapples with maintaining academic freedom in the face of political influence.
On Wednesday, January 31, a group of small business owners will gather for a panel to discuss how local businesses can survive big changes and what it takes to adjust in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro markets. Later, the conversation will shift further south — as a panel talks about the importance of the 15-501 corridor between Chapel Hill and Pittsboro as both communities continue to evolve. Wednesday will close with a discussion on balancing the importance of teaching skills and trades with a liberal arts education, as workforce needs and higher education trends continue to shift.
Read the full list of panelists and panel titles here.
The forum will begin Thursday, February 1 with a panel on Orange County’s economic development status and strategies, featuring representatives from the county’s local governments. The conversation will then shift to climate change, as a panel of climate researchers and stakeholders discuss resiliency at a time of extremes. The final panel on Thursday will discuss local nonprofits and their vitality as local organizations experienced turbulence and success in the years following COVID-19’s lockdowns.
The final day of the forum — Friday, February 2 — will include a pair of mayor-led panels. The newly-elected mayors of Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough will join each other to discuss taking new leadership roles and the communication necessary between their towns for local success. Then, the mayors of Pittsboro and Mebane will discuss how their neighboring towns are experiencing trends similar and different from what is seen in Orange County. To finish out this year’s series, a local music panel will band together to share what makes our community a special environment for local music.
The full schedule for this year’s Forum on The Hill — including panels, panelists, times — can be found on Chapelboro’s Forum on The Hill page. The series can be heard by tuning into 97.9 FM/1360 AM on traditional radio, and can be streamed on Chapelboro. Audio from each panel will be made available on-demand on the Forum on The Hill page once they finishing airing on the radio.
97.9 The Hill’s Forum on The Hill is presented by UNC Health and the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership. While both organizations helped make this year’s event possible, the content discussed in the panels are not shaped influenced by the forum’s sponsors.
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