Meet Your MC's!

Mike “Doc” Atwell of Star-95 FM will be the voice of the Downtown Countdown on the Dick Copeland Town Square Stage for the 6th year in a row. He grew up in the state of Maine where he began his musical journey. At the age of 8 he was performing all over the state of Maine with the Southern Maine Children’s choir and continued his studies in music through the Southern Maine Music Academy until the age of 18. He performed all over New England with the alternative rock bands “LimeLite” and “Midnight Sun”. Atwell has worked in several facets of the music industry; providing security for top national recording artists at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom in New Hampshire and working as a senior sales representative for Daddy’s Junky Music until 2006 when he left for service in the United States Navy.

After Five years of service as a Fleet Marine Force Corpsman, and a combat deployment to Afghanistan, Atwell moved to West Virginia where he began his studies at Concord University. It was at Concord that Atwell found his passion for being behind the microphone. He began his radio career with WVCU and has emceed several events in the southern West Virginia area since 2013 including Culturefest World Music and Arts Festival and Princeton’s Annual Downtown Countdown. 

In his free time, Doc enjoys the outdoors, hiking, camping, playing guitar, attending music festivals with his family, playing various musical instruments and listening to hours of bootleg Grateful Dead live recordings. Atwell currently holds a RBA in Recreation and Tourism Management and is the afternoon On-Air DJ at WSTG Star 95.9FM in Princeton West Virginia. 

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Dreama Denver of Little Buddy Radio will be your Master of Ceremonies at Stages Music School. Dreama is a West Virginia native who left the WV hills and found love in the Hollywood Hills when she met and married television icon Bob Denver, Gilligan of Gilligan’s Island. During their first decade together, the two filmed a tv pilot “Scamps” for NBC, acted together in the third Gilligan’s Island television movie and toured the United States and Canada working together onstage.

After the birth of their son, diagnosed with autism, the Denvers moved back to WV where they established The Denver Foundation and the nonprofit Little BuddyRadio in honor of Colin. Since Bob’s death in 2005, Dreama has discovered new passions and new directions in which to take the foundation. Founding Always Free Honor Flight, WV’s first Honor Flight program, honoring WV veterans with free trips to Washington, DC to visit the memorials built to honor their service is especially close to Dreama’s heart, as is the Denver Foundation’s Always Free Walk of Honor, installed and dedicated as a poignant addition to the War Memorial and Museum in Princeton. 

Leading the effort to have John Denver’s “Take Me Home Country Roads” adopted, successfully and unanimously, as an official WV state song ranks as one of the most gratifying days of her life, rivaled only by being chosen one of West Virginia’s Wonder Women by WV Living magazine in 2014. 

Dreama’s memoir, “Gilligan’s Dreams”, recounting her almost 30 year marriage to Bob, received the prestigious Ella Dickey Literacy Award, given to authors who’ve preserved history through their written work. Her memoir is her love letter to Bob and her gift to Bob’s fans.

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Sam "TheMan" Franz will be your Master of Ceremonies in The Room Upstairs at The RiffRaff Arts Collective. A gifted artist, radio DJ, graphic designer and all around creative, Sam was active in the downtown Princeton scene when he lived here years ago. He was amongst the driven volunteers that helped pull the inaugural Downtown Countdown together; he helped build the ball and suggested the title of the event in 2013. He was also instrumental in the creation of the Mercer Monster Mash Halloween Extravaganza, which just celebrated its 6th annual. Sam also MC's at Culturefest World Music & Arts Festival and, although he now resides in Richmond Virginia, he is a valuable contributor to the arts scene of Southern WV from afar.