Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know? Welcomes Special Guests
Author Janet Evanovich, Historian Marc Mappen
and Political Correspondent Charles Webster
with Musician Chris Harford
LIVE At the Patriots Theatre in the War Memorial in Trenton
Saturday, June 25, at 10:30 am

STATEWIDE – Michael Feldman and his crew are coming to Trenton as part of a road trip to celebrate 20 years of Feldman's popular public radio show. Whad'Ya Know warmly welcomes special guests Janet Evanovich, popular author of the Stephanie Plum mystery series; Marc Mappen, author of The Encyclopedia of New Jersey ; Charles Webster, State House Bureau Chief for the Trentonian ; and musician Chris Harford for a live broadcast from the Patriots Theater at the War Memorial in Trenton on Saturday, June 25, at 10:30 am. For more information, please visit the NJN web site at www.njn.net . Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know airs Saturdays at 11 am on NJN Public Radio.

Whad'Ya Know? is a two-hour comedy/quiz/interview show that is dynamic, varied and thoroughly entertaining. Host and quizmaster Michael Feldman invites contestants to answer questions drawn from his seemingly limitless store of insignificant (but also somehow, important) information. The program opens with Feldman's “All the News That Isn't,” a brief monologue filled with his entertaining brand of political and social satire. The hilarity that follows includes a Whad'Ya Know? quiz in each hour, an offbeat interview (or perhaps a hotline call-in) with someone not making the headlines; jazz with John Thulin, Clyde Stubblefield and Jeff Hamann; banter with sidekick Jim Packard; and loads of other features. When he's not touring the country, Feldman calls Madison , Wisconsin , his home. Produced by Wisconsin Public Radio, Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know? is distributed to more than 300 stations every week by Public Radio International and reaches more than 1.4 million listeners. Since June 1985, millions of avid fans have devoted their Saturday mornings to Feldman's impromptu humor and one-of-a-kind radio show.

This live broadcast from the War Memorial includes special New Jersey guests Janet Evanovich, Marc Mappen, Charles Webster and Chris Harford. A popular mystery writer, Janet Evanovich, is the author of the well-known Stephanie Plum series. Now living in New Hampshire , Evanovich has not quite let go of her New Jersey roots. According to Marilyn Stasio of The New York Times Book Review , "Stephanie Plum, the motor-mouthed Jersey girl from Trenton... is back with her pepper spray, stun gun, up-to-here hair, and out to there attitude... That girl has some class."

Before switching genres in 1994, Evanovich was a best-selling author of twelve humorous romance novels. She is the recipient of the Crime Writers Association's John Creasey Memorial, the Last Laugh, the Silver Dagger and the Left Coast Crime's Lefty award. Evanovich is also a two-time winner of the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association Dilys award.

With a passion for history and the state in particular, Marc Mappen knows New Jersey . Executive director of the New Jersey Historical Commission, Mappen is the co-editor in chief of the Encyclopedia of New Jersey . In addition to several books, he has also written for the Los Angeles Times , Rutgers Magazine , New Jersey Heritage and The History Teacher among other publications. Mappen is a frequent speaker at New Jersey historical societies, libraries, clubs and civic groups. He has appeared on the History Channel and provided commentary on the radio series New Jerseytimes , winner of a bronze award for achievement by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. Mappen is also the recipient of the History Issues Convention Maureen Ogden Award and the Society of the Cincinnati Award. He has a Ph.D. in American History and, prior to his current job, was an associate dean at Rutgers University .

Charles Webster is the political correspondent for The Trentonian newspaper and previous to that served as the historian for Trenton . According to Webster, Trenton was the sight of two revolutions – the American Revolutionary War and the Industrial Revolution. With a love for the history of Trenton that is hard to match combined with experience as a stand-up comedian, Webster can engage listeners with his insights and knowledge of Trenton Makes, the World Takes and his unique perspective of history.

Chris Harford began playing guitar and writing songs during his days at Princeton High School in the late 1970s.  A self-taught musician and painter, he graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art with a degree in performance art.  His first glimpse of fame came in the early 1980s with the popular Boston-based band Three Colors.  In 1986 the band moved to London and later came to New Jersey .  Harford eventually began working on a solo career, producing two collections of demos, The Saddest Songs Ever and The Anatomy of Melancholy .  Recorded over a four-year stretch with Adam Lasus at Studio Red in Philadelphia, PA, and Greg Frey at Graphic Sound Studios in Ringoes, NJ, some of those same songs appeared on his 1992 record debut Be Headed .  It was at that time that Harford formed The Band of Changes, the idea being that the size and sound of the band change with every venue.    Currently the band is made up of forty-five rotating musicians.