Chat with Holland's Media Personalities Past and Present

This program was recorded at the Holland Museum, Holland, MI on Thursday, December 7, 2023.

The news media is an integral part of any community and Holland is no different. Join local media personalities Cassandra Lybrink, Lupita Reyes, Gary Stevens, and Paul Van Kolken as they discuss their careers, important news stories they have covered, and the challenges and joys of covering the news in Holland.

Cassandra Lybrink: As Michigan Outstate Content Director at Gannett, Cassandra guides collaboration between reporters at 15 papers in Michigan. She's the local editor for The Holland Sentinel and The Livingston Daily Press & Argus. She holds a bachelor's in journalism from Michigan State University with a concentration in media marketing.

Lupita Reyes: A fighter and advocate for Holland’s Latino community, Lupita Reyes has been a licensed social worker for over 38 years with her own private practice, LAR Counseling Services, LLC since 2013. After being told she didn’t have the grades for college, Lupita graduated from Grand Valley State University in 1981 with a Bachelor of Science degree. She went on to Western Michigan University where she earned a master’s in social work and Aquinas College for a Master of Management degree. In 1964, Lupita started a Spanish-language show to serve Holland’s growing Latino community on WHTC. She hosted the “Alegria Latina” Radio Show until 2021 (57 years). The show continues today on 92.7 The Van. She was recently honored by the Daughters of the American Revolution as well as LAUP and the Grand Haven Community Foundation with a scholarship in her name. (Lupita was ill for the program recording).

Gary Stevens: Gary Stevens has been the News Director of WHTC-AM/FM for over 22 years, arriving on October 15, 2001, and has been in broadcasting since his college days at the University of Detroit in 1978. His past experience include radio stints at WMAX in Saginaw and WFDF in Flint. Gary has hosted WHTC Talk of the Town since July of 2019, and during his tenure, he has worked with Michigan Broadcasting Hall of Famers Les Root in Flint, as well as Juke Van Oss and Peter Tanz in Holland. He has won several Michigan Association of Broadcasters awards for his work and is a past President of the Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association (now Detroit Sports Media).

Paul Van Kolken: After graduating from Michigan State University in 1960 with a degree in journalism, Paul returned to WHTC where he began in 1954. He stayed in broadcast journalism until joining The Associated Press in Detroit in 1965. Paul was transferred in 1967 to the Grand Rapids bureau covering West Michigan for the AP and then to the Albany, N.Y. broadcast bureau. Paul returned to Holland in 1970 to join the Holland Sentinel in 1970, retiring as the city editor in 1989. Then with his wife Diana, Paul opened a retail store downtown specializing in Shaker reproductions and Michigan themed products until her death in 2013 when the store closed. Today Paul spends his time volunteering at the Holland Museum and visiting his daughters Amy in Houston and Emily in Traverse City.