Host Amy Lacey interviews a guest on “Virginia Currents” in 2019. The show airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on VPM, WCVE 23. (Photo by Michael Simon)
Virginia’s longest-running locally produced TV show, “Virginia Currents,” has entered its final season. After 30 years, the VPM-produced program will conclude this month as the media company considers a new approach with a different show.
“Based on research and community feedback, we are exploring new ideas and approaches to content creation, including a multiplatform news, arts and culture magazine show,” says Shawn Freude, the executive producer of “Virginia Currents.”
Over the years, the show has evolved while maintaining a focus on in-depth storytelling. In its early years, content included political analysis and coverage of the Virginia General Assembly, but it eventually moved away from that coverage to focus more on in-depth personal feature stories. “The creative approach has changed over time as different hosts and storytellers have lent their voices to the show,” Freude says, “but the dedication to sharing narrative features and timely, relevant subject matter has been consistent throughout.”
Amy Lacey is the show’s fourth host, following in the footsteps of Daphne Maxwell Reid, who hosted from 2012 to 2018; May-Lily Lee, who served as host from 1997 to 2012, after having contributed to the show for six years previously; and Scott Mason, who hosted from the show’s inception in 1990 to 1997.
“This show was a professional dream come true for me,” says Lacey, a former reporter for WRIC. “The core of my career has been advocacy, and this is a show that is built around advocating for individuals who are underserved, who are underrepresented, and empowering people through their own personal storytelling.”
Lacey says she’s honored to play a role in the show’s legacy and help it end on a high note. Becoming host of the program was a natural transition for her; several years before she became host, VPM ((then known as the Community Idea Stations) repurposed content Lacey had created for a WRIC segment called “Positively Richmond.” She was also a regular viewer of the show after moving to Richmond from eastern North Carolina in 2004.
“I found it to be so inspirational,” Lacey says. “It gave me a chance to learn more about what was going on around the state.”
Over the past two years, Lacey has worked with Freude and the show’s three other producers, Patty Nevadomski, Lucas Dyke and Kristen Lindo, as well as a sizable group behind the scenes. The current team has given careful consideration to the stories that would bookend the show’s legacy and has included a diverse group of individuals. Past episodes have explored the challenges of the Asian Pacific Islander community in Richmond, as well as highlighting families helping others affected by infant loss.
A new segment on the show, “Currents Capsule,” taps the program’s legacy for special segments that explore how popular culture and social issues — everything from how we eat to how we consider marijuana use — have changed over time.
Although “Virginia Currents” is ending, its legacy of storytelling will continue at the media company. “VPM is committed to finding ways to reach new people,” Freude says, “to showcase what is going on in our community, to create empathetic Virginians and connect people.”
